HPP Packaging and Sustainability

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04/02/2025 Added

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HPP Packaging and Sustainability by Zach Muscato, Plastic Ingenuity. 2025 High Pressure Processing and Dehydration Workshop

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[00:00:00.000]so i lead uh sustainability efforts for plastic ingenuity i'll talk a little bit more about
[00:00:10.160]plastic ingenuity here in a minute um but essentially you know i've been in the packaging
[00:00:14.600]industry now for close to 20 years as grace mentioned i have a mechanical engineering degree
[00:00:21.580]from the university of illinois had a great joke planned about how illinois won uh here in the fall
[00:00:28.820]against the corn huskers but it just i think it falls short online so we'll save that one for
[00:00:33.220]tomorrow um but yeah thanks for having me i'm happy to talk about packaging and uh coming from
[00:00:40.940]the sustainability background we're going to get a heavy dose of sustainability i think it's always
[00:00:45.340]a fun topic to uh to discuss in settings like this so yeah feel free to stop me at any time
[00:00:52.100]we will have plenty of time for questions at the end but if you have any burning questions feel
[00:00:56.640]free to fire away
[00:00:57.440]so not a sales pitch but just want to give you a real high level overview of of who plastic
[00:01:05.000]ingenuity is uh you may you may hear me refer to the company as pi that's how we're known in the
[00:01:11.160]industry as pi but we're the largest custom thermoformer in north america we'll talk a little
[00:01:18.220]bit more about what thermoforms are but essentially it's it's a type of plastic packaging and we
[00:01:26.360]thermoform it in five different sites in the u.s and two in mexico and we're fortunate to be able
[00:01:32.860]to work with some of the biggest brands in the world you can see a sample of that down there
[00:01:37.940]we primarily serve three markets food consumer products and health care food is by far our
[00:01:48.460]largest market and then within food we have a i think fairly sizable share in packaging that does
[00:01:56.240]go through hpp processes and we're fortunate to have been able to work with brands and other
[00:02:01.960]partners that are well versed in in the technology so that's a little bit about us
[00:02:08.600]you probably have never heard of us but you're sure you're well familiar with some of the
[00:02:13.940]packaging that we make and we've got some pictures here of some products that we we provide packaging
[00:02:20.580]for some brands so if you go to starbucks you enjoy starbucks we manufacture some of
[00:02:26.120]their components in their drink and lid packaging and then i mentioned our footprint in food you
[00:02:33.920]can see some examples there of actually extended shelf life meat and cheese snack trays that we
[00:02:40.560]make it's a core market of ours and then just i know it's not the market that's targeted for
[00:02:46.760]this discussion but you see an example over there of some health care packaging that we make so
[00:02:51.040]it's a really unique uh i think cross-section of markets that we serve
[00:02:56.000]and they all kind of benefit each other in terms of the capabilities that we've developed to
[00:03:01.480]best serve those markets
[00:03:02.740]but that's not why i'm here today i'm here to talk about hpp packaging design
[00:03:10.760]and sustainability so let's let's jump right in
[00:03:15.880]i think it goes without saying but but sometimes it gets forgotten the role that packaging plays
[00:03:25.000]in our world
[00:03:25.880]it's truly a vital component in preserving and marketing any product or food products especially
[00:03:33.720]i think there's a running joke amongst packaging engineers that we're always the last to know
[00:03:40.120]when a new product is coming to market because we're the last ones to get pulled in
[00:03:43.460]packaging is an afterthought so we don't really trying to change that mindset and really pull
[00:03:50.960]the packaging development process in parallel
[00:03:55.760]with the development of the food and processing equipment we we think they all need to work in
[00:04:01.100]concert and the sooner that we can start developing a package in concert with the
[00:04:06.780]other components of the packaging system the better off we will all be in the end
[00:04:11.740]so don't forget about the packaging
[00:04:13.960]daniela covered this so well so i'm i'm not i'm just going to breeze through this but
[00:04:21.560]we're all familiar with some of these examples of packaging that
[00:04:25.640]is used for hpp formats i just want to circle here my cursor is working so this tub here
[00:04:34.380]is an example of a thermoform you saw a lot of them in joyce's presentation that's that's
[00:04:40.660]what my company manufactures so the rest of this presentation is is kind of skewed to
[00:04:44.860]that perspective i'm glad to answer any other questions you may have on other packaging
[00:04:49.400]formats i may need to phone a friend for that but um just so you're aware this is the type
[00:04:55.520]of a thermal form package that would be used for hpp um as as grace mentioned in the labs tomorrow
[00:05:03.260]i'll be walking through some videos and some interactives on what exactly thermal forming is
[00:05:09.320]how does it work um but essentially what we do in a thermal forming process is we take a plastic
[00:05:16.440]resin we extrude it into a sheet a flat sheet very wide like up to four feet wide that sheet
[00:05:24.560]may be
[00:05:25.400]twenty thousandths of an inch thick forty thousandths of an inch thick
[00:05:28.520]we then run it into what we call an oven which heats the sheet back up to a pliable state
[00:05:35.160]it then goes into a mold where it is formed using vacuum air and plug assists into its final desired
[00:05:43.780]shape like this tub then we have these big match metal dies which are essentially either
[00:05:50.040]like a cookie cutter or a paper punch that punch the final parts out
[00:05:55.280]and they get stacked and nested together and shipped to our customers
[00:05:58.520]so that's what thermoforming is and the beauty of thermoforming is that you can customize it
[00:06:03.840]to a wide variety of shapes and sizes and use a really wide variety of materials as well
[00:06:09.380]to really hone in on the properties that you need for an application
[00:06:13.040]so why is HPP packaging so challenging? Where are we here today talking about this? I think it goes
[00:06:25.160]without saying given the intense pressures and Daniela talked about this it blew my mind it's
[00:06:30.720]six times that at the deepest point of the ocean your packaging has to be pretty robust obviously
[00:06:36.180]to withstand that without leaking and packaging's got a job to do that's to protect the product
[00:06:43.000]so it has to protect the product through those really really extreme environment. We're going
[00:06:50.580]to talk more it's we talked about a little bit about this morning but the challenge of that
[00:06:55.040]can play or maybe intentionally added air in terms of modified atmospheres.
