Apr. 29, 2024
Consumers are increasingly conscious of the environmental impact of plastic packaging, and are demanding that manufacturers and suppliers offer more sustainable alternatives.
If you are looking for more details, kindly visit Cornstarch compostable resin.
An increasing number of states and local authorities are also taking action to prohibit single-use plastics such as polystyrene containers.
In response, cornstarch panels have emerged as a non-plastic alternative touted as a sustainable solution to packaging needs, including insulated packaging.
The issue is that recycling facilities and local municipalities are speaking out against their recyclability.
Cornstarch packaging is made through the fermentation process of the corn plant’s sugars and starch, which creates polylactic acid (PLA). This is then mixed with polymers made from alkene to create a product that can then be used to manufacture an array of packaging containers from trays and lids to bags, plates and foldable boxes.
Since cornstarch also provides reasonable thermal protection, it is increasingly being used as an insulated packaging material.
In the race to be green, many businesses have embraced cornstarch packaging and, in so doing, accepted many of its claimed environmental benefits without a great deal of scrutiny.
On closer inspection, however, cornstarch packaging is neither the most sustainable insulated packaging solution nor the best in terms of thermal performance.
The main contentious claim made by many manufacturers of cornstarch panels is that they are fully curbside recyclable.
This isn’t true.
Cornstarch panels have no recycling value. They cannot be reprocessed into another material that a recycling facility can then sell.
Cornstarch panels are frequently marketed, however, as curbside recyclable on the basis that they doesn’t interfere with the recycling process. Even this claim is dubious though.
As a biodegradable material, cornstarch packaging can be composted instead of recycled. However, this is another contentious claim cornstarch packaging manufacturers often make.
Technically, cornstarch packaging is compostable, but there are very few facilities that can compost cornstarch in large quantities.
This is because PLA requires very specific environmental conditions in order to break down. That’s to say, a temperature of 140 degrees Fahrenheit, a plentiful supply of microbes, and the right amount of moisture.
Even then, the resulting compost is highly acidic and must be mixed with an alkaline substance if it is to be used as a fertilizer.
As such, cornstarch packaging is not suitable for home composting nor do most consumers live close to a facility that can compost it industrially.
So, if cornstarch panels are neither curbside recyclable nor easily compostable, where does this leave businesses and consumers looking for sustainable packaging alternatives?
For insulated packaging solutions, we suggest 100 percent paper-based materials as a superior alternative. The key benefit of using 100% paper insulated packaging is that your customers can conveniently recycle it curbside once received.
IPC’s CelluLiner insulated packaging is made using numerous layers of paper that contain thousands of small air pockets per cm3 to substantially slow heat transfer. It’s available in various forms to suit different packaging needs:
A year ago I wrote to Marks and Spencer about their cornstarch derived plastic packaging. As part of their ‘plan A‘ (because there is no plan B), Marks and Spencer announced they would be using more and more of this cornstarch derived plastic for packaging their products.
I asked whether I could just throw this packaging in the bin (yeah right; as if) or whether it needed something special doing with it.
Neil Brown, customer advisor at that time, wrote:
“The beauty of cornstarch packaging, is that you can dispose of it exactly how you like and the result will still be environmentally friendly. If you would like to, you can put the packaging onto a compost heap or send it to landfill, and after seventy two days it will have completely broken down.”
Want more information on compostable resin Manufacturer? Feel free to contact us.
Well that sounds just too good to be true, doesn’t it?
I then responded with the following questions:
Neil had left he building by the time I followed this up a few weeks ago, so Alex Hawkins took over to help me with my first question. I was then referred to a packing technologist for the rest. In response to the first question, Alex said
“We don’t use corn starch for all our packaging at the moment – it is mainly used for products in our Food To Go range such as sandwich containers”.
The rest of the answer followed duly, a week later, as promised.
“Further to my e-mail on Wednesday, I have now heard back from our Packaging Technologist. The following is quite a long and detailed response, and I hope it will answer all your questions. Firstly, I would like to take this opportunity to update you and report that we have completed our second year audit for Packaging Reduction and are currently at 12% reduction across all of Foods.
Cornstarch, as we have stated previously, is a compostable material. We continue to support these new and innovative materials and commit to using them wherever practically possible.
You will appreciate that as the materials are new, our knowledge is constantly increasing. Since our last e-mail, we have needed to change our composting logos to reflect the different types of composting that is available. The starch in cornstarch packaging is known in the industry as PLA. PLA is compostable, but practically, the ideal conditions are in industrial composting facilities rather than in customers’ homes.
Although they will eventually compost at home, we have had some customers experience difficulties in getting the packaging to compost properly. We believe this is due to the customers not being able to achieve ideal composting temperatures for a sufficiently long enough period.
We appreciate that this news will be disappointing given our last response. However, we only use PLA in window patches on sandwiches, where we advise customers to recycle the pack – PLA in small quantities on cardboard does not represent an issue for cartonboard recycling mills. (my bolding and italics – this surprised me; you?)
Sadly we cannot use cornstarch packaging across all foods as there are many limitations to the material, the most important being that they are not suitable for use in the microwave or conventional oven. This immediately severely limits their applications.
We also have to consider functional barriers in order to meet shelf life and PLA is not always suitable for all products. We continue to research Home Compostable materials, but we have decided, in light of recent learnings, and in order to provide real clarity on this complex subject, only to use Home Compostable materials for the time being. We have decided not to use the so called ‘degradable’ materials and ‘oxy-degradeable’ materials as we believe them to be misleading. (again, my bolding and italics – interesting stuff in the light of recent conversations about biodegradable plastic bags carrying more ecological harm than good here at my zero waste)
To sell different food formats we need to consider different material types. In an ideal world we would be able to consider one material against another with only environmental considerations in mind. However, as a food retailer we must consider the protection of food first and foremost.
In fact to incur food waste is significantly more damaging to the environment than packaging utilisation. (would love to hear your thoughts on this) As such, we do use plastics on many products and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
Plastics are lightweight so reduce transport costs, they have an excellent carbon footprint, (??) they have good functional properties and come in a range of types that are suitable for both the chill chain, the microwave and the conventional oven.
We can include a recycled post consumer waste content and as such, we create a recycling waste stream for the materials that encourages Local Authorities to collect them.
I hope that response has been helpful and please do feel free to conact me with any further questions.”
So there you go. I would love to know what you think and if you have any further questions to put to Marks and Spencer about their packaging; I found their response very interesting and it bought up some key points for me.
For more information, please visit resin degradable Manufacturer.
If you are interested in sending in a Guest Blogger Submission,welcome to write for us!
All Comments ( 0 )