Category: GreenBlue

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Pharmaceutical and Biopolymers ILCs launch at SPC Advance

As one of the first working sessions to kick-off SPC Advance, the combined pharmaceutical and biopolymers brainstorming sessions generated a number of innovative ideas and set-up the process for members to engage in the two projects moving forward. There was interesting overlap in these two initiatives as both the pharmaceutical and biopolymer industries are utilizing cutting-edge technologies and present significant opportunities for innovation. We are very excited to now have both of these new ILCs off the ground and running!
Members shared a number of innovative ideas during pharmaceutical packaging brainstorming session with everyone agreeing that there are real sustainability gains to be made in both material sourcing and recovery areas of the value chain. Cold chain packaging was described by members as an example  where there is a need for solid thinking and supply chain collaboration around how to recover and/or reuse materials. The group also  discussed the need for dialogue across the supply chain, new initiatives drugstore companies are exploring, medical/hospital waste needs, and over-the-counter bottle and label recovery. It was an excellent brainstorming session that helped define the focus area (or areas) of the ILC as we move forward.
In the fascinating and emerging world of biopolymers, attendees  heard a number of valuable insights from members, most of all concerning the need for better education in the marketplace. For example, the prevailing (and incorrect) thinking that feedstocks for biopolymers necessarily disrupt what would otherwise be a food supply. Not the case. Biopolymer feedstocks are often residual material that normally gets sent to the landfill. But more than anything else, the discussion was very much focused on the potential that biopolymers present and the exciting opportunity that the SPC member companies have in exploring ways to bring these materials to the mainstream and leverage environmental benefits.
Thank you to Rob Fitzgerald, Director of Sustainable Packaging, The Estee Lauder Companies Inc.; and Owen Schultz, Vice President of Business Development, Earth Renewable for volunteering as co-chairs of the Biopolymers Working Group. Also thank you to Jason Sawicki, Senior Manager Operational Excellence and Packaging, Genentech; and Guy Gagnon of Ecolopharm for volunteering as co-chairs of the the Pharma Packaging Working Group.
Companies signed up to the Pharmaceutical Packaging and Biopolymers Working Group should look for invitations to the first conference calls to be held for each group in early November.
Through strong member support, an informed and science-based approach, supply chain collaborations and continuous outreach, the goal of the Pharmaceutical Packaging and Biopolymers Working Group is to understand the benefits, identify roadblocks and challenges, and develop solutions to bring innovations to market in a meaningful way.
 

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GreenBlue Sustainable Packaging Coalition

Brand owners provide insights into moving sustainability forward within their companies

Brad Rogers (PepsiCo), Julie Zaniewski (Unilever), Amy Duquette (Havi Global Solutions), Kim Carswell (Target), and Nina Goodrich (SPC & GreenBlue) during the Setting the Agenda panel.