[00:06:59.480]Not so much touched upon this morning but we'll talk about in the presentation today here
[00:07:06.400]is also the labeling kind of like the post-HPP process what goes into making a package desirable
[00:07:13.800]for the consumers and what we must consider as packaging designers when selecting materials
[00:07:21.000]for labeling and inks and all of that good stuff.
[00:07:24.920]So needless to say packaging designing a package for this extremative environment can be a challenge.
[00:07:32.540]So it's important to have a development process and we just we laid out some steps here just for
[00:07:42.960]a starting point. I think it's really important that every brand every stakeholder design a
[00:07:49.180]process that is most suitable for their product their application their technology.
[00:07:54.800]But this is what we've seen work successfully for other HPP programs that we've run.
[00:08:00.440]You know the more you can define up front for your suppliers so defining
[00:08:07.460]what kind of barrier properties you may need what kind of shelf life are you looking to target
[00:08:13.140]what are the attributes of the environment that may you're trying to protect your product from
[00:08:20.680]what sustainability goals does your organization have what sustainability
[00:08:24.680]goals are you working toward the more that you can divide define up front for your packaging
[00:08:30.620]suppliers and designers the better so once you define your requirements you go through your
[00:08:37.460]your selection format where you're working with a vendor hopefully that has experience with
[00:08:43.440]hpp packaging and hpp processes and that's where i mentioned earlier it's really important
[00:08:50.660]to work in concert with your suppliers your material suppliers
[00:08:54.560]your equipment suppliers packaging suppliers to select the format select the materials
[00:09:02.680]that will meet the requirements that you define in step one once you kind of define a structure
[00:09:09.920]and a format the next step in the process is designing so typically that'll happen
[00:09:15.800]in a cad type program and prototyping this is where we always try to
[00:09:24.440]guide our customers to pushing a concept to failure find out where your package will fail
[00:09:31.420]once you find where it fails then we can design in an appropriate factor of safety
[00:09:38.800]by finding that failure point it helps us really optimize the package out of the gate
[00:09:45.460]i think with hpp and other aggressive processing technologies it can be tempting to over engineer
[00:09:54.320]and just throw a lot of the material a lot of material at the problem
[00:09:58.560]or pick or stay with the the tried and true design that you know will work
[00:10:03.180]but i'd like to challenge that because i think ultimately that leads to
[00:10:07.120]inefficient non-optimized designs i think we really need to build in
[00:10:11.220]the budget the timing up front in our project plans to identify that failure point
[00:10:19.200]and then build your packaging from there and then obviously
[00:10:24.200]there's the shelf life testing validation really product dependent brand dependent it seems like
[00:10:31.360]i know there's a question set that's earlier about is there any standards in terms of
[00:10:36.340]materials validations not not that i'm aware of i don't believe there's anything such as an astm
[00:10:43.040]standard at least in our experience everything we have done has been really dependent on the
[00:10:48.720]product really dependent on the processing technology and the conditions of faced
[00:10:54.080]and uh you know unfortunately that's that's how it is but by having a process hopefully
[00:10:59.100]you can standardize that development process to ultimately yield an optimized output
[00:11:03.900]so with that i'd like to talk about some design we'll call them tips 10 tips we'll walk through
[00:11:13.300]and then we'll get to the sustainability portion of the presentation um we've talked about some of
[00:11:19.220]these already joyce and daniella did such a fantastic job this morning so
[00:11:23.960]rather than being redundant i'll probably zoom through some of these but
[00:11:27.360]as always i'll try to add some context
[00:11:30.340]we talked a lot about this one this morning minimizing headspace that's super critical
[00:11:39.680]especially for a thermoform package which is flexible but also rigid in certain points which
[00:11:47.860]i know sounds like an oxymoron but it's all dependent depends on what you're referring to so
[00:11:53.840]in our world a thermoform is a rigid because essentially it's not a film it's not a litting
[00:12:00.320]film it's not a label it has structural integrity although it can flex it needs to flex in a process
[00:12:06.780]like this to you know make sure that it's protecting the product and not not fracturing
[00:12:12.160]or losing integrity but when you compare it to say maybe a glass bottle that's certainly very
[00:12:18.960]rigid so when we say rigid versus flexible it's all relative but
[00:12:23.720]regardless it's critical to understand what that fill level is going to be in your process
[00:12:30.540]what that minimum headspace level is going to be we've found that this is where a collaboration
[00:12:37.260]between equipment suppliers packaging manufacturers and the brands is just essential
[00:12:43.820]essentially we can design a tray or a tub to be within you know a couple cc's of volume
[00:12:53.600]so whatever a brand or supplier or brand may need for their particular product we can make
[00:12:59.740]it's just important to define those things up front so that we're not reiterating when it gets
[00:13:05.300]to our design work so obviously with the pressures that we talked about earlier seal integrity is
[00:13:16.380]critical and there's a couple terms here i want everyone to get familiar with a seal flange
[00:13:23.480]so that's the flat portion of a tub or tray or cup that the litting film seals to
[00:13:32.400]you can see it here on the screen my cursor there that is the seal flange
[00:13:38.420]uh and an hpp package that's probably is the most critical region because that geometry the
[00:13:46.540]consistency of that geometry determines ultimately how the seal will function
[00:13:53.360]and the seal integrity that you'll get in a package now the benefit of thermoforms
[00:14:00.440]it's kind of inherent with our process that the majority of the material that we form will stay
[00:14:08.860]on top in the seal flange and then it kind of it gets stretched and flows to the bottom so what
[00:14:16.920]that means is that if you look at a thermoform tub you'll find that the hoop strength or the seal
[00:14:23.240]top is very rigid and where it will get a little bit more flexible is in the sidewall and we'll
[00:14:30.880]talk about in a few later tips like what we do about that but really that rigidity at the top
[00:14:38.060]ultimately leads to better process processability through an HPP process.
