Sean Riley: Hi, and welcome to the End of the Line video podcast. I'm handling hosting duties this week, Sean Riley from OEM Magazine. And as always, we're joined by our PMG editors to talk about things that have passed by their desks in the past week.
I have Liz Cuneo from Healthcare Packaging, Matt Reynolds from Packaging World, and Derrick Teal from ProFood World.
And with that, why don't we start out with Matt, who's in the great outdoors. Matt, what do you got for us?
Matt Reynolds: Well, it stopped raining about five minutes ago, so that's always a plus. And yeah, this might be the last of the great outdoors pods for a while. Amber's going back to school on Monday, which means I'm probably going back to Chicago. But it was a great summer.
One interesting thing did pass my desk this week. I don't know if you guys are familiar with the U.S. Plastics Pact. They've spoken at our Packaging Recycling Summit a few times. Basically, it's a consortium founded by The Recycling Partnership and, I think, the World Wildlife Fund. Ellen MacArthur is a part of it.
They have a global network of these plastics pacts, and really it's the whole value chain, but it's intended to be brand owners plus their suppliers and their suppliers' suppliers. Those are members of the consortium. They call them activators—brands, retailers, converters, resin producers, recyclers, NGOs. There are about 100 of them right now, and altogether they put almost 4 million metric tons of plastic packaging out on the market in a year.
So they're sort of being the stewards of the plastic they're putting out there, and everybody signed up to meet these 2030 targets. Everybody's got targets, but it's about making plastic recyclable, using recycled content, making it reusable, and essentially cutting virgin plastic and getting plastic into a circular system.
Soon after they formed in 2020, they came up in 2021 with what they call their Problematic and Unnecessary Materials List. It includes all sorts of materials, like polyvinyl chloride, PVC, that they've tried to get the industry to stop specifying. Another would be PFAS or carbon black plastic.
Now, there's no real enforcement mechanism. It's voluntary, but the brands are trying to put their money where their mouth is and actually make some changes.
That was a big preamble to explain what it is and who makes up the U.S. Plastics Pact. But for the first time in five years, since they came up with this list of problematic materials in 2021, they removed one. And it's not what you would think.
It's actually expanded polystyrene.
I think this was announced Wednesday of this week. Now, it's not all EPS. It's not polystyrene in general, and it's not even all EPS. It's a specific subcategory for transport packaging only.
Liz, you're moving right now. You've probably had to open some new appliances or transport heavy material across the country. Did you have any instances of polystyrene in your move?
Liz Cuneo: You know, we didn't have to buy many appliances yet, so we're kind of just dealing with traditional paperboard—right? Not cardboard, paperboard over here.
But yeah, we do cover a lot of EPS when we talk about cold chain shipping, and it kind of felt like for a minute the industry was trying to move away from EPS. Maybe it had a negative connotation, but it's interesting that maybe that tide is turning.
Matt: Yeah, well, not for the whole thing. For foodservice packaging, you're still going to see things like clamshells and those types of use cases considered problematic.
Essentially, the U.S. Plastics Pact had to do a carveout or come up with a specific definition. It's for packaging that's used for durable goods, electronics, furniture, and appliances. That's why I figured, Liz, during your move you might encounter some of that.
But also, on your side of the fence with temperature-sensitive stuff—biologics, pharma, lab samples, even temperature-sensitive food.
One of those fringe cases might be meal kits. A lot of meal kits have moved away from EPS, but are they going to be considered transport packaging? That's kind of the thing: the U.S. Plastics Pact is making suggestions and giving guidelines. It's not meant to be prescriptive.
Brand owners are going to have to make that decision for themselves.
A few other things are happening here. Two years ago, polystyrene producers actually ponied up and got on board. They wanted a seat at the table, given that what they were producing was on this excluded materials list, and they had some data.
I have to admit, I was skeptical. Two years ago, polystyrene producers joined the Plastics Pact, and then two years later, their product is off the list. There's a cynical reading if you want it.
I don't think that's happening here. I got all the facts. I spoke to the right people. That's not what's happening.
The fact is, data from Resource Recycling and data commissioned by polystyrene industry alliances—but produced by RRS—are showing a pretty consistent 30% to 31% recycling rate, which is over the limit for what would be considered an excluded material on this problematic materials list.
