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Reducing: Reducing is not new to us. We prefer to offer films which are stronger pound per pound than ordinary polyethylenes to yield a lower package cost. For example, our new fibril film offers the best strength and stiffness without tradeoffs. Our approach conserves natural gas, reduces the amount of plastic per package and hence plastic destined for the landfill.
Reusing: We work with many of our customers to recycle pallet packaging including durable, over-engineered pallets to reduce the amount of wood used in our pallets.
Recycling: Unlike aluminum which can withstand about 250 recycles or heat histories, plastics degrade (oxidize) with every cycle. For practical purposes, plastics can only be recycled or "downcycled" into an inferior product, so most of the value in recycling is lost. Sorting and cleaning of recyclables uses up resources. There are similarities to paper. In each cycle, the fiber lengths in paper degrade until the end of the line - chipboard.
The exception is polyethylene terephthalate or PET (polyethylene terephthalate) which when repolymerized yields water and pure polymer. Despite the groundbreaking FDA non-objection to using repolymerized PET for prolonged and direct food contact, recycling rates for PET are trending downward.
Redesigning with the minimum amount of plastic obviates the need for recycling. |