Recently attending the West Pack conference in Anaheim, Clean team members took a look at innovations in the packaging world. Though smaller than previous years, we were pleased to see that the Green Packaging Pavillion was centrally located, and that investments and interest in innovative secondary and tertiary packaging have grown. Some highlights include: reusable and recyclable pallets made from post-consumer recycled content, biodegradable cushioning materials for packing boxes, ultra-strong paper based recyclable honeycomb panels to substitute pallets and partitions in distribution, versatile paper made from stones without water or tree pulp that can be used for catalogues, tradeshow displays and labels, even bio-compostable tree-free food to-go boxes—all elements of packaging that would end up in a landfill if it weren’t for their environmentally preferable counterparts.