So, just by the data that's out there from third-party sources, expanded polystyrene transport packaging should not be on that list.
But there's another piece of information that came up. It's not just the 30% to 31% recycling rate, which has been consistent. What really changed is the recovered volume.
The recycling of expanded polystyrene doubled while the demand for recycled expanded polystyrene grew to absorb it. The collection and the responsible end market—and that is a key to circularity—scaled together at the same rate.
That's really rare.
The executive director of the Plastics Pact told me just yesterday—and this is a quote directly from her, so I'm going to read this:
"The EPS industry did a really good job of scaling the demand for recycled content at the same time that they were increasing collection. If you advance collection without advancing end-market demand, you're just going to have a bunch of stuff that you don't know what to do with and essentially that you can't sell."
So what this is creating is a responsible end market.
It is kind of a 180-degree turn from considering EPS a problem child to it actually being kind of the head of the class when it comes to scaling actual end markets and using its own material as recycled content.
I was skeptical for some of the obvious reasons, but when we looked into the story, it's actually kind of an uplifting and interesting one.
Sean: I actually used that story for one of our newsletters, and I was thinking the exact same thing. This had to have been consistently one of the more difficult or maybe ostracized materials out there in terms of being recyclable.
So it was very surprising to me to see it be one of the leaders. Is most of it being recycled into reuse as the same thing?
Matt: I don't know exactly what the end markets are turning it into, but an important thing I omitted is that there's not necessarily curbside availability everywhere.
The vast majority of transport packaging—again, they carved out just transport packaging—is happening back of house. It's happening at distribution centers. Even if you do get your appliances delivered, those who install them will often take that material back.
There are take-back programs and store drop-off programs.
That's why the whole idea of the meal kit is kind of on the fence, because it's direct-to-consumer, so those mechanisms might not be there for recovery like they would be in the back of a warehouse, distribution center, or fulfillment center.
But there's opportunity for growth there, and I think it's going to open up some paths for possible curbside collection as a route for post-consumer, not just post-industrial, content.
Sean: Yeah, that was my second thought. It surprised me because I'm always confused as to how that would be curbside recycled. But you explained it perfectly. The appliance stores or stores like that are taking care of it on their end, on a more industrial scale.
Matt: Yeah. Think about shrink film, for instance. PE has made its move to mono-material shrink in a lot of cases. The vast majority of that, I would venture, is all back of house.
Walmart, for instance, gets a pallet of a single thing into one of its distribution centers, then depalletizes and repalletizes down to aisle-level needs. But all that shrink material is handled back of house.
It kind of borders on post-industrial at that point. It's not really post-consumer. So you have to play with the definitions of post-consumer and post-industrial to make sense of this.
But this is very similar in that the vast majority of the transport packaging—not the flatware, cutlery, clamshells and stuff like that, but the transport packaging that fills void space in a package—is the stuff we're talking about here.
Really interesting development. And I think you're right, both Liz and Sean. It seemed like it was an ostracized material, but it's really a success story if these numbers are accurate.
Sean: Very, very cool. Great item to lead off with.
With that, Derrick, what do you have going on in your neck of the woods?
Derrick Teal: Oh, my neck of the woods, it's the start of soccer season, both for high school and, thank you, for Premier League today. But my team doesn't play until tomorrow, and I'll have games going on between both my Premier League team and my boys, so I'll be splitting my attention.
Sean: Your allegiances.
Derrick: Well, my allegiance is to the Premier League team first, and my boys, you know, so that's how it goes.
Sean: Priorities.
Derrick: But they don't watch or listen.
I guess I'll share the secret with everybody that I missed my oldest son's first-ever lacrosse goal because I was watching soccer.
Sean: Oh, jeez.
Derrick: Yeah, it's fun.
But I bring up sports because we talked a few weeks ago about protein being included in everything. My wife bought yogurt the other day and was saying, "Guys, you won't have to add any extra protein because this yogurt has protein in it."
Sure enough, yogurt with added protein. And I question if it actually is yogurt because it's like spackle. You could turn this upside down and I don't think anything would fall out. It is pretty doggone thick.
Again, it tastes like yogurt. It just doesn't have the texture of yogurt, and as somebody who's fairly texture-focused, it takes a little getting used to.
