Sustainability 101: What are virgin plastics?

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Do you are feeling a bit misplaced when individuals discuss with sure environmental sustainability subjects and aren’t certain the place to start out relating to studying extra? Sustainability 101 is a weblog collection which you could flip to for details about completely different environmental phrases which will come up at work, throughout discussions with associates, and even at your annual vacation gathering.

This weblog was written by Nicole Kenney, Program Supervisor, Sustainable Packaging, and Drew Phan, Packaging Engineer.

A woman and a man's photos, side by side — L to R: Nicole Kenney and Drew Phan

As a part of trendy life, many of the merchandise we purchase are available plastic packaging. Whenever you purchase one thing with plastic packaging, you’re in all probability not conscious of what kind of plastic it’s. There’s recycled plastic, which is when recycled bits of plastic are reprocessed into plastic merchandise. And there may be additionally virgin plastic, often known as virgin plastic polymers, which in keeping 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 implies they will take a much bigger toll on the atmosphere.

For the reason that Nineteen Fifties, plastic has overrun the packaging business by offering cheap and lightweight safety for merchandise. Plastic packaging is broadly accessible within the type of standard foams, luggage, and clamshell trays. Over the a long time, this has led to a world construct up of plastic air pollution, since these supplies will not be all the time managed appropriately at finish of use. Though plastics are present in all main municipal stable waste classes, in the USA 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 burden of over 300,000 grey whales. The sheer quantity of waste has led to rising consciousness across the impression of packaging and elevated buyer demand for sustainable options.

On the similar time, a product has little to no worth if it arrives broken. Cisco’s Packaging Engineering division thinks holistically relating to designing Cisco’s packaging with sustainability in thoughts. We’re rethinking product packaging and are sourcing different supplies to plastic. Our technique consists of eliminating plastic luggage in our packaging wherever doable. For instance, we’ve got eliminated plastic packaging from our energy cords, leading to a discount of over 10 million luggage yearly. Work is underway to use the identical efforts throughout further element classes.

Table of Contents

Design for Recyclability

The place we can’t fully take away plastic packaging, we should select 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 subsequent spherical of packaging.

For instance, our plastic thermoform cushions are manufactured from the identical high-density polyethylene materials as milk jugs and might be accepted in the identical plastic curbside recycling stream.* In line with the U.S. Environmental Safety Company (EPA), HDPE (Excessive Density Polyethylene) is among the most continuously recycled plastics in the USA (EPA supply #1).

Within the case of plastic luggage in our accent kits, efforts are underway to make the most of fiber-based paper envelopes and corrugated sleeves which are recyclable. Paper is at the moment the most effective different as a result of it’s the most recycled materials in the USA (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 assets and cut back greenhouse fuel emissions in comparison with manufacturing virgin supplies. Selecting recycled supplies additionally promotes recycling by growing the demand for recycled supplies.

We’re focusing our vitality on recyclable and recycled plastics as a result of, sadly, biodegradable and compostable plastics aren’t effectively fitted to use within the electronics business.

Biodegradable and bio-based are phrases used loosely to explain plastics produced from plant sources. The most important concern for these supplies is that it’s not all the time clear how lengthy it would take for these plastics to interrupt down. Since they’re usually not licensed compostable, they will probably 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 bundle 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 at the moment, 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 during which we cut back the assets we eat 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’ve got a objective for 100% of latest Cisco merchandise and packaging to include Round Design Ideas by fiscal yr 2025.** Utilizing recycled supplies is an instance of considered one of our ideas.

By pursuing our objective to include Round Design Ideas, we will use much less virgin materials, and eat much less materials total. Decreasing our packaging carbon footprint will drive progress in direction of Cisco’s packaging targets (Supply #5).

As we take the mandatory steps to embed Round Design Ideas into our packaging portfolio, it is very important keep in mind that each selection has tradeoffs — there isn’t a one-size suits all answer. Reaching circularity is an iterative course of — what’s greatest for at the moment will not be what’s greatest for tomorrow. But when we stay agile and try for fulfillment, we will proceed to maneuver in a optimistic path in direction of a round financial system.

Observe our Packaging Engineering workforce’s journey as we proceed to evolve our round packaging portfolio (Supply #6).

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* Verify your native municipality for more information.

** In fiscal yr 2022, we had carried out a tender launch of a brand new scoring software that evaluates circularity in merchandise and packaging. We used the tender launch to judge 13% of latest 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 yr 2022 assembly round design standards. In early fiscal 2023, the scoring software was formally launched throughout all enterprise models, and we count on the universe of latest merchandise and packaging evaluated to extend in fiscal 2023.

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Sustainability 101: What are virgin plastics?