Page 37 - Plastics News Issue November - 2024
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FEATURE NEWS
less valuable than clear, and Coca-Cola eventu- They also provide an extensive list of resourc-
ally decided the value of recovering clear bot- es for evaluating chemical hazards, such as the
tles was more important than serving as brand global eChemPortal and the Toxicity Forecaster
identification. from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
“The marketing department is not thinking about Disclosing the components of plastic packaging
what happens at the MRF,” she said. And it may – including additives – being used at each stage
be more important for the brand owner to see of manufacture is essential to unlocking more
the whole life cycle rather than stopping at the sustainable practices, the authors wrote.
point the product hits the store shelf.
“This disclosure can promote better supply-
“A lot of people in the environmental sector are chain collaboration by reducing duplicative addi-
pointing fingers,” she said, because branded tives; inform procurement, helping to avoid ad-
packaging is easily identifiable in plastics pollu- ditives of concern for specific use cases or those
tion – for example, singling out discarded Pepsi that may conflict with each other; and ensure
bottles in waterways, leading to lawsuits to gain that the right additives are used for necessary
accountability. functions,” they wrote.
The key is to recognize the complex supply Although producers may fear undermining com-
chain and to have information flowing in both di- petitiveness by revealing any level of proprietary
rections to optimize recyclability and to reduce formulations, the authors argued that substan-
potential health impacts and losses to the envi- tial disclosure “already occurs for food-contact
ronment, she added. and biomedical materials without undercutting
commercial outcomes.”
The ultimate result would be that higher-quali-
ty material ends up in recycling streams, which The authors envision a packaging label that pro-
– from both a legislative and an end-user per- vides an overview of such components as recy-
spective – could help encourage integration into cled resin content, virgin resin content, additives
products requiring virgin-quality resin. and more. Such a label would disclose “plastic
bottle composition to supply chain partners and,
Increasing packaging transparency ideally, consumers,” they wrote.
The paper aims to help plastics manufacturers “We’re all academics, so this is our natural habi-
make more informed decisions about the quan- tat,” Lavender Law said of the paper’s publica-
tity and nature of additives. One way is to ask tion. She added that like most scientific journals,
what additives are genuinely needed, how those Nature is subscription-based with a limited audi-
additives move and interact through the plastics ence.
life cycle including recycling, and whether the
additives are safe for humans and the environ- Source – Plastics Recycling Update
ment, the co-authors wrote.
November 2024 PLASTICS NEWS 37