[00:14:43.700]Another kind of no-duh moment, litting film selection is
[00:14:53.120]critical. You need to make sure that you have a strong enough seal to withstand the pressures of
[00:14:59.220]HPP. This is where it's important to when you're working with your cup or tub manufacturer and the
[00:15:06.420]litting film manufacturer make sure that you have targets that you want to be able to hit
[00:15:11.880]in terms of like your burst strength. Make sure that the film suppliers are
[00:15:18.880]aware of what type of materials the films will be sealed to
[00:15:23.000]so a lot of communication needs to take place here a lot of collaboration.
[00:15:27.040]I think something I've seen with HPP packaging and it can be frustrating as a consumer
[00:15:33.720]is that there's the the seals are welded on essentially so it can be difficult for a
[00:15:41.760]consumer to peel off the film cleanly without having you know like trim hairs or
[00:15:48.320]you know parts of the film stick with the flange. So those are also things
[00:15:52.880]you want to talk about with your suppliers at this point is we really
[00:15:55.700]want to avoid that. We you kind of want to strike that balance between having a
[00:15:59.700]film that will be easy to peel for a consumer and have a good consumer
[00:16:04.500]experience but also survive those intense pressures and I know that is
[00:16:09.440]really difficult to achieve but again that's where communication is really
[00:16:14.300]important.
[00:16:16.720]Talked about this quite a bit earlier about round corners and I
[00:16:22.760]echo that a thousand percent when we're designing a cup or tray specifically for
[00:16:28.400]HPP processes. We do not have sharp corners. Sharp corners is where it will
[00:16:33.920]fail. We'll get thin material spots so we want to make sure that we are rounding
[00:16:40.400]corners. We want to make sure that we have rounds to prevent paneling. You
[00:16:44.300]notice there are a lot of round shapes again to prevent paneling so those are
[00:16:49.340]things that our engineers are well versed with when
[00:16:52.640]designing an HPP package.
[00:16:56.060]Another critical aspect of HPP packaging is making sure that you have an even or
[00:17:05.540]as even a possible wall distribution through a cup or a tub. This is where
[00:17:11.140]thermal form process expertise comes in. So essentially what you don't want to
[00:17:16.180]happen is have a thin spot in a sidewall or a thin spot in the bottom. These again
[00:17:22.520]are things that can happen. Given the pressures that we experience in HPP, that's where you'll see dents, that's where you can see fractures, that's where you can see some really bad things happening. So it's important when you're working with a packaging manufacturer that they have processes and controls in place to make sure that they're monitoring wall thickness throughout their process, making sure that they're validating tooling in their process to avoid those thin spots. This is also where it's important to know where
[00:17:52.400]the product will fail so that specifications can be set to make sure that we're running well
[00:17:59.140]above the failure point to where we're avoiding that risk.
[00:18:02.280]So choosing the right material, and there's so many things that go into material selection. We
[00:18:13.740]could probably talk a whole hour about that. Wide variety of plastic materials are used in HPP.
[00:18:22.280]Typically, you'll select a material that will flex without fracturing. A lot of polyethylene,
[00:18:30.780]a lot of even PET is used. Also selecting a material that will yield the barrier properties
[00:18:36.760]that you need to achieve. Also, clarity is really important. These are typically fresh,
[00:18:44.720]clean, natural foods. And we know that consumers of those products drastically prefer,
[00:18:52.160]clear packaging. So having that visibility to the product really connotes that natural,
[00:18:58.320]fresh look. Again, this is where collaboration with your packaging supplier is critical.
[00:19:04.980]This is where when you talk about part weight, material thickness, that really gets dialed in
[00:19:11.800]in the prototyping and piloting phase of a program. Again, I can't stress enough how
[00:19:17.060]important it is to find the failure point so that we're not over-engineering and over-gauging
[00:19:22.040]products. We're optimizing it out of the gate. Yeah, this is where a lot of collaboration
[00:19:30.540]needs to take place. I know that's a theme. I probably sound like a broken record.
[00:19:33.840]Some discussion this morning about shelf life. Obviously, the packaging plays a really
[00:19:44.080]critical role in making sure that the product achieves its shelf life targets. As a
[00:19:51.920]packaging supplier, this is where it's critical to know if you understand what type of oxygen
[00:19:57.980]transmission rates you need, both to keep the oxygen out of the package, away from the food,
[00:20:03.560]and then if you are using any modified atmosphere in the headspace to keep those gases
[00:20:09.980]in the package. It's twofold. You want to keep the oxygen out and your modified atmosphere in,
[00:20:16.480]and then also a moisture vapor. Depending on
[00:20:21.800]the moisture level of your product, that can be pretty critical. You want to
[00:20:25.560]select a material that will keep the moisture in the package from migrating out.
[00:20:30.920]So again, this is very product specific. It's very specific on the details of
[00:20:38.920]what your expectations are in terms of shelf life. So just important to let your
[00:20:44.040]suppliers know so that we can pick the right material for the application.
[00:20:51.680]Talked earlier about round cups. That's why you see so many round products, at least when you're
[00:20:56.560]talking about these semi-rigid containers in this space. Again, a lot of that is to prevent
[00:21:02.960]that paneling that you may see on the shelf. Round provides that structural integrity in the side
[00:21:09.200]walls that helps maintain its structural integrity throughout the process. Again, labels and
[00:21:21.560]inks, very critical talking to your packaging suppliers to understand how the package will be
[00:21:29.100]decorated. Will it be a label that's applied after the HPP process? Maybe it's an in-mold
[00:21:35.140]label to where the package is labeled before it goes through an HPP process.
