By Darren Milligan, Vice President / General Manager ASEAN at Avery Dennison 

Today’s generation has deemed single-use plastic packaging one of the necessary evils of our society, and justifiably so with the COVID-19 pandemic bringing to the fore our heavy reliance on this packaging material. We are undoubtedly facing a plastic pollution crisis. Southeast Asia alone generates a combined 31 million tonnes of plastic waste per year from six ASEAN member states. 

In particular, the food and beverage industry has received immense scrutiny and criticism for using single-use packaging. To that end, several FMCG companies with a significant presence in this region, including P&G, Unilever, Nestle and Coca-Cola, have publicly announced commitments to reduce their consumption of virgin plastics and switch to more environmentally friendly forms of packaging. 

Eliminating single-use plastic items might seem like the most viable solution to curb plastic pollution at its source, but such a scenario is neither feasible nor practical in reality. While there are several alternatives to single-use plastic in the market today, including bioplastics and recycled materials, there are still some ways to go for the mainstream adoption of such solutions in terms of their scalability and cost-effectiveness. 

This is not to say that single-use plastics will remain the dominant form of packaging in the years to come. However, achieving this will require critical interventions to be made on two fronts: firstly, lowering the barrier of entry by adopting alternatives to plastic packaging. Secondly, streamlining of the plastic recycling process and making it more efficient to close the plastics loop. In the case of bioplastics, this means ensuring the availability of the proper waste management infrastructure conducive to processing these materials. 

Leveraging innovations to close the plastics loop 

As we strive towards embracing sustainable development, this offers new avenues and pathways to improving the end-of-life treatment for single-use plastics materials and bringing these resources back into the loop. Aided by advancements in technological innovations, we have seen companies make progressive steps in realising their sustainability commitments over the years. 

One of the common obstacles to recycling single-use plastic (PET) bottles is the threat of contamination from traditional pressure-sensitive labels. These are often made of materials that are not easily separable from the PET container during the recycling process. Furthermore, the adhesive used on the labels and the labels itself can also introduce contaminants into the recycling process, such as ink, dyes, and coatings. 

However, with technological advancements, there are solutions on the market today that can help FMCG companies to overcome such challenges. These include solutions such as Eastman Embrace Encore, UPM Raflatac RafCycle and Avery Dennison’s CleanFlake™ technology – a next-generation solution for film labels that facilitates their efficient separation from label waste during the recycling process. Designed to support the recycling of both PET and HDPE packaging through a clean removal of the pressure-sensitive label from the container during the recycling process, the latest CleanFlake enhancement also features a repositioning capability, meaning incorrectly applied labels can be cleanly removed from the PET substrate, which can then be relabelled, saving the container and its content from being wasted. 

Beyond helping brands meet their sustainability targets in compliance with the regulatory requirements, adopting such solutions will increase the availability of food-grade recycled materials critical to plastic circularity and reduce waste in the production line. 

Building confidence in brands’ sustainability claims on single-use plastics 

Companies in the food and beverage industry have increasingly started to publicly disclose the progress made on their sustainability claims to combat the threat of greenwashing accusations. This is where independent third-party organisations such as The Carbon Trust play an instrumental role in validating a company’s efforts to reduce its carbon footprint and improve sustainability performance across the value chain. 

The access to a suite of services and tools, including carbon footprint tool, better positions companies to drive continuous improvement in environmental impact measurement and reporting on its products. 

This is especially useful for companies supporting the food and beverage industry as it provides greater certainty for guidance on product selection and new product development. This will naturally have a multiplier effect in boosting the sustainability efforts of the FMCG companies as the end-users of such products. 

The momentum around sustainability in the food and beverage industry continues to accelerate alongside the growing popularity of alternative packaging materials. Nevertheless, the mainstream adoption of such solutions will be contingent on their potential to be commercialised at scale. 

In the meantime, it remains necessary that the plastic recycling industry develops in tandem and innovations that enable the recycling of single-use plastics will become increasingly critical to close the loop. It is equally important that the food and beverage industry promotes a culture of trust and transparency in building a more sustainable ecosystem.