Episode 064 | July 10, 2023 | 30:53
Guest: Julia Vol
Published: July 10, 2023
Duration: 30:53
Description
Join host Kristoffer in a thought-provoking conversation with packaging expert Julia Vol. Together they explore challenges and opportunities in sustainable packaging. Discover how circularity begins at the product design stage, and explore innovative solutions like reusable coffee cups and refill stations.
Full transcript
About this transcript
This transcript was automatically generated and may contain inaccuracies, typos, or mistranslations. Episodes recorded before 2024 were transcribed by an on-site model and may have a higher error rate. The content reflects the original conversation to the best of our ability. For the authoritative version, please listen to the audio episode.
Even though we had 30 years of recycling and the last 10 years all the pledges and UN packs, in 2022 the world produced more single-use packaging than ever. We have not solved it yet.
Welcome to the Sustainable Healthcare Podcast. Today we have Julia, an expert on packaging who has been working on it for 10+ years across organizations.
I have been working in sustainability and circularity for 12 years. Started with a master’s in environmental management in Iceland, worked in CSR (a lot of window-dressing back then), then read the early Ellen MacArthur Foundation reports and something clicked — this is business sustainability. I spent over three years working for the EMF on the Isle of Wight, then back to Denmark and worked at Rockwool and Pandora.
What I see is that circularity in business is becoming very focused on materials and reduced to “let’s just do something on the outskirts of the business — change some supplies, use more recycled material, make more recyclable products.” Very narrow engineering solutions. It leaves the social impact and social value generation of circularity out.
Why packaging? It is integral to any product. Whether construction, medical, textile — there is always packaging. It is becoming highly regulated. I also worked for a company manufacturing compostable packaging.
Online shopping changes packaging — going from bulk to retail to individual packaging. The growth rates of online shopping are staggering. So we use more packaging than ever. Despite all the pledges, in 2022 the world produced more single-use packaging than ever.
One problem: companies and governments often use “circularity” as a synonym for recycling. A very narrow definition — close the loop, continue circulating, you are good. But circularity by the EMF definition starts at early design — what product do you design, how, which materials, how it fits into the system. How can the cup last longer? Be maintained? Repaired? Serviced? Only at the very end do you recycle if needed. For many it is easier to see the loop solution. And easier to quantify — “10% recycled content” is easy. Quantifying repair and waste prevented is harder.
Recycling is hard to be against, but the more you produce, the more you can recycle — so in a sense recycling feeds a linear economy. Walter Stahel pointed out that if a product’s turnaround time is short, recycling is hopeless. Aluminium bottles example: if you start in January with one ton of aluminium for bottles, by March you are all out — even with Denmark’s 96% recycling rate.
The history of recycling started in the 1970s with Coca-Cola and the big brands because of backlash on environmental impacts of single-use packaging. There was a US campaign with the “crying Indian” deflecting blame onto the consumer. PET bottles can only be recycled 2-3 times — the most recyclable plastic. All the rest, recycled once into a black bag.
Reuse examples: a Danish company developed a system for coffee cups. In Denmark we use almost two billion single-use cups a year. Their aluminium cup is reusable almost infinite times — an app lets you pick it up from any coffee house and return at any participating one. Reusable water bottles have huge uptake. Airports and shopping malls have refill stations. One London airport refill station told you how much plastic bottles it avoided each refill — great incentive.
People are most susceptible to easier, more convenient, hopefully cheaper. If it is more expensive or less convenient, it is tough to get people on board. The coffee cup works because you do not need to bring it home or wash it — just drop it at the next coffee house.
Two ways of using packaging: essential (medical applications, some food applications to prolong shelf life) and branding-only. You see luxury products where 5-10 grams of product gets boxed, bagged, bowled — 50 g of product and 200 g of packaging. How do consumers allow that? How do regulators allow it?
EU regulation: the Single-Use Plastic Directive already outlines what you can and cannot use. There is a regulatory push for reusable packaging — France by 2027 has to have at least 10% of portfolio as reusable. All packaging has to be recyclable by 2030, and a reduction of packaging waste by 15% by 2040 — way too far away and too little. Some member states (France, Spain) are looking at overpackaging — limiting weight or wasted space (huge box with a pair of socks).
Design principles when starting: reduce amount in general, reuse if possible, look at the function of the packaging — define the function — then decide which packaging, which materials, what is the end-of-use solution. Or create a collaboration with others. Like Novo Nordisk’s collaboration with Sanofi and Merck on injection pens. In the end of the day packaging is used for only a few minutes of the product.
Monomaterials are always better and easier to reuse or recycle. Blister packs have a layer of glue and metal on top — will never get recycled. Innovation: there are fibre-based monomaterials replacing fossil-derived plastics. Rezip in Denmark offers reusable shipping packaging — flat-packs back via mail, piggybacking on empty returning truck legs. Wool-based cold-chain packaging (CoolWool / Wool Cool) replacing styrofoam — bio-based, longer lifecycle, very light, can be repacked the same way.
Future: we see a lot of companies rethinking their packaging — away from single-use plastic, more paper-based with recycled content. But still packaging. Is it always needed? Reduce, reuse, rethink materials, rethink functionality — and only at the end recycle.
Where to look: Plastic Planet, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the innovators. Thank you Julia. We haven’t solved packaging yet — please engage, share, comment.