Aquapak 06.11.24

Aquapak has collaborated with Maxim and N Brown - retail platform and owner of JD Williams, Jacamo and Simply Be - to create garment bags from Hydropol, a ‘marine-safe, biodegradable and recyclable’ polymer alternative to traditional plastics.

Aiming to reduce plastic waste, Hydropol is designed for use in a variety of packaging applications and is said to provide the same functionality and performance as conventional plastics without the associated environmental issues. The retailer will begin rolling out Maxim’s Polymax powered by Hydropol packaging for its garment bags for N Brown own-label products from the start of November, hoping to prevent recycling confusion and become the UK’s largest online user of the ‘environmentally friendly’ packaging technology in the fashion sector.

Apparently, garment bags made using Hydropol can be recycled alongside paper, plastic, metal or food without any risk of contamination. Consumers can put Hydropol packaging in their kerbside recycling, where Aquapak says it will dissolve safely as part of the recycling process, without the risk of damaging or polluting the environment.

The company adds that it can also go in standard black bins where it will safely biodegrade, and it can also be completely dissolved in warm soapy water, leaving no harmful microplastics behind. Designed to offer N Brown customers an easier and more sustainable way to dispose of their packaging, moving to Polymax powered by Hydropol packaging is expected to have a ‘significant impact’ on the amount of plastic used in N Brown’s operations.

Aquapak claims that plastic use will be reduced by almost half (44%) once the new packaging is rolled out across all own-brand products, and if Hydropol packaging was used for all garment packaging, it is estimated that around 25 million tonnes of conventional, hard-to-recycle packaging could be prevented from entering the environment each year (based on data from McKinsey, Ellen MacArthur and Plastics Europe).

Children’s clothing brand Brave Kid partnered with Movopack last month to introduce reusable packaging for its online orders, said to potentially cut CO2 emissions by 75%. Customized with the tagline “Be a BRAVE KID too! Send back the packaging”, the solution is designed to engage children and encourage more responsible behaviours.

We recently spoke to Georgia Parker, innovation director at Fashion for Good, to hear her input on the fashion industry’s problem when it comes to packaging sustainability, and what the major routes are to positive change. We look at metrics and labelling schemes, the legislative landscape and the main paths to sustainable fashion packaging.

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