Sustainability Awards 2017 runner-up: Circular Economy
B-Pack & Dow Packaging, Easy Split
Composite materials often deliver exceptional performance in environmentally important contexts such as food preservation, while posing challenges for recycling. An ideal packaging solution prevents waste from packing to consumption, and doesn’t turn into waste at end of life. As with the winner in this category, our runner-up represents an approach at solving the vexed question of the recyclability of composites. Unlike Virtuous Circle, Easy Split (the result of a long-lasting collaboration between B-Pack and Dow) is an example of pure packaging development.
The solution consists in a novel packaging design combining excellent food preservation, resource efficiency and customer appeal. It is based on high quality printed paperboard, laminated with high barrier film, and is suitable for a variety of food such as meat, cheese, fish and pasta. This barrier paperboard can be used as bottom for skin packaging trays, in combination with standard skin films and machinery. After usage, the consumer can easily separate the two components, paperboard and barrier film / skin film, and recycle them in their respective waste streams.
A telling detail in any green innovation is whether the product actually delivers improved sustainability in the marketplace. Easy Split has already performed well in commercial applications and is being used by several retailers, including Migros. It has proved popular with consumers, who appreciate the high visibility of the packaging content, standing out from the high-quality printed paperboard, and being able to conveniently open the pack by peeling off the skin film. Easy Split, easy to recycle. It’s a creative answer to the needs of our growing society, preserving food fresh to the table with ever higher efficiency in resources used.
