Market maturation of a packaging concept for sustainable and resource efficient food packaging

Project Information

ecoSave

Grant agreement ID: 783480

DOI

10.3030/783480

Project closed

EC signature date 2 October 2017

Start date 1 November 2017

End date 31 December 2019

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine, maritime and inland water research, and the bioeconomy

Total cost

€ 2 987 541,25

EU contribution

€ 2 091 278,88

Coordinated by

ECOSAVE PACKAGING APS
Denmark

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ecoSave (Market maturation of a packaging concept for sustainable and resource efficient food packaging)

Reporting period: 2018-08-01 to 2019-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The growing importance of sustainability – interlinking social, economic and environmental considerations – and logistics in the food and drinks supply system mean that packaging has become a key interface of this industry. Additionally, in the increasingly competitive retail landscape, differentiation and product standout is growing more important. This result in fierce competition among retailers and brand owners, leading to a strong focus on packaging cost, environmental sustainability, quality and attractive merchandising displays. However, until now, the increase of functional and environmental performance and appearance has invariably resulted in higher costs creating a business opportunity to a packaging concept that could present sustainable principles and goals whilst addressing cost, performance and market pressures. EcoSave Packaging (ESP) aims to pursue this market opportunity by bringing to market its innovative packaging material and patented assembling process that successfully address all aforementioned needs. The successful achievement of ecoSave objectives is expected to assist Europe in achieving objectives to secure resource efficient eco-innovative food processing. This project will therefore entail increased competitiveness for the SME value chain and for the EU as a whole.

EcoSave Packaging ApS (ESP) has developed a resource-efficient, environmentally friendly, high-quality and differentiated packaging patented concept that will radically impact the food packaging industry. ESP aims to mature, demonstrate and commercialize the disruptive ESPack, which represents a big market opportunity for the company and will bring substantial environmental and economic benefits to the packaging stakeholders.

Today we have established a world-class demonstration center of its kind to ensure a strong and continues demonstrate our environmentally ESP-material. We have the possibility to test and optimize our ESP-materials according to customers’ requirements and expectations. The demonstration center includes a cast film extrusion line and different converting machines modified for our ESP-material so we can perform tests of different types of packages within the dairy industry – such as dairy cups, bottles and milk packs.

There is an inexhaustible market where our ESP-material can be used. We have experienced that in addition to providing an environmentally-improving material, we also have great opportunities to contribute positively to recycling through a unique tracking of packaging made in our ESP material. We are in dialogue with major stakeholders in recycling.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

We are in continuous process with our “Scale up production process”. A lot of trials and tests has been made in our own test facility and with our technical partners and coming suppliers. The manufacturing processes of our finished packaging from raw materials into usable packaging are significantly tied up in each step of the process e.g. between the extrusion of the material, printing and converting. This work has been a part of an ongoing iterative process between all the production steps.

As stated in the project description in our application, we aimed to establish a world-class demonstration center. This we have fully achieved. Our set-up leads to a commercial acceptable stable show-case production in our demonstration center and in addition the cost structure of the ESP material will be significantly reduced to the benefit of both Ecosave Packaging and its customers. This will improve the USP’s on all parameters such as environmental impact on the finished product, reduced production costs and give a better sustainability. This is documented in an LCA-report (Life Cycle Assessment) validated by external reviews.

Through a lot of demo extrusion tests and converting tests we have been confirmed in our unique selling points - we perform on all parameters better than our assumptions at the start of the project.
• We can reduce CO2 emissions by 28 - 82% on similar packaging in the market.
• We can supply an ESP material that can be printed in the best quality.
• We can supply a cup that is more stable / stiffer so that it can be used both as a disposable recycle product or as a multiuse reuse product.
• We can reduce the cost price by 20 - 70% compared to similar packaging on the market.
• We deliver a mono material that is easy to recycle.
• We can supply the desired / best barrier properties regarding Water, Oxygen and Light.
• We can supply bio-based ESP materials, which will reduce CO2 emissions even more.

Ecosave Packaging has commissioned a comprehensive ISO 14040/44 compliant comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) of Ecosave and conventional packaging. The results include 14 environmental impact categories. Global warming and respiratory inorganics are identified as the most important. For these two impact categories, the results show that Ecosave Packaging performs better than its conventional alternatives. Different end-of-life treatment options (recycling, incineration, landfill and actual mix) are modelled, and they all show that compared with its conventional alternatives, Ecosave Packaging is associated with 28-81% less GHG emissions and 37-93% less respiratory inorganics. With regard to the other 12 impact categories, Ecosave Packaging performs better than the conventional alternatives for 9-12 impact categories.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Big international players in the market have spotted us and used the words such as “disruption and game changer” when they are introduced to our psychical products made of our ESP-material.

We have build-up a state-of-the-art demo center with extruders and converting machines for test-production. With this line configuration we can optimize and further develop our material and test production.
Based on our continuous optimization of the ESP-material and the highly extremely positive feedback from the market we expect to grow our business at least according to our business plan/budget, thus creating thus creating many new jobs as well as generating significant contributions to a global sustainable solution.

Packages made in our ESP-material will besides the much-improved environmental impact also give the possibility to perform a realistic recycling compared to packages used in the market today. Traditional packages are made by multi-composition materials, which are difficult to recycle due to difficulties in separating plastics types and to high processing costs. We have a mono-material which is directly recyclable and supports the idea of circular economy. Our material will be able to monitor and sort automatic in waste-management stations with the adequate equipment.

Packaging made in our environmental material will give our stakeholders the possibility to improve their Corporate Social Responsibility profile and their approach to Circular Economy. We will be able to improve the overall European competitiveness within sustainable packaging seen in a global context. We are in negotiation and development with multinational food companies who find packaging made in our ESP-material very suitable for their production sites outside Europe (e.g. China, South America etc.) where there is a huge demand for environmental packages. The addressable and reachable market for the customers we are in negotiation with has a volume of +30 mia. packs/year.

Bottle - ESP

Dairy Cup - ESP