15 Innovations in Plastics
Did you know there are innovative and sustainable solutions to brushing your teeth, hanging up your clothes, and storing your cheese that involve plastic?
While plastics have been around since the 19th century, new creative innovations are entering the market all the time – each one building upon the demands of society and the necessary push for more sustainable plastic products.
The BPF has compiled a list of 15 new and creative plastic innovations that are changing society for the better.
This article is from 2022, see the 2023 and latest 2024 lists!
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Love Ocean was created by Gabi Jennings, whose love for the ocean and her children sparked her endeavour for more sustainable bathroom and skincare products for kids that reduced the amount of plastic potentially ending up in the ocean. [1]
With an aesthetic design based on a whale, the bottle is intended to be cherished and kept, which is key in encouraging customers to use the accompanying refill pouches that can be delivered directly to their doors – thus reducing plastic waste. But with the understanding that the bottle will eventually be thrown away in all likelihood, the packaging is made from widely recycled plastic.
And to top it all off, Love Ocean has partnered with the Plastic Bank to fund the removal of the equivalent of 1kg of ocean-bound plastic with every bottle sold. [2]
Learn more about Love Ocean and what they do.
MacRebur — also known as the ‘plastic road company’ — takes plastic products that cannot be conventionally recycled that are destined for landfill or incineration and uses them as binder extenders and/or modifiers in roads. In fact, with each km of road laid, MacRebur uses up the equivalent weight of 740,541 plastic bags. One tonne of MacRebur mix contains the equivalent of 80,000 plastic bottles. [3]
By extending part of the bitumen in the mix, MacRebur products reduce fossil fuel usage, leading to a reduction in the carbon footprint and helping to foster a circular economy. And with independent laboratory testing demonstrating that MacRebur products do not leach plastic or generate toxic fumes, it is accomplishing its mission to help solve the waste plastic epidemic, while enhancing the asphalt used to make road surfaces around the world.
Find out more about how MacRebur is revolutionising plastic waste.
The Janger — which markets its product as the “best idea since the clothes peg” — offers a fantastic eco-alternative to your ordinary clip-hanger, which is hard to recycle due to its multiple parts of both plastic and metal. [4]
Its environmental benefits include:
- Less plastic — as the Janger is made with up to 72% less plastic compared to a conventional clothes hanger, using five million Jangers instead of clip hangers saves 269 tonnes of plastic.
- 100% recyclable — Jangers are made from recycled plastic, and their one-piece-one-material design makes it 100% recyclable and far easier to put back into the recycling stream.
- Less energy — producing a Janger uses 1/7th of the energy it would take to produce a traditional hanger.
- Lower carbon footprint — transporting Jangers costs five to ten times less than the same number of multi part clip hangers, cutting cost and overall carbon footprint.
Learn more about the ‘hanger of the future'.
Reswirl — the first bio-based, returnable, recyclable, re-mouldable, zero waste toothbrush — is designed, made, and recycled entirely within the UK. Created by The Toothbrush Club, Reswirl, while not single-use, is designed to avoid ending up in landfill despite the toothbrush’s relatively short lifespan. [6]
So how does it work? By establishing a closed loop for their products, the company can recover and reuse all the materials that go into their brushes — customers simply have to post their brushes back (pre-paid) or return them to collection points in participating stores. The Toothbrush Club has then developed a technique for separating the bristles from the handles and can recycle and re-mould as appropriate.
By choosing to use bio-based materials, PA1010 bristles and bio-PBS handles, the product is also reducing dependence on fossil fuels. If a brush somehow escapes the closed loop system, the handle material is still biodegradable, reducing the risk of long-term pollution either way.
Want to incorporate sustainability into your dental hygiene? Find out more about Reswirl.
PFF Group is already known as one of the UK’s largest independent food packaging manufacturers but following a £2 million investment in a world-first thermoforming system, the business was able to launch IMPAC-T — a fully recyclable, food-grade packaging concept. [7]
Not only can IMPAC-T be recycled and reprocessed to be used repeatedly as food-grade packaging, the inline production process offers a substantial 46% carbon footprint reduction compared to the current assembly system. And furthermore, IMPAC-T’s plastic and card components can be easily separated by consumers for onward recycling.
Coveris are combining two truly great things… recyclable packaging and cheese. Their specially developed film is the first of its kind, enabling grated cheese pouches to move from a mixed, nylon laminate (one the hardest materials to recycle), to a new fully recyclable PE barrier monolaminate. [8]
The packaging is easily recyclable through front-of-store plastic film collections, matches the 90-day shelf life of previous packaging and delivers like-for-like functional performance compared to the non-recyclable solution. Originally launched for Tesco in 2021, Coveris has recently developed further pouches for Iceland, as well as having a product launch with Sainsbury’s, and is a fantastic example of a revolutionary new innovation.
Polytag is an innovative tag and trace technology that enables the implementation of Digital Deposit Return Schemes (DDRSs) by applying tags on packaging that consumers scan to redeem their deposits. [9]
Last year, Polytag technology was incorporated into existing council waste collection services to test viability. With an engagement rate of 97%, it has estimated that in Wales alone the carbon benefit from adopting a DDRS would be approximately 13,000t CO2e per annum (equivalent to burning 6,500t of coal each year), a saving coming predominantly from avoiding individual trips to collection points and negating the need for additional infrastructure.
Terra Nova, created by Bournemouth University student Ryan Waterhouse, is a portable device that monitors the health of topsoil, allowing users to track and prevent soil degradation — an imminent threat to arable land. [10]
How does the device work? Terra Nova has three retractable probes that stick into the soil and measure the levels of moisture and key nutrients. The collected data is then displayed both on a small LCD screen on top of the device (showing the soil readings at that current time) as well as on a web app, which presents weeks, months, and even years of data in graphs and other visual formats.
