Manjushree | Design thinking for plastic waste reduction
Plastic is
a universal material, mass used across applications. In India packaging
accounts for one third of the total plastic consumption. Despite its wide
application and numerous perks, plastic has been largely misunderstood. Out of
all the packaging materials available today, plastic conversion has the least
environmental impact. Here are some facts supporting the point:
1. Using plastics in packaging
applications requires less energy from both renewable and non-renewable energy
sources than substitute materials. The energy saved is equivalent to the energy
needed to fuel 18 million passenger vehicles.
2. In terms of weight, the life cycle
of durable, lightweight plastic packaging, including post-consumer disposal,
results in less solid waste.
3. Production of plastic packaging
consumes significantly less water than alternatives, including in the waste
stream.
4. The production and use of plastic
packaging does not emit as much Green House Gas as other materials. The
emission saved is equivalent to the emission from 8.5 million passenger
vehicles.
The unique
nature of plastics, with its light weight, durability, flexibility, cushioning, and
barrier properties allows plastic packaging to serve its purpose more
efficiently while helping to reduce a variety of environmental impacts. Despite
these important benefits, recognizing the plastic waste problem in the
environment is necessary.
At Manjushree
we are working to build a more circular economy by using our plastics resources
more efficiently, capturing and repurposing more post-use packaging, advancing
recycling and recovery, and developing new transformative business models. We
understand that the real challenge is in the end-of-life management of this
wonder material.
The first
step we have taken towards solving the plastic waste problem is addressing it
right at the inception.
Design
thinking for product life improvement
The design
thinking process for product life improvement is a user-centric process. It
involves redesigning plastic packaging to better its usage for consumers while
making it more environment friendly.
We do this
in two ways, one reduce plastic in the design stage by light weighting or by
redesigning to reduce eliminable packaging components and two improve the
design to extend the useful life of the product, reducing the waste going to
the landfills.
An example
of our commercial plastic waste reduction-oriented design projects is the Protective
Ring on Kinley 20-liter bottles.
The
Kinley Protective Ring
The protective
ring was a design conceptualized and tested in collaboration with Kinley. Kinley
water exemplifies purity. The task at hand was to improve the life of their 20
liter bottles and protect them from deformity caused due to rough handling by
transporters through the multiple cycles of usage. The design of the protective
ring around the shoulder and the base of the bottle was therefore
conceptualized to embody ease of use. We also wanted to help Kinley deliver
their sustainability promise.
The
resulting ring was injection molded in HDPE material to provide sturdiness and
was designed in a manner that it fits snuggly to the shoulder and base of the 20
liter bottles, making it sturdier for the transporter to roll the bottles when
they load and unload it on their vehicles, for multiple cycles of usage. The HDPE
material design makes the ring easily recyclable once it reaches its
end-of-life. The finished look of the ring in blue color reflects Kinley’s
brand presence.
Redesigning
packaging for a lighter footprint
We have
taken multiple plastic reduction projects in our 40 years plus of existence.
Light weighting of packaging is one of our most actively followed plastic
reduction efforts. Our unique designs towards light-weighting are already
proven like Super Shot Neck Jars/Caps is our patented design. We have
introduced lightweight preforms with reduced neck height, that reduced the
weight of the finished preform by 1.4 grams while maintaining the same blow
ratio.
Technologically
we have tested production of packaging using modern material science like the Foaming
Technology. The foaming technology reduces the weight of containers by upto 20
percent depending on the application, while maintaining the same barrier
properties and tensile strength. Our advanced, lightweight plastics used in
multiple products leave a lighter footprint.
Conclusion
With our
extensive experience in converting plastics and borrowing from the various
industry researches, we conclude that when compared to alternatives, the
environmental cost of using plastics is nearly four times less than the costs
of other materials. Switching out plastics in consumer products and packaging with
alternatives that perform the same function would increase environmental costs
from $139 billion to approximately $533 billion annually as identified from a
recent life-cycle analysis by the ’America’s Plastic Makers Alliance’.
In addition
to expanding ways to recover and repurpose plastics, design changes can further
reduce the environmental footprint of plastic packaging. Plastics and plastic
packaging play a far more positive role in the quest for sustainability than
most people recognize. Design thinking for plastic reduction is our
responsibility as packagers to make this universal material, environmentally
sustainable.