Attendees at the last session of SPC Advance heard honest responses from leading brand owners on how they are moving sustainable packaging forward within their companies. Panelists Kim Carswell from Target, Brad Rodgers from PepsiCo, Amy Duquette from HAVI Global Solutions, and Julie Zaniewski from Unilever were presented with an array of questions from the moderator, SPC Director, Nina Goodrich.
Weeks prior to the SPC Advance, SPC staff convened to brainstorm the questions that would be used during this panel. It was a fun process, and since then I had been looking forward to this panel. My expectations were exceeded as the panelists offered genuine responses and insights on sustainability from their experiences at their Fortune 500 companies.
Here are a few highlights that stuck with me:
“Packaging is a gateway to our consumers,” stated Kim Carswell, an eloquent description of how a brand owner could view packaging. Carswell went on saying that Target likes to give consumers alternative options for the products/packaging end-of-life, instead of the materials having to go to landfill. Target is constantly asking how its designs influence end-of-life.
Similarly, Amy Duquette from HAVI (which represents the packaging department of McDonald’s) said that packaging is the consumer’s last experience with the brand and that experience should be as positive as possible. Through mechanics such as the How2Recyle Label, brands can empower consumers to do the right thing, in this case recycle packaging. Amy Duquette expressed that it can often take a long time to get changes made (in this case getting the How2Recycle label on McDonald’s packaging) so you have to have realistic expectations. Companies have many internal steps which can cause obstacles when moving sustainability forward.
Correspondingly, when asked, “How do you get stuff done in your companies when it comes to sustainability?” Brad Rodgers from PepsiCo and Julie Zaniewski from Unilever agreed that their companies are fortunate to have CEOs who are committed to sustainability however that is not the whole answer. At such large, diverse companies it is critical to engage employees at every level. One person’s definition is usually at odds with another person’s s therefore it’s important to provide employees with a common definition of sustainable packaging. Once there is a common definition within  the company, employees can begin to evaluate their products based on that criteria. For example, Julie Zaniewski mentioned that among cost savings and quality, sustainability can become another checkpoint on the list, leading project managers to answer the question “how does this affect the footprint?” Building on to employee engagement, Kim Carswell offered great advice to “socialize the work internally.” Kim offered a personal lesson learned to pause and layout the framework and intent so you have a greater sense of where you are going and the outcome you want to achieve.
In conclusion, a company can move sustainability forward in a variety of ways. Decisions on how to move forward need to be looked at from a diversity of perspectives and holistically. That is why sustainability can be so hard to grasp because it is all encompassing; companies have to think about sourcing, costs of materials, employee knowledge/education, unintended consequences, social and environmental impacts, recovery, reuse feasibility and so on. But it starts with one step. These steps could be visually displaying a common definition of sustainable packaging, putting into place procurement policies, such as purchasing a certain percentage of recycled content, educating staff on sustainability (SPC’s ESP course is a great resource to do this), or initiate a take-back program. I gathered that the end goal is to be holistic throughout the supply chain and collaboration among the different levels is what moves sustainable packaging forward.

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GreenBlue diverts waste at local music festival

The rainy weather didn’t stop the GreenBlue team from diverting waste from the landfill at a local music festival in Charlottesville, Va earlier this month12063541_743428787457_8661497749450800568_n.
GreenBlue approached the Tom Tom Fall Block Party organizers to start a composting initiative at one of the biggest festivals in Charlottesville. Luckily the festival was open to the proposal and GreenBlue was able to work with local composting hauler, Black Bear Composting, to begin collecting food waste, paper products, and compostable foodservice products from Tom Tom Fall Block Party.
We at GreenBlue love sharing our passion with the community and getting to do on-the-ground environmental work. During the two-day event, we collected eight 65-gallon bins of materials that totaled up to 240 pounds of diverted waste!
According to Black Bear Composting, by separating your organics to be composted, you are:

  • Saving resources – Landfill space is a finite resource with growing demand. Composting saves valuable landfill space for actual trash.
  • Reducing greenhouse gases – When organics decompose in landfills they create methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than CO2

With the help of a couple dedicated volunteers we were able to not only help compost at the festival, but also educate the community about what composting is, why it’s important, and what items are compostable.
We have high hopes that we will be able to continue scaling up composting efforts in our hometown in tandem with the successful Scaling up Composting in Charlotte pilot project that is wrapping up this month.

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Re-Thinking Acronyms: A Look At EPR In Canada

