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Do you are feeling a bit misplaced when folks seek advice from sure environmental sustainability subjects and aren’t positive the place to start out on the subject of studying extra? Sustainability 101 is a weblog sequence that you could flip to for details about completely different environmental phrases which will come up at work, throughout discussions with buddies, and even at your annual vacation gathering.
This weblog was written by Nicole Kenney, Program Manager, Sustainable Packaging, and Drew Phan, Packaging Engineer.
As a part of trendy life, many of the merchandise we purchase are available in plastic packaging. When you purchase one thing with plastic packaging, you’re in all probability not conscious of what kind of plastic it’s. There is 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 response to a 2022 report, means “newly manufactured resin produced from petrochemical or biomass feedstock used as the raw material for the manufacture of plastic products and which has never been used or processed before.”
Essentially, virgin plastics are manufactured from beforehand unused supplies, which implies they’ll take an even bigger toll on the surroundings.
Since the Nineteen Fifties, plastic has overrun the packaging business by offering cheap and lightweight safety for merchandise. Plastic packaging is extensively obtainable within the type of typical 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 usually are not all the time managed appropriately at finish of use. Although plastics are present in all main municipal stable waste classes, within the United States the containers and packaging class had essentially the most plastic tonnage at over 14.5 million tons in 2018 alone (EPA Source #1). That is equal to the burden 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 options.
At the identical time, a product has little to no worth if it arrives broken. Cisco’s Packaging Engineering division thinks holistically on the subject of designing Cisco’s packaging with sustainability in thoughts. We are rethinking product packaging and are sourcing different supplies to plastic. Our technique consists of eliminating plastic luggage in our packaging wherever potential. As an instance, we now have 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 extra element classes.
Design for Recyclability
Where we can’t fully take away plastic packaging, we should select options with a smaller environmental footprint. This means choosing recyclable supplies which can be simply separated and extensively accepted in curbside recycling streams. Once these supplies are recovered, they are often damaged down and re-processed into the feedstock for the following spherical of packaging.
As an instance, our plastic thermoform cushions are fabricated from the identical high-density polyethylene materials as milk jugs and will be accepted in the identical plastic curbside recycling stream.* According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) is likely one of the most ceaselessly recycled plastics within the United States (EPA supply #1).
In 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 can be recyclable. Paper is at present the perfect different as a result of it’s the most recycled materials within the United States (EPA supply #2).
Choose Recycled Materials
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 invaluable sources and scale back greenhouse gasoline emissions in comparison with manufacturing virgin supplies. Choosing recycled supplies additionally promotes recycling by growing the demand for recycled supplies.
We are focusing our vitality on recyclable and recycled plastics as a result of, sadly, biodegradable and compostable plastics aren’t properly suited to use within the electronics business.
Biodegradable and bio-based are phrases used loosely to explain plastics constructed from plant sources. The greatest concern for these supplies is that it’s not all the time clear how lengthy it can take for these plastics to interrupt down. Since they’re typically not licensed compostable, they’ll probably leech toxins into the soil. (SPC supply #3)
When it involves compostable packaging, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Green Guides clarify that this packaging have to be licensed with “competent and reliable scientific evidence that all materials in the product or package will break down into — or become part of — usable compost safely and in about the same time as the materials with which it is composted” (FTC supply #4). This is nice for natural waste like meals scraps, grass clippings and yard waste. But at present, the shorter shelf lifetime of compostable packaging makes it higher suited to meals packaging than the electronics business.
A round technique
We are evolving to a extra round mannequin by 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 Circular Design Principles by fiscal 12 months 2025.** Using recycled supplies is an instance of one in all our rules.
By pursuing our purpose to include Circular Design Principles, we are able to use much less virgin materials, and devour much less materials total. Reducing our packaging carbon footprint will drive progress in direction of Cisco’s packaging targets (Source #5).
As we take the required steps to embed Circular Design Principles into our packaging portfolio, you will need to do not forget that each alternative has tradeoffs — there is no such thing as a one-size suits all answer. Achieving circularity is an iterative course of — what’s greatest for right now will not be what’s greatest for tomorrow. But if we stay agile and attempt for achievement, we are able to proceed to maneuver in a optimistic course in direction of a round financial system.
Follow our Packaging Engineering workforce’s journey as we proceed to evolve our round packaging portfolio (Source #6).
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* Check your native municipality for more information.
** In fiscal 12 months 2022, we had performed a smooth launch of a brand new scoring device that evaluates circularity in merchandise and packaging. We used the smooth launch to judge 13% of recent merchandise and packaging, and located that 33% of them efficiently met our round design standards. This is equal to 4% of complete 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 models, and we count on the universe of recent merchandise and packaging evaluated to extend in fiscal 2023.
SOURCES:
- Plastics: Material-Specific Data | US EPA
- Paper and Paperboard: Material-Specific Data | US EPA
- Public_SPC-Position-Statement_Biodegradable-Packaging.pdf (sustainablepackaging.org)
- Environmental Claims: Summary of the Green Guides | Federal Trade Commission (ftc.gov)
- Environmental Goals – Cisco ESG Hub
- Cisco Sustainable Packaging – Cisco
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