Terra Nova is a prime example of plastic innovations that can hugely reduce waste. Read more about the invention here.
This innovation goes by the name of Nestguest – a 100% recyclable home created to provide a safe and robust habitat for one of the UK’s most threatened animal species. [11]
With the hedgehog population having halved since 2000 and the cost of traditional materials for constructing hedgehog houses now prohibitively high, a more accessible alternative was required to help reverse the decline in hedgehog numbers.
Nestguest chose 100% recycled linear low density polyethylene as its material due to its inertness, durability and UV- and shatter-resistant qualities.
Available to purchase online, Nestguest is achieving its aim of turning some of the plastic waste in the UK into a valuable, functional, and long-lasting environmentally-friendly product.
Circopack™, created by Gaia Packaging Solutions (GPS), is a new generation of smart packaging, that eliminates vast amounts of packaging waste across the online retail and after-sales markets. But the key is that it’s not just a pouch, it’s a circular service. [12]
Circopack’s service can be chosen as a delivery option at checkout, the goods are then picked, packed, and shipped as they usually would be - in Circopack Pouches. Upon delivery, the customer can remove their item and then return the pouch for free via Royal Mail. The pouch then arrives back at the service facility, is scanned for carbon footprint tracking before being sanitised and prepared for another parcel — and the cycle begins all over again.
Circopack pouches are adjustable, come in four different sizes, and can be re-used 40 times! And to entice customers to make the added effort, GPS provides customers with reward points every time they choose Circopack.
Get more details on this innovative smart-packaging.
This next innovation, from Daniele Di Paolo, is a portable device used to reduce stress and gain a better understanding of your breath. The idea was inspired by the Relaxation Response (a protocol to cope with stress by slowing down your heart rate via deep breathing) and aims to support and enhance this protocol for users in moments of difficulty.
Cirrus listens to the user’s exhalations, accompanies and facilitates deeper breaths by playing perfectly timed soothing sounds from its front speaker, and simultaneously inflates a calming membrane on the back. In this way it helps the user both focus on their breath, as well as (they claim) manage increasingly longer exhalations that will ultimately calm them down, reduce stress and provide more clarity of thought.
Di Paolo was recently highly commended for this innovation in the Design Innovation Plastics Awards – see more details here.
12. VarDAR Systems Flow Air Ring
The Variable Diameter Dual Directional Flow Air Ring created by VarDAR Systems is an innovative system designed to increase the productivity of the blown film process by adding additional cooling above the frost line. [5]
Global customers who use VarDAR have not only seen the significant benefit of increased productivity but have also seen reduced scrap levels due to better control of trims and easier splitting of the web, reducing waste. The Variable Diameter Dual Directional Flow Air Ring also improves the aesthetic appearance of the film.
Get more information on VarDAR’s new innovation.
Designed by AST for the AdBlue® business, these new innovative jerrycans are designed with an integrated flexible spout nestled within the side wall of the container. This amazing new packaging provides a significant contribution to the environment via fewer products being needed but also saves the customer money. [13]
If required, AST is able to provide a jerrycan with an integrated spout that can even be personalized with a pre-fitted sleeve, and with the bottles coming in various sizes from 5L all the way up to 20L they are a perfectly simple but incredibly useful innovation.
14. Polyguard Peerless Plastic Sheets
A new innovation from Peerless Coatings has the potential to save hours of time, mess and stress via their anti-graffiti protection. PolyGuard Hard is an optically clear hard-coated sheet that has been designed to give enhanced chemical and abrasion resistance to polycarbonate, making it exceptionally hard wearing and providing anti-graffiti protection (amongst other benefits). [14]
Glass-like in its appearance but approximately half the weight of glass, the material maintains the many benefits of polycarbonate (such as high impact strength) but offers superior surface performance, making PolyGuard™ perfect for areas where frequent vandalism is a problem.
See it for yourself in this video!
Find out more about Peerless Coatings and the other innovations in this range.
15. Plastribution's 7 Branches Of Sustainability
Plastribution’s ‘7 branches of sustainability’ is an innovative system for making intelligent material and design choices driven by fact rather than sentiment. [15]
Plastribution has found that the term ‘sustainability’ means many things to different people. For example, some see it as reducing their carbon footprint, some want plastics that biodegrade in the natural environment, and some want their products to be recyclable. These are all very different things despite sharing the common goal and label of ‘sustainability’.
As a result, Plastribution sought to provide clarity on the term by condensing a range of solutions into a clear and simple system of seven categories, with an honest and detailed breakdown of the pros and cons of each approach.
If you’ve got a plastic innovation that you feel deserves to be in this list, submit it HERE for consideration — and you might even win one of next year’s Horners Awards!
Find this article interesting? Check out our new 2024 list of the best plastics innovations you need to see!
1: https://loveocean.com/pages/our-story
5. https://www.vardar.systems/
7. https://pff.uk.com/packaging/capabilities/impac-t/
10. https://www.dezeen.com/2022/08/15/terra-nova-soil-monitor-aims-avert-future-food-crisis-design/
11. https://www.nestguest.co.uk/
13. https://ast-kanister.de/en/
14. https://www.peerless-coatings.co.uk/plastic-from-peerless/polyguard-polycarbonate/
15. https://plb.ltd/sustainable-7-branches/
Author
Rebecca Shortland
*Please note that this article is not a press release. Do not use on your own website unless given specific permission from the author.