In October 2009, the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) approved a Canada-wide Action Plan for Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). EPR is an environmental policy approach in which a producer’s responsibility for a product is extended to the post-consumer stage of that product’s lifecycle. EPR had visibility on Day 2 of SPC Advance in Charlotte, where an invigorating panel of experts on Canadian EPR discussed the latest developments across Canada and the efforts in one Province to evolve resource recovery under EPR.
Canada is a global leader in EPR, with many of Canada’s 10 provinces and territories already on-board with an established EPR program or working to transition municipally-led programs into full EPR programs. Participating provinces distribute responsibility between industry or municipality in various ways. For example, Manitoba has had an 80/20 shared responsibility between industry and municipality, respectively, since 2010. In 2014, industry producers took on 100% responsibility for packaging and printed paper waste diversion across British Columbia.
At the conference, one of the key quotes from the panel came from Al Metauro, President & CEO of Cascades Recovery, Inc. “Doing the same things and expecting the same outcomes is insanity”, referring to waste management approaches that underperform in meeting the recovery needs of the changing waste stream. Packaging formats have drastically changed in the past 10 years, and often the new packaging formats are difficult to capture with machinery and systems designed for waste streams of the past. In British Columbia, the aim has become re-engineering the recovery system with EPR as a catalyst for progress benefiting industries, municipalities, and consumers.
Successful EPR in British Columbia involves a key partnership between Multi-Material BC (MMBC), the non-profit organization managing the Province’s residential recycling program, and Green by Nature (GBN), the group contracted to manage the entire post-collection system for the Province. Funded entirely by industry, MMBC services 1.24 million homes and multi-family dwellings, operates over 200 recycling depots and drop-off locations, and introduces curbside recycling programs to more and more communities across British Columbia. While MMBC still faces the tough realities confronting material recoverers and recyclers across the world — such as volatile commodity markets and pressure to keep stewardship fees stable -— the transition to industry-led packaging and paper product recovery has proven successful and worthwhile in other ways. People are often uneasy of change, but MMBC has seen nearly 75% of residents stating that the new system either meets or exceeds their expectations, with many believing that it’s improved. High approval ratings and resident satisfaction are reflected in their diversion figures, with about 116,000 tonnes collected within the first 7.5 months of operation in 2014. Notably, this includes expanded polystyrene, which is widely unrecyclable in the United States.
Partnering with MMBC who collects the materials from curbside or drop-off locations, GBN re-engineers the systems and optimizes data to better inform industry partners. By tracking data on recovered materials, GBN is positioned to work with supply chain partners (such as brand owners) to understand if their products are recovered, to identify areas for improvements, and to facilitate productive conversations.
By seizing the opportunity to re-engineer and redesign recovery systems on a Province-wide scale, the collaboration between MMBC and GNB demonstrates the success and potential of EPR to not only recover more, but to transform the way we approach brand owners and packaging companies as invaluable partners rather than wrongdoers at fault. Thus far, the partnership in British Columbia is successful with an 80% diversion rate that exceeded the required Provincial recovery rate by 5% in its first year of operation.
Perhaps what we at the Sustainable Packaging Coalition need to do is expand our alphabet soup acronyms and consider EPR to mean Every Package Recycled.

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Environmental Trade Offs: A look at the sustainability of bag-in-box packaging

