Do you’re feeling a bit misplaced when folks seek advice from sure environmental sustainability matters and aren’t positive the place to start out with regards to studying extra? Sustainability 101 is a weblog collection you can flip to for details about completely different environmental phrases that will come up at work, throughout discussions with pals, and even at your annual vacation gathering.
This weblog was written by Nicole Kenney, Program Supervisor, Sustainable Packaging, and Drew Phan, Packaging Engineer.
As a part of trendy life, a lot of the merchandise we purchase are available in plastic packaging. Once you purchase one thing with plastic packaging, you’re most likely not conscious of what kind of plastic it’s. There may be recycled plastic, which is when recycled bits of plastic are reprocessed into plastic merchandise. And there’s additionally virgin plastic, also referred to as virgin plastic polymers, which in accordance with a 2022 report, means “newly manufactured resin produced from petrochemical or biomass feedstock used because the uncooked materials for the manufacture of plastic merchandise and which has by no means been used or processed earlier than.”
Primarily, virgin plastics are manufactured from beforehand unused supplies, which suggests they’ll take a much bigger toll on the atmosphere.
Because the Fifties, plastic has overrun the packaging business by offering cheap and lightweight safety for merchandise. Plastic packaging is broadly out there within the type of standard foams, baggage, and clamshell trays. Over the many years, this has led to a worldwide construct up of plastic air pollution, since these supplies will not be all the time managed accurately at finish of use. Though plastics are present in all main municipal strong waste classes, in the US the containers and packaging class had essentially the most plastic tonnage at over 14.5 million tons in 2018 alone (EPA Supply #1). That’s equal to the load of over 300,000 grey whales. The sheer quantity of waste has led to rising consciousness across the influence of packaging and elevated buyer demand for sustainable alternate options.
On the similar time, a product has little to no worth if it arrives broken. Cisco’s Packaging Engineering division thinks holistically with regards to designing Cisco’s packaging with sustainability in thoughts. We’re rethinking product packaging and are sourcing different supplies to plastic. Our technique contains eliminating plastic baggage in our packaging wherever attainable. For instance, we now have eliminated plastic packaging from our energy cords, leading to a discount of over 10 million baggage yearly. Work is underway to use the identical efforts throughout extra part classes.
Design for Recyclability
The place we can’t utterly take away plastic packaging, we should select alternate options with a smaller environmental footprint. This implies choosing recyclable supplies which are simply separated and broadly accepted in curbside recycling streams. As soon as these supplies are recovered, they are often damaged down and re-processed into the feedstock for the following spherical of packaging.
For instance, our plastic thermoform cushions are product of the identical high-density polyethylene materials as milk jugs and may be accepted in the identical plastic curbside recycling stream.* In line with the U.S. Environmental Safety Company (EPA), HDPE (Excessive Density Polyethylene) is likely one of the most regularly recycled plastics in the US (EPA supply #1).
Within the case of plastic baggage in our accent kits, efforts are underway to make the most of fiber-based paper envelopes and corrugated sleeves which are recyclable. Paper is presently the very best different as a result of it’s the most recycled materials in the US (EPA supply #2).
Select Recycled Supplies
Recycled supplies are completely different from recyclable supplies in that recycled packaging has a proportion of fabric inputs which have already been damaged down and reprocessed after use. By incorporating extra recycled content material into our packaging, we preserve priceless sources and scale back greenhouse gasoline emissions in comparison with manufacturing virgin supplies. Selecting recycled supplies additionally promotes recycling by growing the demand for recycled supplies.
We’re focusing our power on recyclable and recycled plastics as a result of, sadly, biodegradable and compostable plastics aren’t properly fitted to use within the electronics business.
Biodegradable and bio-based are phrases used loosely to explain plastics constituted of plant sources. The most important concern for these supplies is that it isn’t all the time clear how lengthy it’s going to take for these plastics to interrupt down. Since they’re typically not licensed compostable, they’ll doubtlessly leech toxins into the soil. (SPC supply #3)
With regards to compostable packaging, the U.S. Federal Commerce Fee (FTC) Inexperienced Guides clarify that this packaging have to be licensed with “competent and dependable scientific proof that each one supplies within the product or package deal will break down into — or change into a part of — usable compost safely and in about the identical time because the supplies with which it’s composted” (FTC supply #4). That is good for natural waste like meals scraps, grass clippings and yard waste. However presently, the shorter shelf lifetime of compostable packaging makes it higher fitted to meals packaging than the electronics business.
A round technique
We’re evolving to a extra round mannequin through which we scale back the sources we devour and the waste we generate. With this strategy, we attempt to prioritize supplies with recycled content material; design merchandise for useful resource effectivity; and facilitate restore, remanufacturing, and recycling to increase product life. That’s why we now have a purpose for 100% of recent Cisco merchandise and packaging to include Round Design Rules by fiscal 12 months 2025.** Utilizing recycled supplies is an instance of one among our rules.
By pursuing our purpose to include Round Design Rules, we will use much less virgin materials, and devour much less materials general. Decreasing our packaging carbon footprint will drive progress in direction of Cisco’s packaging objectives (Supply #5).
As we take the mandatory steps to embed Round Design Rules into our packaging portfolio, you will need to keep in mind that each alternative has tradeoffs — there is no such thing as a one-size suits all answer. Reaching circularity is an iterative course of — what’s greatest for right this moment might not be what’s greatest for tomorrow. But when we stay agile and try for fulfillment, we will proceed to maneuver in a optimistic course in direction of a round economic system.
Comply with our Packaging Engineering group’s journey as we proceed to evolve our round packaging portfolio (Supply #6).
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* Test your native municipality for more information.
** In fiscal 12 months 2022, we had performed a gentle launch of a brand new scoring device that evaluates circularity in merchandise and packaging. We used the gentle launch to guage 13% of recent merchandise and packaging, and located that 33% of them efficiently met our round design standards. That is equal to 4% of whole new merchandise and packaging launched in fiscal 12 months 2022 assembly round design standards. In early fiscal 2023, the scoring device was formally launched throughout all enterprise items, and we count on the universe of recent merchandise and packaging evaluated to extend in fiscal 2023.
SOURCES:
- Plastics: Materials-Particular Knowledge | US EPA
- Paper and Paperboard: Materials-Particular Knowledge | US EPA
- Public_SPC-Place-Statement_Biodegradable-Packaging.pdf (sustainablepackaging.org)
- Environmental Claims: Abstract of the Inexperienced Guides | Federal Commerce Fee (ftc.gov)
- Environmental Targets – Cisco ESG Hub
- Cisco Sustainable Packaging – Cisco
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