Application News
Application News Eco-friendly debit and credit cards Bank Islam Brunei Darussalam (BIBD) recently announced the launch of the bank’s “eco-friendly cards”. The eco-friendly debit and credit cards are crafted using the same technology and functionality as conventional plastic cards, but made from renewable materials, require less energy to create and produce no toxins when destroyed during incineration, said the bank. According to BIBD, the raw materials used for the cards are made from 100 % polylactic acid (PLA) layers, a bioplastic produced for annually renewable sources that offers a reduced carbon footprint. The additional benefits of PLA materials come from production, requiring 65 % less energy to produce, and when incinerated, produces 70 % fewer greenhouse gases. These results are also independently certified by a third party. BIBD’s Deputy Managing Director II and Head of Retail Banking Group Irwan bin Haji Lamit said, “The launch of BIBD’s eco-friendly cards demonstrates our commitment to tackling the sustainability challenges facing the world. These cards have the same functionality as our existing cards, and BIBD worked closely with our card manufacturer to ensure a more sustainable alternative to the current materials we use in our cards today”. The new eco-friendly cards will be available for all BIBD customers. They will be issued for all new cards sign-up and upon card renewals for existing BIBD customers, with the aim for all BIBD cards to be gradually replaced with these new eco-friendly cards. Being the largest card issuer in Brunei, this is part of the bank’s commitment to integrating sustainability into its business practices, said BIBD. BIBD, Brunei’s largest bank and flagship Islamic financial institution is an internationally recognised financial institution governed by global best practices under the guidance of an experienced management team. (Source: Bourneo Bulletin: www.borneobulletin.com.bn and www.bibd.com.bn) MT www.bibd.com.bn Compostable bar wrappers BAR-U-EAT (Steamboat Springs, CO, USA) has officially released its new Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI) Certified Compostable Packaging for their individually wrapped bars. With this release, they have become the first bar company in the world to offer packaging which carries the certification for the entire package – a move that ensures that their packaging will break down properly in commercial compost systems and not contaminate the environment. It also steps leaps beyond the industry standard of single-use plastics. The new packaging is composed of plant-based materials from FSC Certified sustainably managed forests. It additionally complies with the specifications established in the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) D6400 to be aerobically composted and is biodegradable. Every year over 2 billion pre-packaged snack, protein, and energy bars are consumed, almost all of which come in single-use plastics or multi-layered wrappers. This creates millions of pounds of waste from a non-renewable, non-biodegradable resource. Bar-u-eat’s new packaging being made from renewable, sustainably sourced materials can break down to become nutrient-rich soil. This type of packaging is at the forefront of where sustainable packaging technology is headed and where it needs to go to combat waste and the use of finite resources. In fact, Bar-u-eat is a full 10 years ahead of the curve and is already compliant with California’s SB 54 legislation which requires all packaging in the state to be third-party verified recyclable or compostable by 2032. Bar-u-eat’s longstanding mission is to change the way we think about the food that we eat and how it’s packaged. They believe that packaged food should be simple and free of oils and preservatives and be packaged in a way that is less wasteful and regenerative to our planet. With Bar-u-eat’s new plant-based packaging, the wrapper your food comes will now become food for our planet. Bar-u-eat strives to create the most energy-dense, healthy, delicious, and sustainable snacks on the planet to fuel anything that life may throw at you. MT www.barueat.com BBID Mastercard (Source: www.bibd.com.bn) 52 bioplastics MAGAZINE [01/23] Vol. 18
New eco-conscious pet line UBQ Materials (Tel Aviv, Israel), climate tech developer of advanced materials made from organic and unrecyclable waste, recently announced that Rimax (Yumbo, Colombia) has launched the first consumer pet line “Made with UBQ ”, which will initially be available in Colombia and then roll-out globally. Rimax’s pet line, including large and mid-size doghouses and hooded cat litter boxes, is the first such line to incorporate and display the Made with UBQ mark, empowering consumers to make more sustainable purchasing decisions. The pet line will be available on Rimax’s website as well as with retailers in Latin America such as Home Center in Colombia and Home Depot Mexico. The commercial launch of this pet line advances the company’s sustainability strategy to reduce its environmental impact. “After successfully piloting a line of pet items Made with UBQ, we made the manufacturing decision to introduce UBQ across our entire pet line because loving animals goes hand in hand with caring for the planet”, said Elsa Coello Costa, Communication and Digital Marketing Manager at Rimax. “With our initial launch in Colombia, we anticipate a methodical expansion throughout Latin America”. According to the Pet Sustainability Coalition, the pet food industry alone creates ~136,000 tonnes of plastic waste annually from pet food and treat packaging. This figure does not include the waste from other pet accessories, often made with plastic for its durability and flexibility. By substituting oil-based plastics with UBQ, Rimax is diverting up to 1.3 kg of waste and preventing up to 11.7 kg of CO 2 -equivalent emissions for every kg of UBQ used within its products. AT/MT Application News www.rimax.com.co | www.ubqmaterials.com C&A clothing hooks Traceless (Hamburg, Germany) has been hooked on sustainability since the very beginning, but from now on that’s not just figure of speech. In December, traceless presented the first traceless pilot product it brought to the shelves in collaboration with fashion retailer C&A: traceless ® sock-hooks! Every year around 8-10 billion plastic clothing hooks are produced globally, with only 15 % being recycled. Especially the smaller single-use hooks pose a challenge for recycling due to their size. In a joint development project, traceless therefore engineered their traceless material for C&A’s sock-hooks. On the 8 th of December, the product was launched in the C&A Store in Hamburg Altona. During a pilot phase over the upcoming months, the fashion retailer is using the traceless hooks as a replacement for conventional plastic hooks. The sock-hooks are a milestone in the company’s efforts to bring their bio-circular material innovation traceless to market and replace plastic and bioplastic in products that are not recycled and can potentially end up in the environment. Hereby traceless is aiming to maximize its impact on the huge challenges of plastic pollution and climate change as quickly as possible. Traceless is using food production residues to produce materials that are compostable under natural composting conditions. “For us at traceless, this small hook means a big step forward: it is the first pilot product to hit the shelves made from our bio-circular material innovation! After months of development time, our whole team is incredibly proud of this achievement”, said Anne Lamp, CEO & Co-Founder traceless materials GmbH. We are very happy to reach this milestone together with this strong partner: With over 1,300 stores in 17 European countries and more than 25,000 employees, C&A is one of Europe’s leading fashion retailers.” The pilot phase with traceless materials fits in with C&A’s recent circularity initiatives, including Cradle to Cradle Certified ® product innovations and material science collaborations. With these projects, C&A is underpinning its role as a leading innovative player in the textile sector and is taking a significant step in meeting the goals of its 2028 Global Sustainability Strategy through the far-reaching reduction of single-use plastics. “Our collaboration with traceless is an important step on our way to reaching our ambitious goal of replacing consumer-facing single-use plastics in our stores with sustainable alternatives by 2028”, said Aleix Busquets Gonzalez, Head of Global Sustainability at C&A. MT www.traceless.eu bioplastics MAGAZINE [01/23] Vol. 18 53