As more companies incorporate environmental sustainability into their business practices and long-term corporate goals, there are often trade offs and compromises between environmental and economic desires. A company’s primary drivers may or may not align with environmentally beneficial choices, and companies often straddle that delicate line between seemingly incompatible objectives. Ideally, they end up going for the best possible choice that meets both their economic and environmental desires, as well as their consumer’s needs.
BigBox_504x672Recently, Aristocrat Vodka unveiled their new bag-in-box (BiB) packaging design, which uses a plastic pouch and spout housed within a waxed cardboard box. The benefit of the BiB design is that the packaging holds more than double the volume as their traditional 750 ml bottle, so shipping becomes more efficient by volume, which may result in better fuel efficiency. Typically, the BiB design – commonly used for dispensing large volumes of liquids – consists of a flexible plastic pouch or bladder with a plastic spout housed within a corrugated cardboard box. The wine industry noticeably popularized this packaging in the past few decades. Companies have issued LCA studies for BiB packaging in comparison to other conventional packaging option for liquids – including PET bottles, LDPE bottles, aseptic bottles and glass bottles – and many studies have concluded that BiB packaging is environmentally competitive, and in many cases superior to, other commonly available packaging formats. Also, BiB packaging makes wine and other spirits a feasible option for large outdoor events, particularly if glass is prohibited. It’s generally viewed as a sustainability success when BiB packaging eliminates bulky materials, ships more efficiently, and adds consumer value.
But the individual components of the package reveal a more nuanced narrative in the switchover from the plastic bottle to the BiB package. On one hand, the plastic pouch uses less material, contributing to an overall reduction of plastic, but the caveat is that the flexible plastic pouch is not as widely recyclable as the plastic bottle in most communities. The flexible plastic pouch in the BiB packaging is a composite #7 plastic, whereas the plastic used for the traditional 750 ml bottle is PET, which is more widely accepted and recycled across the country. In 2013, EPA concluded that about 29.8% (75.8 million tons) of the MSW stream is packaging waste. Of that, about 18% (13.98 million tons) is plastic packaging waste and 27% (3.78 million tons) of all plastic packaging waste in the MSW stream is flexible plastic wraps, bags, and sacks. The majority of flexible packaging waste ends up in landfills because it’s often composed of multiple resins that are difficult to separate and because recyclers do not have the capabilities to accurately capture composite films and pouches.
Just as important to BiB packaging as the plastic pouch interior, the material of the exterior shell contributes to a package’s overall recyclability. However, unlike boxed wine packaging that uses a clean, corrugated cardboard exterior that’s fully recyclable, Aristocrat Vodka chose a waxed cardboard exterior. What are the benefits of this design? Waxed cardboard, which has been treated, coated, or saturated with wax, provides a waterproof barrier for moisture control. This feature allows consumers to either freeze or fill their boxes with ice to chill the product to temperatures more suitable for consumption.
While the chillable packaging offers consumer convenience, waxed cardboard is not considered recyclable by the majority of paper mills across the country because non water-soluble wax coatings will eventually create problems in the repulping process. While paper mills can handle a small amount of wax, they generally prefer clean cardboard and paper that is free of coatings, films, and liners; these substances will adhere and persist through the pulping process, impacting the longevity of mill equipment and contaminating the final product. From a market standpoint, it’s more challenging for a paper mill to produce high-grade product when the feedstock includes waxed cardboard that can cause imperfections, particularly when the residual wax and additives decrease tensile strength and reduce tear resistance. Wax chips also result in spots and can inhibit inks from drying properly on the final product. Since paper mills prefer clean corrugated cardboard, many communities have explicitly banned waxed cardboard from their recycling collection stream.
Fortunately, waxed cardboard is recoverable as organic waste and useful as feedstock for backyard composting. Additionally, there are new technologies that allow paper mills to process waxed cardboard, including a series of washers that separate a significant amount of wax. But access to these technologies and facilities is still largely limited. While 47 alternative wax coatings currently available on the market have undergone testing by the Fibre Box Association to be deemed “recyclable”, wax alternatives still have some limitations. They often only mimic certain characteristics of standard wax coatings, and they may not meet all performance criteria (temperature, moisture, light, oxygen) in the same way that standard wax meets all these criteria across the board. Nevertheless, recyclability of the BiB packaging could be improved if it used an alternative wax coating. Until economic feasibility exists for expanded use of these wax-processing technologies and wax alternatives, manufacturers, brand owners, and consumers should expand their knowledge about beneficial disposal options for waxed cardboard.
BiB packaging certainly facilitates more efficient shipping and offers certain consumer benefits such as portability. Despite the potential benefits, Aristocrat Vodka’s BiB package is a lost opportunity to offer a recyclable package. It’s encouraging that a major brand like Aristocrat Vodka is pushing for creative packaging that could move the liquor and spirits market toward more widely utilized sustainable packaging options, but work remains to pinpoint the best solutions that meet environmental sustainability, economic preferability, and consumer needs.

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Scaling Up Composting in the Charlotte region

