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Yasmin Ahmed
This year's edition, held on 15-16 February in Birmingham, UK, hosted over 340 exhibitors and 6,000 visitors. The event boasted a cohort of inspirational speakers on its trio of themed stages: Innovation and Design, Circular Economy, and Supply Chain. A stand-out address from keynote speaker Steve Honour, Design Leader at Diageo, encapsulated the considerations required to "design waste out", advocating for a "design backwards" approach so products don't "become obsolete" at the end of their life.
Disappointingly, it was a hard task to unearth plastic-free solutions – of the ten hero products featured on the Innovations Showcase, only two were free from plastic. The packaging sector has a long way to go before it can meet increasing market demand and support businesses as they respond to incoming plastic tax and legislation. The event also highlighted the need to rewrite the narrative around bioplastics, with many exhibitors touting 'green' solutions made from sugarcane and other chemically modified materials, a confusing message for both the industry and consumers.
Despite the work that still needs to be done, there are always pioneers to champion, and the below five innovations are helping to rewrite everything from e-commerce delivery packaging to the fashion retail space. Discover small yet mighty innovations that are already moving us away from plastic.
Italian food packaging supplier Ecopack displayed a range of Cocoa Paper Moulds, an alternative food baking Paper made from the byproduct of the chocolate industry. Using a patented botanical reconstitution technology, cocoa shells are transformed into a greaseproof and certified compostable paper that's compliant with organic waste streams. The moulds are made from Cellulose pulp, with up to 40% derived from cocoa shells. It does not use additive inks, relying on the material's natural texture and aesthetic, and is finished with a water-based adhesive for paper lamination.
According to the International Cocoa Organization (ICO), 700,000 tonnes of cocoa bean waste is generated every year. Ecopack's Cocoa Paper Moulds are manufactured in Italy using cocoa fibre waste from local chocolate factories. The free-standing moulds are microwave and oven safe, withstanding temperatures of up to 220 degrees celsius, and can also be stored in the freezer. The range includes paper cups, muffin trays and cups, panettone moulds, tulip and lotus cups, loaf moulds, and pie moulds. A leader in the production of baking moulds since 1939, the company has global distribution centres across five continents and a product range that includes over 800 items.
Availability: Commercially Available
Tessera Bio Products, from Greek packaging manufacturer Intertan, has created an array of natural, plastic-free, single-use food and beverage solutions for the takeaway industry. The company is tapping into the emergence of areca palm leaves as a raw material, creating a range of plates, trays, and bowls in a variety of shapes and sizes. The products are thermally and mechanically shaped with no additional coatings. Its portfolio also includes cutlery, stirrers, and toothpicks made from FSC-certified birch Wood; straws, sticks, and chopsticks made from Bamboo; and paper tableware without plastic coatings. It also offers paper beverage cups with a water-based coating that doesn't impede end-of-life recyclability. The cup is said to break down into compost in 75 days. Only one in 400 cups is recycled in the UK alone due to their polyethylene lining, so the emergence of aqueous coatings could prove to be a game-changer.
With over a century of experience, Intertan was first established as a family business in 1922 and entered the disposable food and beverage packaging market in 2010. It has three warehouses across Greece, and recently opened a sales office in Salzburg, Austria. The company has developed commercial partnerships with multinational companies such as Nestlé.
Availability: Commercially Available
Tagit replicates popular plastic packaging solutions using sustainable materials, including FSC-certified cardboard and paper. Its portfolio includes cardboard garment hangers, jewellery and accessory display cards and hanging tags, jewellery pillow packs, gift set containers, and jewellery gift boxes. With an estimated 20 billion plastic retail hangers incinerated or sent to landfill annually, taking as long as 1,000 years to decompose, Tagit's coating-free cardboard hangers could significantly lessen the toll on our environment. The UK-based company has also explored recycled packaging materials – for example, it designed a range of jewellery packaging for British charity Oxfam using 100% post-consumer waste.
Tagit is a leading custom packaging specialist with over 25 years of experience optimising brands' shelf presence across the apparel, footwear, jewellery, and accessories sectors. With factories in the UK, China, India, and Turkey, the company offers a range of eco-friendly packaging, manufacturing, and distribution services, and its clients include industry heavyweights such as Disney, John Lewis, Warner Brothers, Primark, and Harrods.
Availability: Commercially Available
UK-based Reedbut Group is a corrugated packaging designer and manufacturer, supplying high-quality, cost-effective, and recyclable products. Its e-commerce packaging range features innovative self-sealing and self-locking designs using FSC-certified corrugated cardboard, including the award-winning eLetterbox, eLok, and the new-to-market e-Envelope. The plastic-free mailer packs are glue and tape free, 100% tamper-evident, and can be printed inside and out in a single machine pass. In 2019, the global e-commerce industry generated over one billion kilograms of plastic packaging waste, demonstrating the acute need for alternative material solutions.
The manufacturer has a number of product lines serving the e-commerce, industrial, shelf ready, retail, storage, and airline sectors. With over 45 years of industry experience, Reedbut Group has three 24-hour manufacturing sites across the UK, and extensive storage facilities to supply scalable packaging solutions. Its roster of clients includes British Airways, Costco, and L'Occitane.
Availability: Commercially Available
RippaTape Halo is Filtrona's patent pending, paper-based tear tape for paper and board-based e-commerce packaging. Launched under the company's Eco range, it is a specialised coated paper with no plastic films or laminates, which means packaging can be opened easily, with no need for a blade. It can be easily integrated into existing production lines as a drop-in replacement for plastic-based tapes. The tape has been externally certified as recyclable with paper and is repulpable, adding usable fibre to the paper waste stream following disposal. RippaTape Halo delivers convenience to both consumers and recycling facilities, enabling easy packaging disposal without having to remove tape from cardboard mailboxes entering the paper waste stream, and minimising the risk of clogging up recycling machinery.
Following a recent change of ownership, the newly rebranded Filtrona (formerly known as Essentra) spent four years developing RippaTape Halo, which is available worldwide. The Singapore-based multinational company has 11 manufacturing facilities and over 2,000 employees.
Availability: Commercially Available