Sustainable Packaging
Collaborating for circularity and recyclability
Sustainability. It’s more than a buzzword. It’s the lens through which we view practically everything these days. It reflects how we bring value to plastic packaging – advancing the benefits of lighter yet stronger materials, energy efficiencies in processing, waste reduction and recycling capabilities, and more. Most importantly, it directs how we help customers create their packaging. We call it design for recyclability. It means considering every aspect of a package’s life in relationship to our environment and in our drive to a circular economy.
We believe plastic should never end up in the environment as waste. Instead, we work toward a world where the value of plastic is retained for as long as possible and environmental concerns are eliminated.
We love to share our passion, and our progress toward our goals and those of our customers, such as their goals for material reduction in packaging, reusability, recyclability, use of recycled content and renewable materials. And there is a lot to share!
Package reusability offers long-term value to both the consumer and the environment. By creating packaging – both rigid and flexible – that can be reused or repurposed and its original use greatly extends the sustainability profile of the package, while also reducing the need for new packaging to be produced, thus further decreasing environmental impacts.
DOW™ HDPE Resins are a mainstay throughout the packaging industry. They deliver the desired properties for a vast array of rigid packaging applications, including durability for use and reuse and more reuse.
In other applications, such as industrial containers, pallets, and crates, their toughness allows continued functionality across years of daily use and abuse.
PacXpert™ Packaging Technology offers flexible packaging alternatives to rigid packaging for use with solid and liquid food and non-food applications. These packages can be re-used just like rigid packaging.
Investing in recycling is a major Dow initiative. Mechanical recycling through established recycling protocols for rigid plastic packaging can provide consistent, high-quality PCR resins for future use. Advanced recycling offers a wider range of recyclable materials to be collected and offer near virgin-quality resins upon completion of the recycling process.
Using PCR content ensures a positive outlet for recycled packaging, enhances the sustainability profile of a package, and can help achieve packaging that can be further recycled. Win, win, win! Dow is actively engaged in developing PCR resins and incorporating PCR into formulations for numerous applications.
Learn more about the recycled plastics resins we offer.
Dow is working with partners to commercialize plastic films and adhesives made using bio-based renewable feedstocks. The renewable feedstock comes from tall oil, a residue of paper production, from sustainably managed forests. We use a mass balance approach, which enables the industry to transition to using more renewable feedstocks.
Learn more about our material origins and how we incorporating bio-based and advanced recycling feedstocks.
Let’s collaborate to innovate
Are there other paths to a circular economy out there? Ways to ensure plastic never sees a landfill or ocean? We’d love to hear your ideas, collaborate with you, and find innovative and effective packaging for your needs, and the environment.
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