By Ryan Cooper, LEED GA, Project Associate of the SPC. 138x138xRyan-Cooper-headshot-e1436541175621.jpg.pagespeed.ic.Uv-2bWd7Xv
With funding from U.S. EPA Region 4, Mecklenburg County, the University of North Carolina, Charlotte (UNCC) IDEAS Center, and in-kind contributions from Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC) member dues, nonprofits GreenBlue and Elemental Impact, in cooperation with UNCC and composter Earth Farms Organics, are Scaling Up Composting in the Charlotte Region. The SPC is providing the initial funding for food waste generators to separate kitchen scraps and other organic materials from their trash. GreenBlue’s SPC recently recruited the Carolina Panthers franchise as a participant in this exciting program!test 01 (1)
The project aims to identify best practices for diversion of food waste from the landfill. The SPC will also provide local governments and businesses with a deeper understanding of the challenges and solutions associated with organics recycling. Data will be collected and analyzed for the weight and composition of the organic material, as well as the financial implications of participating in food waste collection.
Earth Farms Organics provides technical assistance, hauling services, and composting capacity for interested parties to recycle their organic residuals. Earth Farms’ proven success had already attracted many key stakeholders in the region, with names like Dole, Nestle, and Lance. Mecklenburg County also started a food waste collection pilot in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School system, which has 164 schools and 144,000 students. In addition to the Panthers, the SPC has made it possible for the YMCA, Carolina Place Mall, and the Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC) to start composting. The SPC also successfully recruited the Food Lion grocery store chain, with 100 locations in Mecklenburg County alone.
With help from Rick Lombardo at Natur-Tec and Sarah Martell at Innovia Films, the SPC gathered current curricula related to sustainable materials management and composting, as well as completed a composting lesson plan, for Nicolette Torres’ 6th Grade Environmental Science Class at Metrolina Regional Scholars Academy. The SPC is also working on coordinating waste diversion at Metrolina as a three-bin package (compost, recycling, and landfill trash).
At Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC), the SPC provided funding to start food waste diversion at the Harris campus and purchase compostable liners. The SPC also coordinated donation by Rubbermaid for “slim jim” bins.
Working with Earth Farms Organics, the SPC provided compost bins for attendees and food vendors at the South End Hops Festival. GreenBlue is working with Mecklenburg County to enhance their support for recycling and composting at larger, and especially smaller, events around the city. The SPC is also collaborating with Mecklenburg County and CMS to gain an understanding of their innovative program and where improvements can be made.
Tyler Gilkerson, a geology student at UNCC, was welcomed to this project in April of 2015. Tyler immediately perceived this project as an opportunity to make a positive impact on his hometown’s environment and community. As the son of a geologist and grandson of a farmer, Tyler grew up learning the importance of responsible waste management and fostering healthy soils. Prior to UNCC, Tyler attended Guilford College, where he became an integral part of his institution’s on-campus, organic production farm and food waste diversion program. Upon graduating in 2012, Agromatters, LLC, formed by Tyler and his father, was awarded a contract to co-manage the Guilford Farm and a small Type III composting operation. With hopes of applying this sustainable, “closed-loop” concept to a municipal scale, they began operating a large Type I composting facility in Cabarrus County. Tyler has since decided to postpone his business pursuits and focus on his formal education. Tyler ultimately aims to apply the lessons he has learned during this project to a career involving pollution prevention and remediation of essential natural resources.
Tyler has been using the Re-TRAC Connect program to analyze the weight data of participants’ food waste. Waste characterizations by Gilkerson had begun at participating CMS schools before the school year ended, examining the volume, density, and rate of contamination in the food scraps. The most exciting waste characterization so far might have been at the Bank of America Stadium after the CONCACAF Gold Cup soccer match.
Information about the grant program was featured in the May issue of BioCycle magazine, the industry journal for composting. The SPC is currently working with the YMCA on bringing in additional campuses as well as adding front-of-house composting collection.
Anne Bedarf, Program Manager at the SPC, is the principal investigator of the grant. However, with Anne out on maternity leave, Ryan Cooper, LEED GA, Project Associate with the SPC, has taken the helm. Ryan has extensive experience in using compost for organic farming and horticulture, started a small Type III compost facility at the Penland School of Crafts in western North Carolina, and worked with the City of Asheville, NC, to develop a feasibility study for curbside residential food waste collection. His thesis reviewed organics recycling programs in municipalities throughout Europe and North America. He writes regularly for BioCycle magazine.
Challenges for food waste generators include space, labor, cost, and logistics such as ramps on loading docks that facilitate the removal of rolling food waste carts. New management can also step in and put an end to existing waste diversion programs. Difficulty with implementing front-of-house compostable packaging solutions include concerns about the difficulty of replacing currently used food service ware, contamination, and cost. Many times, it seems that an unseen bureaucracy can stop a potential participant from joining the program.
However, the recent site visit and operations tour of IKEA, a program participant, was an impressive example of the success that businesses and institutions can achieve by diverting their food waste. Outreach via calls and email to address problems, providing resources to disprove perceived issues, trials with compostable materials, and persistence in communications and value proposition can overcome the common challenges.
GreenBlue strategic ally Elemental Impact,5LM07VQt a national non-profit based in Atlanta, recently visited Charlotte for a series of follow-up meetings with shopping malls, stadiums, a conference facility, and other key stakeholders. SPC Project Associate, Ryan Cooper attended these meetings, organized by Ei Founder Holly Elmore, on recycling refinement, including food waste collection for compost. “The recent Elemental Impact trip to Charlotte was incredibly successful” said Cooper.
The EPA Region 4 grant team is now planning for the SPC Advance session detailing the results of this project in Charlotte on October 8, 2015. In addition to adding more participants to this successful program, Ryan Cooper will be busy compiling the final report for the EPA, his presentation for SPC Advance, and a BioCycle article detailing the results of the project.
Ryan has extensive experience in using compost for organic farming and horticulture, has started a small Type III compost facility at the Penland School of Crafts in western North Carolina, and has worked with the City of Asheville, NC, to develop a feasibility study for curbside residential food waste collection. His thesis reviewed organics recycling programs in municipalities throughout Europe and North America. He also writes regularly for BioCycle magazine.
 