[00:21:39.720]If that's the case, make sure that the label supplier is using
[00:21:44.440]inks that will survive the process, that will hold up to the moisture and pressure.
[00:21:51.440]If you're using a pressure sensitive label after the process,
[00:21:55.160]making sure that the residual moisture is removed so that you get the adhesion
[00:22:01.220]that's needed for a clean look and just for the function of the product.
[00:22:06.800]Don't overlook the labels.
[00:22:08.980]Finally, last tip and hat tip to Hyperbaric here.
[00:22:16.060]I stole an image from your website, but I've talked about this,
[00:22:18.920]I think, in every tip, but collaboration is so important.
[00:22:21.320]Pulling those stakeholders together across the value chain,
[00:22:25.500]equipment suppliers, the packaging suppliers, trays, films,
[00:22:29.580]labeling, litting, you name it.
[00:22:32.160]The sooner you can pull them into a packaging development program,
[00:22:36.680]the better results you're going to have.
[00:22:38.560]We've seen that time and time again.
[00:22:40.560]So next up is sustainability, but I think maybe I should pause there
[00:22:46.580]to see if we have any questions regarding design that I can hopefully
[00:22:51.200]answer.
[00:22:51.560]Absolutely.
[00:22:52.760]I think, Seth, do you want to ask your question?
[00:22:55.360]Thank you.
[00:22:59.320]Hey, Zach.
[00:23:00.880]Yeah, I dropped a question in the chat just a moment ago.
[00:23:04.100]So for thermoforming, is it commonplace or encouraged
[00:23:09.860]or to some degree discouraged to have several layers of polymers
[00:23:16.780]all molded at once?
[00:23:18.420]And I was asking,
[00:23:21.080]in regard to like the oxygen and water vapor mass transfer behavior.
[00:23:26.180]Yeah.
[00:23:26.780]Great question.
[00:23:29.300]We're going to talk about this a little bit in the sustainability side.
[00:23:32.160]It is discouraged from a recyclability standpoint.
[00:23:35.500]There are exceptions to that rule,
[00:23:39.620]but we've certainly been, not just thermoforms,
[00:23:42.640]but I think the packaging industry in general,
[00:23:44.580]we've been trying to shift to monolayer materials wherever possible.
[00:23:50.960]Essentially to aid compatibility with recycling streams.
[00:23:53.620]That's not always possible.
[00:23:55.460]And we'll show you here in a few slides that
[00:23:58.440]when you look at the environmental impact of a packaging system and product,
[00:24:04.080]it's oftentimes the product that vastly exceeds the impact of the package.
[00:24:09.400]So you got to be careful if you're making a compromise to the package
[00:24:13.580]that you're not having a negative impact on product preservation,
[00:24:16.660]which will have an outsized impact on the environmental.
[00:24:20.840]But from a processing standpoint,
[00:24:23.720]it's something we've been using multi-layer materials really for decades.
[00:24:28.680]It's commonplace.
[00:24:29.540]The pushback more has been on impact on recycling and end of life.
[00:24:33.820]Okay.
[00:24:35.480]Thank you.
[00:24:37.040]Jackie, you're next.
[00:24:40.380]Hi, thank you, Zach.
[00:24:43.540]So when designing packages,
[00:24:46.360]do the contents of the package affect the design, for example,
[00:24:50.720]I use the exact same package design for salsa and guacamole,
[00:24:55.720]or do the contents matter?
[00:24:57.880]Yes, the contents can matter, especially when it comes to shelf life.
[00:25:03.580]So, you know,
[00:25:06.040]it kind of depends on what causes your product to degrade and lose shelf
[00:25:13.620]life.
[00:25:13.920]That kind of depends on like what material we'll select.
[00:25:16.920]So that, that's kind of,
[00:25:20.600]jumping out at me when I'm hearing that question.
[00:25:22.820]You guys would need to know the exact ingredients and pH and water
[00:25:28.500]activity before. Okay. Thank you.
[00:25:31.040]Yeah. And if,
[00:25:31.780]and if you knew like what oxygen rates or water vapor transmission rates
[00:25:36.360]you need to maintain your shelf life, that's always ideal.
[00:25:39.080]If not, we can work from whatever you got.
[00:25:41.900]Okay. Thank you.
[00:25:43.380]And then one more Christian Kalix from Universal Pure has a burning
[00:25:48.700]question.
[00:25:49.280]Oh,
[00:25:50.480]thank you.
[00:25:52.220]Yeah. So one of the questions I had was regarding denting or paneling
[00:25:56.420]on cups post-HVP.
[00:25:58.640]So when we give guys to our clients,
[00:26:02.180]we always address the head space and as well, you know,
[00:26:06.560]the thickness of the film and the plastic as well, and the roundness.
[00:26:10.140]But even after addressing those things, we tend to still see some
[00:26:15.460]some cups that end up being affected where the paneling occurred and we had to pop it out afterwards.
[00:26:22.190]Do you have any thoughts on what that drying factor could be outside of those ones that you discussed already?
[00:26:28.290]Yeah, that's a fantastic question.
[00:26:32.330]I wish I had an answer to that, but I'm going to have to punt.
[00:26:35.490]But what I'll do is I'll go back to our experts internally and our engineering team.
[00:26:39.330]And if I get an answer to that, I'll follow up with you.
[00:26:44.770]Yeah. Great question.
[00:26:46.810]I appreciate it. I have a second question and maybe I missed it.
[00:26:50.290]When you were talking about the width being such a critical factor of the seal flange, which is a good fallout.