Of course, my son's adding that into a smoothie. I look over at him and say, "By the way, you don't have to add any extra protein because the yogurt has protein in it already."
He goes, "Yeah, I know."
And I said, "You added extra protein anyway, didn't you?"
He goes, "Yeah."
So, of course.
But I had a good conversation this week with a future webinar speaker we have coming up on energy efficiency. Shameless plug—or shameless preview, I guess.
One of the things he and I were talking about that's interesting in terms of facilities and energy efficiency is the fact that there are a lot of programs utilities will offer to plants that manufacturers might not be aware of.
What the speaker was telling me is that manufacturers might not understand that there's a benefit to the utilities when manufacturers become more energy efficient.
There are different federal programs that can benefit utilities if they're able to say they're only sending out so much energy. So oftentimes these utilities will have programs with manufacturers.
If the manufacturer reduces its energy consumption, it reduces the amount of energy the utility has to produce, which means the utility can receive benefits from the government.
So it's a win-win. Reducing energy consumption is beneficial to everyone.
But a lot of people don't realize that, and it's not just for small manufacturers or large manufacturers. Usually, the benefits can really help small- and medium-sized manufacturers because it's typically easier for them to reduce their energy consumption than it is for larger manufacturers that are already trying to operate as lean as possible.
Those small and medium-sized manufacturers don't necessarily have people who can go out and talk to the utilities and say, "What programs do you have that can help me reduce my water consumption or my energy consumption?"
A larger manufacturer might have somebody on staff whose entire job is sustainability, so they're able to look at things like that and talk to the utilities about those programs.
What we're going to get into in that webinar is how manufacturers can go about doing that and how they can talk to their utilities about getting involved in a program like that.
Sean: Is that a lean program you're thinking of, or are there probably multiple?
Derrick: There are multiple programs. I think when you're talking lean, it's within the plant itself, whereas this is more of an external outlook.
Lean is typically the whole concept of doing more with less—one person able to do five different jobs and only running as much as you need to. That whole concept that's American, but Toyota adopted it first, so everybody thinks it's Japanese.
Sean: Maybe I'm misspeaking then. Is LEED another one?
Derrick: I'm sorry, I thought you said lean.
Sean: I did. I was mistaken.
Derrick: Yeah, LEED is a product of the U.S. Green Building Council. It's one of their programs, and you can get certifications for that.
I'm sure if you do get LEED certified, you're going to be addressing your utility and energy consumption, mostly because LEED has a checklist that you have to fulfill. You have to go down that list and say, "Yes, OK, we've done this, we've done this, we've done this."
Oftentimes, to get LEED accredited, you'll have to talk to your utility provider to begin with just to get credit.
There are all sorts of different LEED certifications you can get as an individual or for a building. I believe there's still gold, platinum, silver, or just LEED certified. It's been a while since I've delved into the world of what is offered.
Getting certified often means you'll have to pay a fee to have them come in and certify it, whereas this is a program where you just have to talk to your utility.
But I'm not saying to discount the LEED programming. I think it's very good because it's one of those things where, yes, if you say you built a plant to meet LEED standards, is it really LEED standards if it isn't certified?
There's always that question. You can say it's done, but if you haven't had somebody come in and actually verify it and do that audit, maybe it's not.
But yeah, that's pretty much all I have. Tune into that webinar when it airs.
Sean: Yeah, we'll be looking for it.
Well then, last but certainly not least, Liz. First and foremost, did your stuff arrive yet from South Carolina?
Liz: What an excellent question, Sean. Yes, it did.
Sean: Woo-hoo!
Liz: Not in polystyrene, but it arrived.
Sean: Yes, it's not in polystyrene.
Liz: So we have been feverishly unpacking and putting together the house, which has been fun and overwhelming and tiring. But yeah, it's all here just in time for school, so we're in good shape.
I have my desk today and my second monitor. Living without that is difficult, right?
Sean: Once you get used to it, yeah.
Liz: I had to do some research-list stuff, and I'm like, there's no way, because I need to look at the info here and put it into here. I'm like, "I've got to wait until I get my monitor. Can't do it."
Sean: Yeah. So what else besides the big move do you have going on up there in Michigan?
Liz: Well, what's exciting is I get so few product samples because prescription and medical device products don't really lend themselves to samples being sent to an editor. So when I do get samples, I'm over-the-moon excited.