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Introducing our new Project Associate, Rosemary!

Rosemary Han, SPC Project Associate

Tell us about your background
I’m from Richmond, Virginia but originally grew up in New York, where I have childhood memories of helping my mom sort plastic and glass recyclables at our local grocery store’s reverse vending machines. I think that’s where my love affair with recycling began. In 2012, I completed my undergraduate studies at the University of Virginia, where I had the opportunity to work closely with the recycling department as a student employee. During my time there, I learned about pressing sustainability issues and implemented change through student-led and grant-funded projects focused on recycling and zero-waste initiatives. This experience, paired with my summertime job as a crew member for Clean Vibes, a recycling and waste management service provider for outdoor music festivals, cemented my desire to pursue a career in environmental sustainability. Prior to joining GreenBlue in July 2015, I worked for an environmental consulting firm supporting U.S. EPA and the Superfund Redevelopment program.
Why were you interested in working with GreenBlue?
I had known about GreenBlue for several years and always admired the company’s work. My prior experiences with recycling and composting exposed me to the end-of-life handling of materials, and I became curious to fully grasp the lifecycle of those materials from beginning to end. I learned about GreenBlue’s approach with closed loop systems and valued its research on sustainable packaging. Though there are many inherent complexities to environmental sustainability, GreenBlue proves to be a leader in tackling the issues, sparking dialogue among industry, and creating beneficial tools and resources. Beyond the subject matter of its  work, I also appreciate the company’s enthusiasm to investigate new approaches and implement innovative ideas.
What are you most looking forward to working on at GreenBlue?
I’m looking forward to engaging with a diverse array of stakeholders through the Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC). More specifically, I’m excited to work with various members of the SPC in assessing industry trends and corporate sustainability goals. I’m also looking forward to challenging myself to learn new things within GreenBlue’s wide breadth of work and having opportunities to learn from my fellow GreenBlue colleagues who have subject matter expertise in niche topics.
Fun facts about yourself?
I am a volunteer on-air host for WTJU, the local non-commercial radio station here in Charlottesville. It’s a great way to share my passion for music and connect with the local community!
I’m fluent in French and have studied abroad in a few francophone countries, including France, Senegal, and Morocco.

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Why Aren’t More Forests Certified?