[00:26:58.310]What is the ideal width?
[00:27:00.610]We want to be above a quarter of an inch, ideally three eighths of an inch.
[00:27:06.250]So a minimum of quarter inch.
[00:27:09.630]Yeah, on each side. Quarter inch minimum.
[00:27:12.010]Ideally three eighths.
[00:27:14.550]Up to a half.
[00:27:15.250]Great. Thank you.
[00:27:18.810]All right. I don't see any more questions on chat.
[00:27:25.370]So go ahead and continue and then I'm sure we'll still have time afterwards for questions.
[00:27:30.730]Yeah, sounds good. All right.
[00:27:32.710]So sustainability, as I mentioned, this is my day job at PI.
[00:27:36.770]I've been started in packaging development in my career in the last five years I've spent in sustainability.
[00:27:42.750]And it's been fun.
[00:27:44.330]It's been fun to watch this topic grow and become part of our packaging, just lexicon.
[00:27:49.170]So with that, what exactly is sustainability?
[00:27:53.470]It's a very nebulous term.
[00:27:55.790]It's very ambiguous.
[00:27:56.750]In packaging, we may hear some of these terms thrown out there when discussing sustainability.
[00:28:02.870]It's recycling, circularity, reuse, eliminating plastic.
[00:28:07.670]Those can all be aspects of sustainability.
[00:28:14.110]The definition that we like to ground ourselves in when having sustainability discussions with stakeholders is from the United Nations.
[00:28:22.670]What I love about this definition is it's people-centered.
[00:28:26.990]It's also pretty simple.
[00:28:29.410]It's making sure that we're meeting our needs today without passing an undue arm or compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
[00:28:40.790]For me, that means...
[00:28:43.890]We're being efficient with our resources.
[00:28:46.090]It means that we're conserving resources for future generations.
[00:28:49.890]One area where we really try to align our packaging efforts and development efforts is with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
[00:29:01.390]The UN Sustainable Development Goals build on the definition of sustainability by the UN.
[00:29:09.270]You'll notice that these are very wide-ranging.
[00:29:13.670]From number one, ending poverty and hunger, ensuring good health, all the way up to looking at life below water, sustainable cities and communities.
[00:29:24.950]Very wide-ranging.
[00:29:25.930]When we think about food packaging, a couple of these really jump out at you.
[00:29:30.350]That's zero hunger.
[00:29:32.470]Unfortunately, I think about a third of the food that we grow goes to waste before it's consumed.
[00:29:40.390]That's a lot.
[00:29:42.210]A third of the food.
[00:29:43.450]And that contributes to about 8% of greenhouse gas emissions on a global basis.
[00:29:50.130]So how do we solve the hunger problem through eliminating food waste?
[00:29:56.750]And what role does packaging play in that?
[00:29:59.470]I think it's an interesting question.
[00:30:01.390]And then you look at responsible consumption and production.
[00:30:07.150]So that's where we focus a lot of our attention on as a plastic packaging supplier.
[00:30:11.170]How are we being responsible
[00:30:13.230]with the resources that we consume to make the packaging that we make?
[00:30:17.690]So sustainability, it's a must-have.
[00:30:23.990]It's not an option.
[00:30:24.870]I'm guessing if you're a brand that's on the call today,
[00:30:28.590]you're likely selling into a Walmart or a Target or an Amazon.
[00:30:33.070]I think we've seen over the last five years,
[00:30:36.270]their shift, their focus on sustainability has really driven a lot of action.
[00:30:43.010]The other big one that I'll call here, these five factors, would be legislation.
[00:30:47.610]There's a group of legislation of statutes called extended producer responsibility.
[00:30:56.190]That's been very common in Europe and even in Canada,
[00:31:00.110]but now finally is in the U.S. for packaging.
[00:31:03.590]Five states have passed extended producer responsibility laws.
[00:31:07.430]Basically, what those laws state is that they're
[00:31:12.790]certain levers to make sure that we as the packaging producers are accounting for
[00:31:20.370]and supporting the end-of-life management of the products that we put into the world.
[00:31:26.070]So it's shifting the responsibility from cities and governments financially to brands.
[00:31:31.130]Oregon is the first state to actually have a law go into effect.
[00:31:37.790]And it's really changing the packaging landscape
[00:31:42.570]because the fees that the brands are paying are all based on the environmental impact of the package.
[00:31:50.270]So brands are being incentivized to select packaging that is, say, easier to recycle or compostable
[00:31:58.670]or more sustainable as defined by the bills and the producer responsibility organization.
[00:32:05.830]So that's having a huge effect.
[00:32:08.490]Make sure your packaging folks and...
[00:32:12.350]Legal departments are aware of that.
[00:32:13.930]Five states now really causing shifts.
[00:32:17.210]And the other one to point out would be PCR, post-consumer recycled material mandates, in effect.
[00:32:24.670]New Jersey is the first one that would impact food rigid containers like Thermoforms.
[00:32:32.250]It's in effect now for non-food, but it goes into effect for food-grade containers in 2027.
[00:32:38.350]So all food-grade containers, if you're selling in New Jersey,
[00:32:42.330]have to have 20% recycled content or you will pay a fine.
[00:32:46.630]And those fines are designed to be painful to where it's more conducive, economical,
[00:32:52.670]just to add the material up front.
[00:32:54.370]So legislation is really driving things, especially at the state level.
[00:33:00.310]Grace mentioned this.
[00:33:06.170]We use a lot, a lot of plastic packaging in HPP.
[00:33:10.750]We use a lot of plastic packaging.
[00:33:12.310]In food in general.
[00:33:13.710]And I know here we're all concerned about the environment.
[00:33:16.770]We're all concerned about what we put into the world.
[00:33:19.250]So we get this question a lot.
[00:33:22.950]Is plastic packaging, is it bad for the environment?
