The European Council has adopted the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR). This document was discussed for almost the entire 2024. Many large companies spoke both for and against its adoption. Many provisions were considered very controversial. Nevertheless, the Council approved the text previously adopted by the European Parliament. It will enter into force in January or February 2025, and will be mandatory 18 months after that. What changes does this Regulation bring?
The past week has intrigued us with one piece of news. Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IIT Roorkee) have managed to create edible drinking straws. Yes, the same ones that were disposable plastic (banned in many countries) and are now paper (not the same feeling at all).
More and more often, cosmetic brands offer their customers various types of cosmetics in refillable packaging and, accordingly, cheaper refills for them. This time, the German brand K-beauty Yepoda pleased us with such news.
It is no secret that plastic packaging has become so deeply ingrained in our lives that it is almost impossible to give it up. And yes, many developments are aimed at replacing primary plastic with paper or bioplastic, many studies are conducted for the cyclical use of plastics, but nevertheless, hundreds of tons of it end up in landfills every month.
Quite often, such convenient-to-use tea bags require additional packaging in the form of a sachet. It protects the thin tea bag from external mechanical and physical impact and at the same time preserves the properties and aroma of the tea. Therefore, the requirements for the material for the outer, protective packaging are quite high.
The problem of labels that interfere with the recycling of plastic packaging has become quite acute at the moment. After all, even if the packaging itself is made of a single material and is 100% recyclable, the label must first be removed. Water-soluble adhesives and films for labels made of the same material are appearing, but all this does not simplify the process of preparing plastic for recycling.
Parfums Christian Dior becomes the first company in the cosmetics industry to use a completely plant-based PEF polymer for its primary packaging. This is the result of a three-year collaboration with Avantium, which actually developed the polymer, called Releaf.