Protecting and managing forests, and all the essential services forests provide, is critical to the well-being of our planet and its inhabitants. Forests provide clean air and water, wildlife habitat, and a home to an enormous and vast array of biodiveristy. Forest also provide recreational value, resources we depend on every day, and support economies all over the world. Forests are so much a part of our everyday lives they are often taken for granted. How can we protect forests when we depend on them for so much?
Active forest management, and particularly sustainable forest management (SFM), are strategies to help strike a balance in the relationship between society’s needs and maintaining forest health. Forest certification programs, first introduced in the 1990s, are one tool that have been established to assure stakeholders SFM practices are being followed. The Programme of the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) gives a good definition: “Sustainable Forest Management certification provides forest owners and managers with independent recognition of their responsible management practices … certification provides forest owners and managers — families, communities, and companies — with access to the global marketplace for certified products.”
Today only about 12% of the world’s forests are certified to third-party systems such as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI). This is despite the fact that many companies request certified wood for their products. Demand in many industry sectors — solid wood, paper, and packaging — is much greater than the supply of certified wood. It begs the question: Why aren’t more forests certified?
This was the fundamental question that SPC’s Forest Products Working Group (FPWG), a collaboration of 20+ companies across the supply chain, spent the last year and half trying to answer. Working across the forest products value chain, from landowners to brand owners, the the FPWG companies found that there are a number of reasons why forest certification has not been more widely adopted, with a specific focus on the United States.
Through a series of interviews, workshops, and research, the group has found that the underlying issue is that forest certification needs to offer a more compelling value proposition to small private landowners in the United States. Likewise, forest certification also needs to offer a more compelling value proposition to brand owners. Over the course of the next few months, the FPWG will be sharing their findings from this project, including the process the group used during the project called the Value Innovation Process, or VIP. An approach that was integral to developing our findings because we asked, first: “What is the job that forest certification is hired to do?” Or in other words, getting a better understanding of “what is the value of forest certification” before looking at ways to fix certification as is.

Using the VIP, the FPWG sought to understand why many landowners and forest managers have opted not to seek certification. At the other end of the value chain, we also explored the dynamics driving leading brands and other corporations to focus on buying certified products. We also reached consensus that there are many uncertified forests that are currently practicing sound, sustainable forest management. Against this backdrop, the group is seeking to find additional strategies to enhance the value of certification.
The FPWG interviewed numerous members of the value chain including landowners, foresters, loggers, merchants, printers, manufacturers, brand owners, associations, consultants, and more. The FPWG hosted two in-person Summits where we brought value chain members and representatives from FSC, SFI, and ATFS to discuss strategies to better drive the value of forest certification. The findings were numerous. Often complex. And in the spirit of innovation, not surprisingly, findings varied enormously. In the next few months the FPWG will be discussing sharing in more detail what we heard across the value chain.
In the context of the VIP, we continue to seek answers to complex questions such as:

  • How might we gain assurance of Sustainable Forest Management when certification is not an option?
  • How might we focus on value chain members who can have the most impact on driving the value of forest certification?
  • How might  we address feedback that certification is overly complex, expensive, and does not deliver optimal desired value?
  • How might we stimulate better dialogue across value chain from landowners to brand owners?
  • How might we overcome perceptions that landowners are not practicing sustainable forest management?
  • How might we educate multiple stakeholders about forestry and forest ownership?
  • How might we create a better value proposition for small private landowners and brand owners?
  • How might we create market incentives, policies or other mechanisms that will fundamentally help keep forests as forests?
  • How might we explore innovative strategies to go beyond certification?
  • How might we gain a better understanding of supply and demand?

In the spirit of innovation, we welcome input from multiple stakeholders as we continue to tackle these complex issues.  Stay tuned for more findings and notices of upcoming events.