[00:33:26.410]The answer is it's really complicated.
[00:33:29.350]Plastic packaging has many benefits.
[00:33:33.130]Those benefits don't get talked about nearly enough.
[00:33:36.130]I'm going to spend a few slides on them next.
[00:33:38.170]But yeah, we do face some very, very real,
[00:33:42.290]challenges when it comes to waste and pollution,
[00:33:44.930]which we are working to address.
[00:33:47.150]What are some benefits of plastic?
[00:33:52.930]The utility, just the way they're used in a wide variety,
[00:33:56.930]a diverse field of applications and material efficiency,
[00:34:00.790]especially when you think about HPP,
[00:34:03.050]the preservation and protection that plastic's enabled
[00:34:07.970]were really, really hard to replace, hard to beat.
[00:34:12.270]And we have a few slides here next,
[00:34:14.950]but from a greenhouse gas emission standpoint,
[00:34:17.650]plastics do tend to be the best option.
[00:34:19.930]Study after study has shown that.
[00:34:21.950]I talked a little bit earlier about food waste,
[00:34:27.290]and this one always blows my mind,
[00:34:29.130]but a third of the food we grow goes to waste before being consumed.
[00:34:32.410]That's 8% of annual greenhouse gas emissions.
[00:34:35.610]And we know packaging plays a critical role.
[00:34:38.690]We have a table here, and this is from an AmeriPen,
[00:34:42.250]white paper a few years back,
[00:34:43.670]that shows the ratio of the carbon footprint of a product
[00:34:49.250]compared to the carbon footprint of the package.
[00:34:52.250]So you can see there ham at top, pasta at the bottom.
[00:34:57.770]So a way to think about this is to have one serving of ham,
[00:35:02.210]the equivalent carbon footprint of the package would be over 620 packages
[00:35:09.210]for that carbon footprint that's in one piece.
[00:35:12.230]So that means any impact change you make on packaging,
[00:35:17.290]please make sure that it's not having a negative impact on preserving the product
[00:35:21.970]or protecting the product because that's just going to have a negative consequence
[00:35:25.810]when it comes to environmental stewardship.
[00:35:28.330]A couple of different lifecycle assessments.
[00:35:34.270]This one was completed on bottles, different bottle materials.
[00:35:38.750]It's from the Imperial College of London that came out in 2020.
[00:35:42.950]The chart lower is better.
[00:35:44.530]This looks at the carbon footprint of different packaging types.
[00:35:47.990]You can see there the plastic bottle and fiberboard package, like a Tetra Pak,
[00:35:53.290]come away with the lowest carbon footprint of these five materials that were compared.
[00:35:59.130]So the plastic bottle and the liquid fiberboard package had about a four times lower carbon footprint
[00:36:05.110]than aluminum or glass.
[00:36:07.550]This was another study.
[00:36:12.190]This is from True Cost in 2016.
[00:36:15.370]But this looked at the trade-offs if we were to swap plastic out for alternatives.
[00:36:22.250]And I think perhaps surprisingly, it showed that if we were to get rid of plastic for all alternatives,
[00:36:28.570]focusing on the middle part of this chart, that's the climate change section.
[00:36:33.830]This says that the change to or impact on climate change would be pretty significant in the wrong direction.
[00:36:42.170]So it quantified climate change in terms of dollars.
[00:36:45.210]So basically it was $71 billion compared to $183 billion just staying with the current state.
[00:36:54.190]Not that the current state is good enough.
[00:36:56.050]We have a lot of improvements to make, but I think this says that going away from plastic and mass should take some consideration.
[00:37:06.230]But yeah, we have changes.
[00:37:12.150]We have challenges.
[00:37:12.470]We have problems.
[00:37:13.630]We hate waste, too.
[00:37:16.990]And I've got, this is kind of a personal issue for me.
[00:37:20.150]I've got two kids, two daughters, 13 and 10.
[00:37:23.790]So, you know, whenever we're walking around the neighborhood, I always embarrass them by picking up the waste that we see, the litter that we see.
[00:37:33.250]It's something that's a personal issue for me.
[00:37:36.370]I'm really concerned about the world that we're leaving for them.
[00:37:39.690]So that's why I...
[00:37:42.130]I enjoy my job so much because I get to work with industry alliances and NGOs to really
[00:37:49.790]do something about this.
[00:37:51.370]So one model that we as an industry are really trying to adopt is called circularity.
[00:38:02.330]I think, unfortunately, circularity has been kind of a buzzword.
[00:38:06.090]But at its truest sense, it's a circular system that's really critical for
[00:38:12.110]optimizing resource.
[00:38:13.470]It is aspirational.
[00:38:16.390]There's no doubt about it.
[00:38:18.230]But credit to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation for this graphic in their white paper,
[00:38:23.890]The New Plastics Economy, Rethinking the Future of Plastics, which is phenomenal.
[00:38:28.810]Check it out if you're interested in learning more.
[00:38:31.630]But it talks about these different solutions that we need to bring to the table
[00:38:36.850]to advance circular systems for plastics.
[00:38:39.570]There isn't one magic bullet.
[00:38:42.090]It's going to take a variety of solutions from smart design.
[00:38:46.390]So we talked about earlier about minimizing material,
[00:38:48.990]finding that failure point, minimize that material we're putting in the world,
[00:38:52.550]designing for recycling, build out those recycling infrastructure
[00:38:57.310]because it's severely lacking, which we'll talk about in a minute.
[00:39:01.170]But also, you know, what materials that we can't reduce
[00:39:06.290]through source reduction, recycling, or reuse,
[00:39:09.330]look at new feedstocks, look at renewables,
[00:39:12.070]look at new renewable feedstocks for plastics like sugar cane, corn.
