Do you are feeling a bit misplaced when individuals seek advice from sure environmental sustainability subjects and aren’t positive the place to begin in terms of studying extra? Sustainability 101 is a weblog collection that you would be able to flip to for details about completely different environmental phrases which will come up at work, throughout discussions with associates, and even at your annual vacation gathering.
This weblog was written by Nicole Kenney, Program Supervisor, Sustainable Packaging, and Drew Phan, Packaging Engineer.
As a part of fashionable life, many of the merchandise we purchase are available in plastic packaging. Whenever you purchase one thing with plastic packaging, you’re in all probability not conscious of what sort of plastic it’s. There’s recycled plastic, which is when recycled bits of plastic are reprocessed into plastic merchandise. And there may be additionally virgin plastic, also referred to as virgin plastic polymers, which based on a 2022 report, means “newly manufactured resin produced from petrochemical or biomass feedstock used because the uncooked materials for the manufacture of plastic merchandise and which has by no means been used or processed earlier than.”
Primarily, virgin plastics are manufactured from beforehand unused supplies, which implies they’ll take an even bigger toll on the setting.
Because the Nineteen Fifties, plastic has overrun the packaging trade by offering cheap and lightweight safety for merchandise. Plastic packaging is broadly obtainable within the type of typical foams, baggage, and clamshell trays. Over the many years, this has led to a worldwide construct up of plastic air pollution, since these supplies will not be all the time managed appropriately at finish of use. Though plastics are present in all main municipal strong waste classes, in the USA the containers and packaging class had probably the most plastic tonnage at over 14.5 million tons in 2018 alone (EPA Supply #1). That’s equal to the load of over 300,000 grey whales. The sheer quantity of waste has led to rising consciousness across the influence of packaging and elevated buyer demand for sustainable options.
On the similar time, a product has little to no worth if it arrives broken. Cisco’s Packaging Engineering division thinks holistically in terms of designing Cisco’s packaging with sustainability in thoughts. We’re rethinking product packaging and are sourcing various supplies to plastic. Our technique consists of eliminating plastic baggage in our packaging wherever doable. For example, we’ve eliminated plastic packaging from our energy cords, leading to a discount of over 10 million baggage yearly. Work is underway to use the identical efforts throughout extra element classes.
Design for Recyclability
The place we can not utterly take away plastic packaging, we should select options with a smaller environmental footprint. This implies choosing recyclable supplies which are simply separated and broadly accepted in curbside recycling streams. As soon as these supplies are recovered, they are often damaged down and re-processed into the feedstock for the following spherical of packaging.
For example, our plastic thermoform cushions are manufactured from the identical high-density polyethylene materials as milk jugs and could be accepted in the identical plastic curbside recycling stream.* In accordance with the U.S. Environmental Safety Company (EPA), HDPE (Excessive Density Polyethylene) is among the most continuously recycled plastics in the USA (EPA supply #1).
Within the case of plastic baggage in our accent kits, efforts are underway to make the most of fiber-based paper envelopes and corrugated sleeves which are recyclable. Paper is at present the very best various as a result of it’s the most recycled materials in the USA (EPA supply #2).
Select Recycled Supplies
Recycled supplies are completely different from recyclable supplies in that recycled packaging has a proportion of fabric inputs which have already been damaged down and reprocessed after use. By incorporating extra recycled content material into our packaging, we preserve worthwhile sources and scale back greenhouse fuel emissions in comparison with manufacturing virgin supplies. Selecting recycled supplies additionally promotes recycling by rising the demand for recycled supplies.
We’re focusing our power on recyclable and recycled plastics as a result of, sadly, biodegradable and compostable plastics aren’t properly fitted to use within the electronics trade.
Biodegradable and bio-based are phrases used loosely to explain plastics produced from plant sources. The most important concern for these supplies is that it isn’t all the time clear how lengthy it would take for these plastics to interrupt down. Since they’re typically not licensed compostable, they’ll probably leech toxins into the soil. (SPC supply #3)
In terms of compostable packaging, the U.S. Federal Commerce Fee (FTC) Inexperienced Guides clarify that this packaging should be licensed with “competent and dependable scientific proof that every one supplies within the product or package deal will break down into — or turn into a part of — usable compost safely and in about the identical time because the supplies with which it’s composted” (FTC supply #4). That is good for natural waste like meals scraps, grass clippings and yard waste. However at present, the shorter shelf lifetime of compostable packaging makes it higher fitted to meals packaging than the electronics trade.
A round technique
We’re evolving to a extra round mannequin through which we scale back the sources we eat and the waste we generate. With this method, we attempt to prioritize supplies with recycled content material; design merchandise for useful resource effectivity; and facilitate restore, remanufacturing, and recycling to increase product life. That’s why we’ve a purpose for 100% of recent Cisco merchandise and packaging to include Round Design Rules by fiscal yr 2025.** Utilizing recycled supplies is an instance of certainly one of our ideas.
By pursuing our purpose to include Round Design Rules, we are able to use much less virgin materials, and eat much less materials total. Lowering our packaging carbon footprint will drive progress in the direction of Cisco’s packaging objectives (Supply #5).
As we take the mandatory steps to embed Round Design Rules into our packaging portfolio, it is very important keep in mind that each selection has tradeoffs — there isn’t any one-size matches all answer. Reaching circularity is an iterative course of — what’s finest for as we speak will not be what’s finest for tomorrow. But when we stay agile and try for fulfillment, we are able to proceed to maneuver in a optimistic route in the direction of a round economic system.
Comply with our Packaging Engineering group’s journey as we proceed to evolve our round packaging portfolio (Supply #6).
__________________________________________________________________________
* Examine your native municipality for more information.
** In fiscal yr 2022, we had carried out a tender launch of a brand new scoring software that evaluates circularity in merchandise and packaging. We used the tender launch to guage 13% of recent merchandise and packaging, and located that 33% of them efficiently met our round design standards. That is equal to 4% of whole new merchandise and packaging launched in fiscal yr 2022 assembly round design standards. In early fiscal 2023, the scoring software was formally launched throughout all enterprise models, and we count on the universe of recent merchandise and packaging evaluated to extend in fiscal 2023.
SOURCES:
- Plastics: Materials-Particular Information | US EPA
- Paper and Paperboard: Materials-Particular Information | US EPA
- Public_SPC-Place-Statement_Biodegradable-Packaging.pdf (sustainablepackaging.org)
- Environmental Claims: Abstract of the Inexperienced Guides | Federal Commerce Fee (ftc.gov)
- Environmental Targets – Cisco ESG Hub
- Cisco Sustainable Packaging – Cisco
Share:
