Skinny Swedish Packages A Staple In China
by April Streeter, Gothenburg, Sweden on 11. 8.07
There's always clung to the Tetra Pak a bit of uncertainty regarding its environmental credibility: is it or isn't it green? Tetra Pak recycling rates are lousy, but in at least one life cycle analysis it came out ahead of glass and PET plastic in energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.
Now one of Tetra Pak's heirs, Swede Hans Rausch, has put a lot of money and time behind Ecolean, which might be called Tetra Pak's next generation. Ecolean is a packaging film made of 40 percent calcium carbonate (chalk) and about 60 percent polyolefin (yup, plastic).
The biggest markets for Ecolean thus far have been developing nations, especially China, where demand for dairy products is growing exponentially. But now in Europe Ecolean is getting more shelf space and is even starting to show up in grocery stores in Scandinavia.
Just like with Tetra Pak, it's a little difficult to love Ecolean outright. It looks and feels, well, plasticky. But the package handle, a puffed up air capsule on its side, is kind of nifty. The company sells the machines to fill the packages and the pre-printed film, rather than the patented material itself, and thus far it's only available for cold liquids, as it can't take heat of more than 50 degrees C.
Environmentally, Ecolean's biggest advantage is its low comparative weight - the one-liter package weighs 17 grams, or 45 percent less than the paper gable-top milk cartons you see in most grocery stores (and more than 60 percent less than HDPE plastic). Ecolean also scores better than those paper or HDPE, according to a life-cycle analysis by Franklin Associates, in energy required to manufacture, as well as water pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and production waste from manufacturing.
Unfortunately, on Ecolean's web site the product is never compared to Tetra Pak, which is one of the most common packaging types for dairy and other liquids in Europe. It also isn't really totally recyclable, but rather, similarly to Tetra Pack, is more likely to be downcycled. To really recycle Tetra Pak packages they need to be sent to dedicated mills in Norway and Sweden...can that be CO2 friendly? Ecolean is however, photo biodegradable (needs UV light to start degrading), and will probably become even more popular within the EU as early as next year, when the Netherlands is launching a carbon-based packaging tax. ::Ecolean
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Packages similar to this are in use for many products already in China.
But, guess what?
They are far from eco-friendly as most are made from good old fashioned non-biodegradable and expensive to recycle materials.
Chinese manufacturers will copy the package design, but not integrate any of the Ecolean technology into the copied package.
Profit first, after all.
what does 'photo biodegradable' mean?
The high carbonate levels may mean that incineration will not work without extraordinary heat inputs - creating a higher footprint in doiong so. Remember that outside of North America and Europe landfills are uncommon. This means litter!
Will the higher density from the carbonate mean that the plastic sins in water? Hmmm.
Photo-biodegradable means the package will degrade into natural things (starch etc) when exposed to light. This doesn't help in landfill though.
There is a Tetra-Pak recycling plant in the UK somewhere, a couple of months ago my local council (in London) announced that they can now recycle Tetra-Paks put in kerbside-collected recycling.
The problem with biodegradable plastic is when it contaminates normal plastic in the recycling process, I don't know if there's a solution for this.
as it is mainly made from one material it will probably be better ecyclable than tertea pak that is made from plastic, cardboard and sometimes aluminium. adding up the weight loss this means that on the whole it will be better for the environment (I am not saying it is the best thing but better is always, well.. better)