Live at PRS Day Two: Strategies from Google, Amazon, and Colgate-Palmolive

“Even though we are the world’s biggest toothpaste company with a little over half the market share, us doing this alone would not have moved the needle. We knew that it would take more than just us, so we decided that we were going to share the technology. We have a patent that we are not defending, we’re openly sharing it," Corra said.

How Google achieved its plastic-free packaging goal

David Bourne, lead for environmental strategy at Google,Back in 2020, Google pledged to make all its hardware packaging plastic-free by 2025. The company’s packaging was already 94% fiber-based at that point, but the last 6% was a challenge to replace, according to David Bourne, Lead for Environmental Strategy at Google, who spoke at the Summit on Tuesday with Miguel Arevalo, Packaging Innovation Lead.

Google achieved its goal ahead of schedule – All of the company’s products launched in 2024 and going forward are using 100% plastic-free packaging.  Bourne said an inspired team of engineers is vital to achieving ambitious goals.

“One of the key things that helps overcome those challenges is making sure the engineers feel empowered and inspired by the work they’re doing. The fact that we had a public commitment with an externally stated goal was a motivating force for our engineers. I think motivated engineers are the biggest ingredient that you need to overcome challenges," said Bourne.

The infinite PET recycling potential of advanced recycling

Advanced recycling technology is complimentary to mechanical recycling, according to Marija Massey, strategic sourcing manager, circular feedstocks, North America at Eastman Chemical Company, who spoke at the Summit today. She discussed how advanced recycling technologies can turn packaging waste into opportunity in a panel alongside Tamsin Ettefagh of PureCycle Technologies, Carla Toth of Nexus Circular, and Adam Peer of the American Chemistry Council.

Massey explained that chemical recycling’s focus is on colored and opaque thermoform and other forms of PET, rather than competing with mechanical recycling for the clear bottle bales and PET space. Further, as recycling rates increase, the technology has the potential to transform how we recycle PET.

“Today we’re not recycling enough, but if we were recycling at really high rates and if we were incorporating a lot of mechanically recycled content in a bottle, after a few turns you’re going to start seeing some of that degradation. The option is to renew it somewhat with virgin-based feedstocks, or you can use chemical recycling because it is providing virgin-like quality and almost renew the material. Speaking in PET terms, it can create that infinite recycling which we wouldn’t otherwise have," said Massey.

Limit variables in the switch to sustainable materials

Switching to new, sustainable packaging materials can involve significant planning and decision-making. To limit delays in the transition, it’s best to not make too many changes at once, Betsy Metzger, product development manager at Glenroy, Inc., suggested at the Summit.

Metzger joined Greg Berguig of PAC Machinery, Michelle Bryson of BW Packaging, Ken Forziati of Harpak-ULMA Packaging, Tom Seidel of Printpack, and Glen Long of PMMI for a panel discussion on the implications and strategies of integrating recyclable materials with established machinery. She explained that it's best to not delay material changes with additional adjustments to things like graphics.

“Please don’t feel like you have to change your graphics right away. Often our customers are saying, 'it’s a new material, let’s take this opportunity to change the graphics.' Frankly, we find that adds time. God bless marketing people, they put great ideas out there, but it adds time,” said Metzger. “It takes away that there is technical learning that still has to happen, not even just in your plant, taking it through the distribution channels. Changing the graphics just adds one more layer to companies feeling like now they’re invested in that one solution, and then they may pursue that material too far.”

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