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Conversation about current challenges in the recycling industry

I’m not usually a talk radio person, but a talk radio show has very much caught my attention recently. Last week, The Diane Rehm Show on National Public Radio explored New Challenges to Recycling in the United States. The guests engaged in a conceptual yet pragmatic discussion about how previous policy decisions in recycling are now starting to cause problems, and how different communities could approach these issues going forward. The conversation included some interesting details about the connection between the price of commodities and recycling, such as how the price of oil impacts whether companies choose to manufacture products out of recycled materials.
Another part of the discussion explored how a recent increase in size of curbside recycling bins has resulted in a greater volume of materials being sent to recycling facilities. Unfortunately, an unintended consequence of that increased volume has been an increase in what waste management professionals deem “aspirational recycling,” or consumers indiscriminately throwing miscellaneous materials into their recycling bin, in hopes everything will somehow get recycled.
The problem with that kind of sorting behavior, according to the guests of the show, is that some of those items can cause interruptions and mechanical snags in the recycling process. An example provided was a rubber hose: if its presence wasn’t detected on conveyor belts shortly after reaching the recycling facility, it likely would later become entangled in one of the machines, requiring a temporary shutdown of recycling operations.
The show also looked into how consumers feel and behave around these issues. One call-in listener provided unique anecdotes about her pleasant experience in Sweden, where she sorted her recyclables into sixteen different bins.
As a new Project Associate for GreenBlue working primarily on the How2Recycle program, this show particularly interested me as someone who is eager to interpret the most recent and controversial issues in recycling. These often confusing topics can be difficult for even a well-intentioned recycler and environmentalist like myself to wrap my head around. For example, why do American localities have such vastly different recycling and composting systems?
Consider the following example: I recently relocated to Virginia from Oregon. As a resident of Portland, I had curbside composting in addition to recycling (with glass in a separate bin; or, I could return glass to the grocery store to receive a deposit refund). But as a resident of Albemarle County in the greater Charlottesville, Virginia area, I now don’t have access to a curbside recycling program, even though my not-too-distant neighbors closer to downtown Charlottesville do have curbside recycling—and the instructions for sorting there are different than in Portland.
It’s mind-boggling how different communities seem to recycle in such conflicting ways; the guests of Diane Rehm skillfully explain how and why. What’s fascinating is that those differences between communities, in turn, uncover a great deal about the complexities of culture and economics in the United States. The podcast is not only a solid listen for recycling professionals who want to hear about the contours of current tensions within the industry, but also anyone who is broadly curious about the future of recycling.

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Introducing our new Project Associate, Kelly!

Kelly Cramer, Project Associate Sustainable Packaging Coalition
Tell us about your background.

I identify as a first generation Southerner; my parents are originally from the Upper Midwest, but I grew up in Franklin, Tennessee. I spent the last five years in Portland, Oregon, where I studied environmental law at Lewis & Clark Law School. Some of my formative experiences include exploring the Smoky Mountains during college, a summer in San Diego spent eating bean burritos and staring at the ocean, and having the fortunate opportunity to spend some brief but meaningful time in Latin America. I’ve been an environmentalist probably ever since a Keep America Beautiful commercial made me cry when I was 5.
Why were you interested in working with GreenBlue?
I was initially drawn to GreenBlue for its pioneering spirit; because GreenBlue is so oriented toward the future and innovation, it means the organization has unlimited potential for growth. Closely related to innovation is GreenBlue’s emphasis on collaboration. What’s compelling about collaboration is that GreenBlue is able to accomplish a tremendous amount for sustainability very quickly — sometimes simply by listening and facilitating conversations in a dynamic, objective way.
Coming from a legal background, I understand how trying to better the environment in an adversarial context comes with its own set of challenges: litigation and policy reform can take a lot of time and money, and involved parties usually have to resolve conflict in a relatively traditional way. Working with that sort of constant intensity and within such defined boundaries can often be impactful, but GreenBlue occupies a unique space outside that framework. It’s a space I find to be incredibly rare and powerful.
What are you most looking forward to working on at GreenBlue?
On a practical level, I’m excited about encouraging more and more companies to join the How2Recycle program, and see the label designs I help implement on products I use myself. Conceptually, I’m enthralled by the potential to help guide the future of sustainable materials management, and design strategies to support a circular economy for next generation environmentalists.
Fun facts about yourself?
I live on a farm and am pursuing friendships with six daring and elusive peacocks; my favorite writer and poet is Jim Harrison; I’m fascinated by pop culture, celebrity and television.