Unsure about how to approach and properly document your sustainable packaging development project? The International Safe Transit Association (ISTA) has just released to its members a recommended standard practice titled Responsible Packaging by Design. This guideline is meant to be used as a tool by the practicing packaging engineer looking for guidance in designing and evaluating responsible (sustainable) packaging and contains recommended procedures, thought processes and templates. It discusses and illustrates the various steps involved in the journey to responsible packaging.

I am a huge believer in source reduction. For eco-conscious folks, it’s the first R (REDUCE) and through source reduction I have delivered large eco-benefits and millions of dollars in costs savings.

But are more and more CPG companies forgetting the importance of design in their quest for source reduction savings? Behold exhibit A, the Kraft YES Pack. www.kraftyespack.com

Our society is lazy when it comes to the environment. I used to look back at my childhood and laugh, as I took my Flintstones lunch box and thermos to school. Today, I see kids take paper or plastic bags with lunch, that includes a small pouch of juice. The bag goes in the garbage, as does the empty pouch. Heck.... my lunchbox and thermos came home with me every day. Little did I realize then that I was being environmentally responsible (compared to today's society).

I just walked back from the restroom, where I looked at myself in the mirror. My thoughts, which I am putting here, make me sound like a grumpy, old man filled with anger toward the world. But I don't have much gray, I don't look like I'm in my 80's, and when I checked my drivers license, it said I am 45.

Seems to me the green washing is getting worse and worse. More so, I see this website, a site that I love because it's about subject matter I love and feel passionate about, being used as a green washing tool and I get rather angry!

Hello All

What % of landfills in the US are capping and collecting methane? What is the methane emission signature of landfill refuse by category (plastics packaging, paper based packaging, etc)?

What % of waste to energy facilities in the US are capping their emissions? What is the emission signature of incineration fuel by category (plastics packaging, paper based packaging, etc)?

Regardless of whether packaging waste is land filled, incinerated or sold to a recycler, does the collection and sorting process not have it’s own GHG signature?

I am going to say it. Sorry to offend some people and sorry others may just disagree with me, but I am going to say it anyway.

I DO NOT LIKE PLA!

Interactive Packaging is a term that has been around for a while and taken on many forms over the years.

Companies and brands will apply that label to everything from an RFID tagged package to a textured or embossed SBS box that draws the consumer in with a "special interactive" feeling or sensation when they pick the box up off the shelf.

However, there are now technologies like ScanLife, Augmented Reality and others that finally give the brand and consumer the chance to be interactive either in store or at home with smart appliances.

One of the most interesting aspects of sustainable packaging has been talking, listening and reading what everyone is saying about it. Like a new car, there is a make and model of sustainability for everyone. Some believe in PLA as the right direction, while others focus on light weighting, while yet others look at recycle content (pre and post consumer) and still others look at recyclability and/or compostability. Of course, many look for more than one of these benefits, so the number of options is mind boggling.

As keynote speakers go, they don’t get more energetic, entertaining, and informative than Terracycle co-founder and CEO Tom Szaky, the opening keynoter at the Institute of Packaging Professionals’ Packaging Summit 2010, in Rosemont, IL.

In recent years, consumer consciousness about the need for and economic value of making use of reusable packaging, containers and the like has risen a great deal, elevating (or should I say broadening) the range of people who actively and regularly choose to seek out such options. Water bottles and shopping bags are the primary examples of this, bottle options having gone from the Hippie staple Nalgene and not much else to decidedly trendy designs, drawing in those that may not even have factored ecological considerations into the equation when making their purchase decision.

However they’re getting there, we in the industries that design, make, and reuse packaging are pleased it’s happening. But there’s a problem: What happens when these things break?