SPC Fall Members-Only Meeting Next Month

This year’s SPC Fall Members-Only Meeting is quickly approaching. The meeting will be taking place September 19-20 in at the Intercontinental Hotel in Dallas, Texas. We are co-locating our meeting with Packaging Strategies’ Sustainable Packaging Forum, which will be September 20-22 at the same location. For SPC member companies who have not yet registered and would like to attend, please be sure to do so by Friday, September 9 to avoid the $150 late registration fee. Hotel rooms must be reserved by Tuesday, September 6 in order to secure the discounted SPC rate of $149. In addition, we recently announced that we will be offering a tour of the Greenstar Recycling Center as part of the meeting agenda, but space is limited so please register as soon as possible if you would like to participate. You can find the meeting schedule, tour details, and registration instructions on the event webpage, or please feel free to contact us with any questions about the meeting.

We would also like to thank our generous meeting hosts PepsiCo (the host of our opening reception), Dell, The Dow Chemical Company, NatureWorks, PaperWorks, and Spartech. A few more hosting spots remain for SPC member companies, so please contact Erin Malec, GreenBlue’s Director of External Relations, via email or by phone at 434.817.1424 ext. 302 to get more information on hosting opportunities.

 

SPC Executive Committee Nominations

Nominations for the SPC Executive Committee are now closed. Thank you very much to everyone who submitted nominations. We received many nominations for very impressive candidates, and we will post information about the candidates on the website in September. At the SPC Fall Meeting, candidates will be presented to the SPC membership at the Welcome Reception, and members will be asked to vote online for their choices after the close of the meeting. We will announce the election results on October 13.

 

Updated Definition of Sustainable Packaging

We recently revised the SPC’s Vision for Sustainable Packaging to better represent the current packaging environment. Most notably, the criteria that sustainable packaging "is made from materials healthy all probable end of life scenarios" was modified to read "is made from materials healthy throughout the life cycle." This change embodies a stronger life cycle focus for material health concerns. This revision, along with a few other small changes to the definition, was recently accepted by the SPC Executive Committee. You can download the full version of the SPC Definition of Sustainable Packaging Version 2.0 here.

 

Essentials of Sustainable Packaging International Edition

The SPC will launch the Essentials of Sustainable Packaging course in Mexico and China this fall. The Mexico City date has been moved to November 15 and will be offered in conjunction with AMEE, the Mexican packaging association. We are still negotiating options for China in October, and the tentative cities are Beijing and Shanghai. The new course will be a one-day version of the course that has been offered in the U.S. and Canada since 2008 and is ideal for packaging professionals seeking continuous training in sustainability as it relates to packaging. You can download the course brochure for more information or find a more detailed course summary here.

 

Design for Recycling Guide Project: Call for Participation

The SPC is beginning to develop a Design for Recycling Guide that will facilitate informed recyclable package design. This project will combine the SPC's knowledge of access to recycling that has been accumulated in the Labeling for Recovery Project with the design knowledge that has been generated by the Closing the Loop Design for Recovery Guidelines to create a practical reference guide that can be used by packaging decision-makers across the supply chain. To ensure its completeness and utility, the SPC is seeking to engage a working group of interested SPC members. SPC members that are willing to share their insight or experiences with packaging design decisions related to recyclability are encouraged to join by contacting Adam Gendell via email or at 434.817.1424 ext. 321.

 

Labeling for Recovery Project Deadline Extended

The pilot of the Labeling for Recovery Project is in the final phases of development and we are very close to the launch of the how2recycle.info website. Please visit the project website for more information about the pilot and to view example labels. We have extended the deadline for initial contact regarding participation to August 31, so if you would like to participate but have not yet gotten in touch with us, please contact Anne Bedarf via email or at 434.817.1424 ext. 314 by the end of this month. Anne can also provide more information, including mock-up labels for specific packaging and the terms and conditions. Please join us in this historic undertaking!

 

COMPASS Development

We are currently developing a model for a tertiary packaging assessment in COMPASS in order to develop a comprehensive life cycle impact assessment of packaging systems on transport packaging systems. We are pulling together appropriate data and parameters for a variety of tertiary transport packaging systems including single and multi-use wood pallets, plastic pallets and crates, and slip sheets, along with secondary materials and processes needed such as straps and shrink wrap. We are currently seeking participants for a working group with significant expertise in transport packaging. This will be a relatively short working group engagement, so interested parties who have not already contacted Minal Mistry should do so this week via email or at 434.817.1424 ext. 317.

 

Greener Package Award Winners Announced

Greener Package recently announced the winners of the third annual Greener Package Awards for sustainable packaging. Award categories include Environmental Impact, Innovator of the Year, and Beyond the Package. This year’s focus was on measurable achievements in sustainable packaging, which was accomplished by requiring that all submissions include verifiable data for at least one aspect of environmental impact. You can read more about the awards and find out about this year’s winners here.