Application News First
Application News First carbon neutral Matchbox Tesla Mattel, (El Segundo, CA, USA) recently announced Drive Toward a Better Future, its product roadmap to make all Matchbox ® die-cast cars, playsets, and packaging with 100 % recycled, recyclable, or biobased plastic by 2030. This is in line with Mattel’s goal to achieve 100 % recycled, recyclable, or biobased plastic materials across all its products and packaging by 2030. To illustrate these principles, Mattel is unveiling the Matchbox Tesla Roadster, its first die-cast vehicle made from 99 % recycled materials and certified CarbonNeutral ® . The Matchbox Tesla Roadster will be available starting in 2022. The reimagined broader Matchbox brand includes new product lines and packaging that feature: • More environmentally friendly and innovative materials across vehicles, playsets, and packaging • Enhanced consumer recycling through product design and packaging labelling • An overall eco-friendly themed approach to play, with more e-vehicle product offerings and e-vehicle chargers in fuel station playsets. “Since the inception of the modernday die-cast car nearly 70 years ago, Matchbox has been using design and innovation to connect kids with the real world around them through play,” said Roberto Stanichi, Global Head of Vehicles at Mattel. “Matchbox is committing to using 100 % recycled, recyclable, or biobased plastic materials to do our part in addressing the environmental issues we face today, and empower the next generation of Matchbox fans to help steer us towards a sustainable future.” MT Photo: Business Wire www.mattel.com Vegan cosmetics brand Award-winning German cosmetics brand i+m (Berlin, Germany) has launched a new product for its We Reduce! range. The company debuted its Rose Deodorant Cream in a fittingly sustainable packaging: the 30ml jar from the Sulapac Nordic Collection from international beauty packaging manufacturer and provider Quadpack. Made with a biobased, compostable material that biodegrades without leaving permanent microplastics behind, the packaging was developed by Quadpack following the highest standards of sustainability. “In Quadpack, we have found a partner who has supported us from the very beginning to make serious progress on the subject of sustainable packaging. We had been looking for a plastic-free alternative for a long time and the Sulapac ® jar offers all the advantages of plastic, but it’s compostable and made from renewable raw materials,” says Jörg von Kruse, Managing Director of i+m. Proud of its history as a fair-trade, vegan skincare brand, i+m is a three-time winner of sustainability awards for its products. Most recently, its We Reduce! series was a finalist for the German Sustainability Award Design 2021, thanks to its plastic-free packaging and certified natural cosmetics. Sulapac Nordic Collection by Quadpack fits the concept perfectly: made from wood and plant-based binders, raw materials that are organically recyclable, the range is an important and innovative approach to the plastic waste challenge. MT www.sulapac.com | www.quadpack.com | www.iplusm.berlin 40 bioplastics MAGAZINE [03/21] Vol. 16
Swatch focuses on biomaterials The Swiss company is well known for its trendy iconic plastic watches. Now it’s adding a whole new material that may, in time, be used in all its collections: Swatch builds watches from ceramic and castor oil (presumably biobased polyamide). Swatch launched the new watch material on the market in mid April. In the beginning, there will be five models of the Big Bold Next with a 47-millimetre dial in black, white, pink, light blue, and grey. The speciality is not only the strikingly simple design but also the material of the case. For the first time, bioceramics are used – a patented in-house development by Swatch. It combines two-thirds classic ceramic with one-third castor oil based bioplastic. The Swiss have succeeded in combining the material in such a way that it can be injection moulded on the same equipment as before. The advantage of this mix of materials: it is supposed to be just as water-resistant and robust as plastic, but nobler. Thus, you can use the watch up to 30 metres under-water without any problems. The watch, however, feels different, softer, almost as if coated with a little powder. And the material is a little cooler. Everything that is transparent is made from recycled plastic as already before. This also applies to the bracelet. (source: daskannwas.ch). MT www.swatch.com Fossil presents solar watch from bio-PA Fossil has launched a new generation of ecofriendly sustainable watches. The first watch branded Fossil Solar is made from sustainable materials and charged with energy from sunlight. The new model Fossil LE1120 is equipped with a solar-powered movement that is supposed to be fully charged within eight hours in the sun. According to Fossil, the outer ring of the watch case acts as a solar panel, with a solar cell underneath to convert light into energy, which is then stored in the rechargeable battery. One charge is said to last up to three months. This watch was born out of Fossil’s goal to meet its own Pro-Planet Criteria by 2025. Specifically, this means that all products, including the packaging, contain at least one material that is approved for sustainability and is reusable and/ or fully recyclable. The housing is made of a bioplastic based on castor oil. So, presumably, it is a biobased polyamide. Each watch comes with five different coloured pullthrough straps and is made of yarn made of rPET from recycled PET bottles. www.fossil.com Application News Photo: Fossil Photo: Swatch Compostable coffee pods NatureWorks (Minnetonka, MN, USA) and IMA Coffee (Bologna, Italy) entered into a joint strategic partnership aimed at accelerating the market for high performing K-Cup compatible compostable single-serve coffee pods in North America. Compostable capsules create the opportunity to not only address consumer concerns and divert the packaging away from landfills, but, perhaps more importantly, to recover the used coffee grounds, enabling their processing at a compost facility where they deliver valuable nutrients to the final compost. Coffee capsules are complex structures where the capsule body, lidding, and filter must be precisely designed to deliver a consistently high-quality brewing experience. Before the capsules even reach consumers, it’s critical that these components perform well during assembly and filling as well as on the shelf and during brewing. By bringing together NatureWorks’ materials and applications knowledge with IMA’s machinery expertise, the partnership aims to deliver a turnkey compostable coffee pod solution to the entire coffee industry making it simple to have a great cup of coffee and dispose of the used pod in the most sustainable way possible. MT www.natureworksllc.com | https://ima.it/beverage/brands/ima-coffee bioplastics MAGAZINE [03/21] Vol. 16 41
