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Application News New Zealand’s first plant-based milk bottle Plant-based Packaging for baked goods good natured Products (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) recently announced that Flax4Life (Bellingham, Washington, USA), a leading producer of truly delicious, certified gluten-free and allergy-friendly baked goods with nationwide US distribution, has made the switch to customdesigned good natured ® packaging made from renewable, plant-based materials. Supplying national retailers such as Whole Foods or Kroger and Publix, Flax4Life offers a full range of delicious treats from muffins to granola to chocolate brownies for consumers with food sensitivities to gluten, dairy and nuts. Switching to good natured PLA-based packaging allowed Flax4Life to extend their commitment to health all the way through to the packaging. With no BPAs, phthalates or other chemicals that are potentially hazardous to human health or the environment, Flax4Life’s new packaging is also certified compostable to create a full closed loop. Fonterra’s brand Anchor, based in Auckland, New Zealand, launched the countries first biobased milk bottle. Anchor Blue 2 litre is now based on bio-HDPE derived from sugarcane in Brazil, while the bottle itself is made in New Zealand. Sustainability was a big factor for that decision as sugarcane is a sustainable and renewable source, as opposed to fossil fuel. Anchor commissioned an independent life cycle assessment of the bottle which concluded this biobased HDPE also has a lower carbon footprint than conventional fossil fuel-based HDPE, which most plastic milk bottles in New Zealand are made from. According to a Fonterra spokesperson, the climate change impact CO 2 equivalent per 2 litre bottle of the bio-HDPE is approximately 1/8 that of conventional HDPE. The bottle is 100% kerbside recyclable, which aligns with Fonterra’s commitment to have all packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. With this change, Fonterra is following consumer demands for more sustainable products, as recent research has shown that 71 % of New Zealanders actively research the sustainability practices of brands before making a product purchase. “The switch to eco-friendly and renewable packaging, thus reducing thousands of pounds of petroleum plastic in the environment, is a very proud and important change for our company,” said Kasondra Shippen, General Manager at Flax4Life. “We’re focused on ensuring our products and our operations are as healthy and sustainable as possible and introducing good natured plant-based packaging allowed us to take the next big step in that direction.” Paul Antoniadis, CEO of good natured added: “Flax4Life makes fantastic products, and I should know because I’ve been eating lots of them! This has been a great opportunity to show how we can support our customers with custom packaging that meets their unique needs while also fulfilling environmental objectives. We know food producers, like Flax4Life, often need options that are not available off the shelf from our competitors, and this is a big way in which we differentiate ourselves and drive long-term, valued relationships.”MT https://goodnaturedproducts.com | https://Flax4Life.com Initially, the new plant-based milk bottle will be available in the North Island, with a view to expand distribution and product ranging based on consumer response. Anchor launched with 300,000 Blue 2 litre bottles per month. The bottle has been on shelves across New Zealand’s North Island since October 13th. Fonterra Brands New Zealand Managing Director Brett Henshaw says: “This plant-based milk bottle is an important component in Fonterra’s wider sustainability strategy. We have also committed to moving towards renewable energy in transport and manufacturing and finding ways to manage and reduce our emissions over the whole supply chain.” AT www.fonterra.com 28 bioplastics MAGAZINE [06/20] Vol. 15
Application Automotive News Bacardi introduces the first PHA based spirits bottle Bacardi, the world’s largest family-owned spirits company (Hamilton, Bermuda), has made a giant leap forward in the fight against climate change and plastic pollution today, as it unveils plans to put the world’s most sustainable spirits bottle on shelf by 2023. The new biodegradable bottle will replace 80 Million plastic bottles ~ 3,000 tonnes of plastic – currently produced by Bacardi across its portfolio of brands every year. Petroleum-based plastics used by Bacardi today will be replaced by Danimer Scientific’s Nodax PHA, a biopolymer which derives from the natural oils of plant seeds such as palm, canola and soy, but the primary source will be from canola oil. The new spirits bottle will biodegrade in a wide range of environments, including compost, soil, freshwater and seawater, and after 18 months disappear without leaving behind harmful microplastics. The company says its products have passed the TÜV Austria Marine Certification standards, which indicate it will break down if it ends up in the ocean. Bacardi rum will be the first spirit to appear in the new bottle before the plant-based material is rolled out to replace singleuse plastic across the entire Bacardi supply chain and the company’s 200 brands and labels. This change is part of a larger plan to completely move away from fossil-based plastics by 2030, Bacardi is also working on a paper bottle that uses PHA as a lining. Bacardi plans to share its solutions with competitors, including details such as how to use PHA inside the lining of caps. AT www.bacardilimited.com Plant-based flow-wrap for tomatoes Located in rural Ontario Canada, Elmira’s Own Tomatoes has supplied the local and surrounding communities with delicious, quality vegetables for many years. This summer, Elmira’s Own took the next step: changing their conventional plastic packaging to adopt a renewable and compostable alternative. Their delicious tomatoes are now packed in a compostable fibre pulp tray and wrapped in a transparent, cellulose based NatureFlex film, NatureFlex NVS by Futamura (Wigton,Cumbria, UK). NatureFlex NVS matches the ethical ethos of Elmira’s Own brand. The films are highly renewable, being manufactured from wood pulp sourced from sustainably managed plantations. They also meet all the global standards for industrial composting (including EN13432) and are certified to OK compost’s home composting standard for backyard composting. This means that they can go straight into the garden compost bin, diverting waste from landfill. According to Stuart Horst of Elmira’s own; “Not only does the film compost extremely fast, but it also allowed us to increase the shelf life of our produce! That is something very positive for our business. Preserving the quality of our vine-ripened tomatoes is essential so that our customers experience them at their best.” NatureFlex NVS is designed to run on existing fresh produce flow-wrap packaging lines. The film is ideally suited to package fruit and vegetables: once the consumer has used the produce, the film can simply be composted along with the left-over peelings and other discarded scraps. AT www.elmirasown.com | www.futamuragroup.com bioplastics MAGAZINE [06/20] Vol. 15 29