I did get some gum sent to me from Enao. It's remineralizing gum. I'm going to read what it says exactly because it's pretty interesting.
It uses nanohydroxyapatite particles. They're designed to penetrate enamel cracks and rebuild tooth structure.
To do that, it's in a very specialized high-barrier pouch to protect the gum inside. I really call it an oral health chew because I think we're beyond gum at this point with what it's doing.
It's kind of an exciting pack. The most unique part of it is on the back. If you guys can see this, I hope so.
It has a serialized code. It's a holographic security sticker with a unique serial number and tamper-evident construction, plus a QR code.
I did scan it myself, and I got a little screen that says it's verified—this is the real gum. So it's helping with counterfeiting and efficacy. It has the batch number, expiration date, and all the information that you might want.
It's probably a higher-cost item than even I'm aware of. I probably should look that up, but it was sent to me, so thank you, Enao, for letting me try it.
It's kind of a fun, interesting chew. And especially if it really is rebuilding your tooth, I'm always aware of that from whitening and how that can affect things. So yeah, it's kind of a fun product.
Sean: Well, it makes me wonder how much gray-market or counterfeit Hubba Bubba and Bubblicious I've been putting into my body over the last 40 years.
Liz: You should be very concerned.
Sean: Yeah, I need to know the provenance of my Big League Chew. It has to happen.
Liz: I hope you are not chewing Big League Chew. So much sugar.
Sean: I'm not chewing Big League Chew right now. Is that around anymore?
Liz: No, it's around.
Sean: It is definitely around, and there are a lot of flavors.
Liz: Oh my gosh. Yeah, no, can't have sugary gum. That's been the number one rule since I was a child.
But it's interesting to see this kind of graphic and code and hologram security sticker on these types of products.
Matt, when we were at the GS1 Connect event, they talked a lot about different codes and different kinds of products and how users may or may not scan. Remember that tub of ice cream example?
I don't know how prevalent it is yet in food and beverage. This is skewing a little bit more toward oral healthcare, so it's a little different.
Matt: Yeah. Higher-margin items like that, which are more expensive, can do a little bit more with the packaging because the margin is there to do that.
And there's probably more necessity for serialization and track and trace for anything that is beyond just simple consumption. It's got an added value, so it kind of gets into that nutraceutical-type arena that needs a little bit more oversight, I would say.
But interesting. You've got the consumer experience right there that you're getting by scanning it. It's basically anti-counterfeiting, verification, authentication.
But I wonder if that same code carries other possibilities or capabilities for the supply chain. If a retailer were to scan it, would it tell them more information about, let's say, an expiry date? Or if it was scanned coming off the line, could it be a reject scan or something?
I would venture a guess that your experience with that code is just the consumer experience. There's probably a lot more packed into that QR code, or at least there could be.
Liz: Yeah, I'm assuming it has the capability to do that. They didn't mention anything when I spoke with them about that, but I didn't ask specifically.
That's the cool thing about these codes, right? Again, we learned at the event that they can carry huge amounts of data, depending on the size of the code and the little black dots. You can carry everything, so it's pretty neat.
Matt: But then marketing gets upset when your entire front of package is a huge QR code.
So there's a ceiling or a limit—a boundary—to how much you can put in there based on the physical size of a pack. But it is always interesting.
Liz: Yes, totally. And now another side of it: Enao probably has my information as a consumer, right? Which is fine, but it probably offers them a way to see who's interacting with the package. So just from a marketing and sales standpoint, there are some tools for them.
Sean: Very interesting. Yeah, if it's hitting their target demo or what demos it is hitting as well. Plus, they just love to have your information to begin with.
Liz: Now I'll probably get gum ads on Instagram.
Sean: You're getting them right now, and as are you guys, so yes, we will now get them as well.
Well, this has been great. We're almost to the end of summer—not quite—although some of you, like you said, have kids going back to school. So best of luck to them starting off the new year, and to Matt with Amber getting back to teaching.
We will still be here. We're not going back to school. We will be back next week with another episode of End of the Line.
Thanks again for watching and/or listening, and have a great day.
Matt: Have a good weekend, everybody.
Liz: Bye.
Derrick: See you, everyone.
