Eco-Packaging Innovations and
Barriers to a Sustainable Future
EarthFirst Packaging cartons and
labels made of “Earthboard” employ a
limestone topcoat over 100 percent
post-consumer waste paperboard, yet
maintain the look and feel of a virgin
board stock such as Solid Bleach Sulfate (SBS)—the very white board
stock used in many personal care
products.
“Earthboard does not use the
bleach, formaldehyde or the substantial amounts of water that are used in
virgin stock paperboard, thereby reducing contamination of the most
valuable resource that we take for
granted—water.” says McCarthy
Hanger, president of EarthFirst Packaging. “ 13 ounces of water is consumed for every letter-size piece of
virgin stock paper.”
Based on information provided by
the Environmental Defense Fund,
swapping out virgin paperboard for
Earthboard would result in:
• 2,300 trees saved
• 860,200 gallons water saved
• 19,205 lbs. solid waste prevented
• 27,140 lbs. air emissions eliminated
• 4,200 gallons of water waste not
created
• 2,875,000 million BTUs of energy
saved
However, EarthFirst Packaging is
faced with a challenge that many
other leading edge packaging materials face—it’s too new to have historical, quantifiable data that would be
used in a LCA, eliminating it for
consideration in the evaluation
process.
McCarthy said that on numerous
occasions, opportunities with manufacturers are lost because purchasing
departments have a set of sustainability guidelines hinging on the Total
Offset Assessment set up by the packaging industry. These standards are established specifically to address
scorecards put in place by major retailers like Wal-Mart.
This sentiment was reiterated by Andy Sweetman, global marketing manager of sustainable technologies for Innovia Films. Purchasing agents are requiring that suppliers provide LCA numbers for
their materials that correlate to the major retailer initiatives which
drive purchasing decisions.
So far, the company has conducted two full “cradle to gate” LCAs,
at a price of about 30,000 Euros, and has also purchased the software
licenses to run the process in-house going forward. But, the problem,
according to Sweetman, is that at present the LCAs favor conventional and unsustainable materials such as polyethylene (PE) and
