With a strong social media appeal and an unmistakeable shelf-presence, BuzzBallz have quickly become one of the most recognisable brands in the pre-mixed cocktail category. At the same time, their multi-material packaging makes them unrecyclable – an issue that has caused significant controversy over the past few days. In this article Dr. Paul Collins, founder of Packability Consulting Ltd, offers a different perspective Check the comments for a link to this story👇 Follow our hashtag to stay up to date with the latest packaging news: #PackagingEurope
An unecessary product in an unecessary package. The lawsuits are coming.
Great article Paul - adding some pragmatism and business mindset into a room of loud, negative voices 👏🏼
Click here to read the full story: https://packagingeurope.com/comment/how-to-really-solve-the-buzzballz-recycling-challenge/14553.article
Yesterday, I attended the Tencent Carbon Manufacturing Alliance Open Day, where I met an early-stage biotech company developing a fascinating approach to recycling. By using AI-designed enzyme, they can precisely break the chemical bonds of PET polymers and convert PET back into its original building blocks — PTA and MEG — while leaving other materials unaffected. What impressed me even more is that this technology can selectively separate PET from PET/blended textile materials, recovering the PET component while keeping the other fibres intact, eventhough they might also be polymers -- the technology only works on PET. For packaging like BuzzBallz, this kind of innovation could potentially enable the selective recovery of the PET component, while the remaining aluminium parts can also enter established metal recycling streams. Perhaps the future of packaging recycling is not only about designing mono-material structures, but also about developing smarter recycling technologies that can handle the complexity of today’s products.