[00:39:16.450]What is the next generation of feedstocks that we're going to use
[00:39:19.970]to make plastics out of instead of oil and gas?
[00:39:22.530]So this is a model.
[00:39:24.950]Again, it's aspirational, but it is something that we are making
[00:39:29.430]real changes in our business and designs to achieve.
[00:39:31.970]So let's talk about recycling.
[00:39:37.430]Not to shy away from it, but I think we're all aware that recycling
[00:39:42.050]in the US just isn't fantastic right now.
[00:39:44.630]This is from another fantastic report that I cite quite a bit,
[00:39:49.630]the State of Recycling Report 2024 from the Recycling Partnership.
[00:39:54.410]So these stats, this is across all materials, not just plastic,
[00:39:59.510]all materials. Only 21% of materials, packaging materials in the US
[00:40:06.670]gets recycled. That's pretty bad. Three of
[00:40:12.030]those are lost in the recycling process at the material recovery facilities
[00:40:16.970]or MRFs, but the vast, vast, vast majority get lost in the homes.
[00:40:21.390]Why is that? It's because we just don't, one of the reasons why is we
[00:40:27.950]don't have sufficient access to recycling across the US.
[00:40:32.770]Some regions are great, others not so great. So the chart on the right shows
[00:40:38.070]recycling access. So your household, do you have access to recycling?
[00:40:42.010]Like you do your trash, you wheel it out to the curb, someone takes it away.
[00:40:47.190]Unfortunately, about 73% of US households have access to
[00:40:53.210]recycling. And that's just not enough. It's especially a big problem with
[00:40:58.410]multifamily housing, so apartments and such.
[00:41:01.130]But certainly there's improvements that can be made across the board. So access is a
[00:41:11.990]big problem. Unfortunately, even for those people that have access, only about half
[00:41:15.310]participate fully in recycling. They might recycle some, 50%.
[00:41:20.330]So we have to build trust. We have to make things simple. Recycling,
[00:41:25.910]unfortunately, is very, very complicated for folks. And right now we're at this
[00:41:31.310]point where people have lost faith and trust that if they do go to the trouble of
[00:41:35.830]recycling, that something will actually get recycled. Another interesting chart
[00:41:41.970]here, let me unpack it for you. Same report. This looks at different packaging
[00:41:47.450]types, and it looks at the fate of those packaging types, either being recycled or
[00:41:53.950]lost to trash. So orange represents what's being recycled in terms of tons. And the
[00:42:01.830]dark blue bar represents what's lost to trash. And then the overall length is the
[00:42:06.150]total amount generated. So you can see here, starting at the top, by far
[00:42:11.950]the largest amount by weight of waste that we generate for recycling here in the
[00:42:18.210]U.S. is cardboard and mixed paper. Look at the mixed paper bar here. And our
[00:42:24.330]recycling infrastructure was designed specifically to recycle paper,
[00:42:29.330]specifically newspaper. You can see, given those challenges I mentioned before
[00:42:36.230]with access and participation, even things like cardboard and mixed paper
[00:42:41.930]the recycle rates aren't great. They could be better. You'd see here going
[00:42:49.930]down the list, you get to the plastic items toward the bottom. The number one
[00:42:56.910]recycled plastic is PET. It's the number one resin ID code. So PET bottles get
[00:43:04.570]recycled at a rate of about 30%. That compares to about 40% for aluminum cans.
[00:43:11.910]So yeah, still not great. We recycle about 2 billion pounds of PET bottles every
[00:43:18.650]year. That means that 4 billion pounds are still out there available to be
[00:43:22.190]recycled. And then as you go through the other plastic materials, HDPE bottles
[00:43:30.350]get recycled at also around 30%. But some of these other formats, recycling is
[00:43:41.890]really important. Films and flexibles. Films and flexibles are great. They do a
[00:43:44.990]lot of really important things. They're very lightweight, obviously. But that
[00:43:50.810]lightweight nature makes them very difficult to recycle. So that industry,
[00:43:55.230]the film and flexible industry, is really looking at how do we start to do
[00:43:58.590]better at capturing these at the municipal level. So again, we have
[00:44:03.530]recycling challenges in the U.S. A lot of that has to do with access and
[00:44:07.710]participation. And it's not just any one material that faces these challenges.
[00:44:12.190]We all got to work together. Plastics, paper, aluminum, all got to work together to address
[00:44:17.650]these common issues. At PI, we do
[00:44:23.670]a study every year. We talk to brands and find out, ask them what their goals are.
[00:44:28.810]So I know I'm getting a little shy on time, so I'm going to hurry up here a little bit. But
[00:44:33.130]no surprise, we are finding that the brands are heading toward that circular system
[00:44:38.490]of using recyclable materials, minimizing plastic materials,
[00:44:41.850]using recycled content, and designing for recycling.
[00:44:46.270]So wrapping up here a few more slides, you know, we really believe to make sustainability
[00:44:55.050]successful, it has to be systemized. At PI, we've built sustainability into our systems from
[00:45:02.750]design to how we manufacture products to how we even receive resin. Everything has been systemized.
[00:45:10.030]I love this quote,
[00:45:11.830]here, this is from Atomic Habits, you do not rise to the level of your goals,
[00:45:16.210]you fall to the level of your systems. That's very true from a sustainability standpoint.
[00:45:21.830]As an example, many brands have goals to make recyclable packaging, 100% recyclable packaging
[00:45:32.050]by 2030. It's a great goal, but what can you do about it? Well, you know, we've built it into
[00:45:37.370]our system so that every design we make goes through a design for recycling assessment,
[00:45:41.810]where we're using guidance from the Association of Plastic Recyclers that,
[00:45:46.270]you know, has to be recycled for it to pass through our design review. And if it's not
[00:45:51.090]recyclable, then that kicks in a series of questions of why. Another big one is reducing
[00:45:59.390]virgin plastic. That can be done through using less plastic. Source reduction can be done by
[00:46:05.270]using recycled content. It can be done by using bio-based materials that aren't made from oil and
[00:46:11.790]We've implemented a framework when it comes to selecting materials. We're asking questions about
[00:46:16.470]what can we do to reduce our reliance on virgin plastic.
[00:46:20.550]This is overall our system that we follow. It works for us. I'm not saying it would work for
[00:46:31.050]everybody, but fairly simple. We start by defining the goals of the brand that we're
[00:46:37.050]working with. What are your sustainability goals? Every brand has different goals.
[00:46:41.770]Where are you at today? Let's do a gap analysis. Let's create a roadmap that closes that gap
[00:46:48.130]and then execute. Let's put this into practice.
[00:46:52.690]That's a wrap. Just a few takeaways here. Don't forget about packaging. It plays a really vital
[00:47:04.950]role in preserving and marketing foods. Sustainability is a must. It's not an option.
[00:47:11.750]It's a must. Please integrate sustainability into your packaging design and development system.
[00:47:18.830]With that, I'm happy to take any questions you might have.
[00:47:24.770]Yes. I know we've gone over time, but let's spend maybe five minutes on questions and stuff.
[00:47:32.270]Zach will be there again tomorrow. All of you will be put into smaller groups that will rotate
[00:47:41.730]around six stations. If you're still around in the afternoon, you'll be in a much smaller group
[00:47:48.090]and have that one-on-one time with Zach and ask maybe a deeper dive at some of these questions.
[00:47:53.430]Let me just read a couple of those questions and kind of like a fire away, very quick kind of
[00:47:59.830]answers maybe. We have a question of how can it be ensured that current plastics and importantly
[00:48:06.610]recycled plastic packaging does not contain toxic substances?
[00:48:11.710]Does it contain PFAS products that can leach into the food?
[00:48:15.230]Yeah, fantastic question. And that's something that we work on directly with our brands on a
[00:48:23.650]product by product basis. So there's the intentionally added PFAS, which we are
[00:48:29.790]fortunate in our product portfolio, we didn't have many to contend with. We have eliminated them.
[00:48:35.290]They were primarily used as processing aids in films. But I know the industry, it's a huge
[00:48:41.690]topic right now. So yeah, if you're a brand, and you're concerned about that, talk to your
[00:48:46.830]packaging suppliers, they're probably already working on it. There are alternatives. And I
[00:48:52.250]can speak from our experience, we've now eliminated intentionally added PFAS too, from our portfolio.
[00:48:57.450]Great. So the next question is from Haley. Haley comes from Hawaii. So aloha, Zach.
[00:49:04.890]Speaking as a university incubator center, is there any general guidelines, including thickness,
[00:49:11.670]et cetera, for polyethylene and PET specs that we can use to screen potential packaging suppliers
[00:49:17.570]with smaller MOQs for small producers who both are not familiar with HPP process requirements?
[00:49:25.230]Sounds like maybe like stock packaging. You know, there are suppliers that do carry stock HPP
[00:49:35.170]packaging. We personally don't. That's just not our business model. But there are suppliers out there
[00:49:41.650]you might be able to do a web search or ask your community that do have stock packaging for HPP
[00:49:46.850]products. Yeah. Yeah. Especially some of the things that, you know, you and Joyce had talked
[00:49:51.430]about today. Like it really is specific to what else you have in that product and stuff. So from
[00:49:57.990]Frank Jimenez at Universal Pure, how has the China national sword policy impact recycling in the U.S.?
[00:50:05.410]Lipped it on its head. Love to talk more about that tomorrow. But yeah, it's done a lot of
[00:50:11.630]work. We've had to change our way of doing business in the recycling industry here
[00:50:16.150]completely. I think it's the best thing that could have happened to us.
[00:50:19.230]Okay. And then from another person, Rob, have you explored plant-based or biodegradable
[00:50:26.230]alternatives to conventional plastics in your packaging?
[00:50:28.890]Absolutely. Love to talk more about that. But yes, we've extensively explored that. I'm personally
[00:50:35.650]very excited about them. All right. And then Seth Levine, you want to ask your question?
[00:50:41.610]Or you want me to just read it? That's fine. Yeah, Zach, quick question for you.
[00:50:49.750]In your experience, I've had to do some polymer extrusion. Mostly it's biodegradable, but
[00:50:58.250]I've done some polymer extrusion before. And I'm wondering, have you ever noticed whether or not
[00:51:04.790]there's a difference in how your products perform when you start using reground polymers or
[00:51:11.590]recycled polymers as a feedstock? All depends on the polymer. Each polymer is going to behave a
[00:51:18.990]little bit differently. We have vast experience with PCR PET. There are some things that our
[00:51:26.290]reclaimers do to that PET, PCR to basically boost its properties. But yeah, you definitely will see
[00:51:33.830]PCR PET get a little more brittle. We haven't seen that effect as dramatic with some other recycled
[00:51:41.570]materials. That said, we don't have nearly as much experience with, say, HDPE or polypropylene
[00:51:47.330]as we do with PET. But yeah, I think that's an area where the reclamation technologies have
[00:51:54.810]really improved. Solid-state polydecondensation for mechanically recycled materials has been a
[00:52:01.810]game-changer. Additives have been a game-changer to boost IV. And then I didn't even mention,
[00:52:07.990]but advanced recycling, some of the stuff that's happening out there with depowered
[00:52:11.550]polymerization and dissolution, it's really cool, basically providing virgin-like performance
[00:52:17.730]from recycled materials. So yeah, lots to dive into there.
[00:52:23.150]For sure. Cool. Thank you.
[00:52:25.790]Thank you.
[00:52:25.910]Mm-hmm.
[00:52:26.330]Thank you.
[00:52:26.390]Thank you.

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