U.K.-based packaging producer DS Smith, with U.S. headquarters in Atlanta, has announced it is investing $140 million in research and development that will include developing new materials to replace plastics and a testing program to strengthen corrugated cardboard and reduce G-force shock in-home delivery packaging.
A key driver behind the investments is the company’s Now and Next sustainability strategy, offering customers 100-percent-recyclable packaging within two years and replacing 1 billion pieces of supermarket and e-commerce plastic by 2025.
The additional investment over five years includes the creation of a prototyping and testing facility in the U.K. to fast-track next-generation technology and work with research partners globally.
“How we live our lives is changing fast due to many factors, and how we all take care of the environment is a top priority,” DS Smith CEO Miles Roberts says. “We are now investing more than previous years to ensure that we are leading this change and can offer customers packaging that has less impact on the environment.
“We continue to focus on reducing our impact of our operations on the environment but importantly, we are able to contribute to wider society by providing circular packaging solutions that eliminates waste and reuses valuable resources,” he adds.
The company says it plans real-world analysis of e-commerce home delivery supply chains, including measurement of G-force impacts on packages in transit, to reduce waste and prevent damaged parcels.
For example, DS Smith will insert a live GPS tracking sensor into a parcel or pallet in transit to measure G-force, which includes vibration, motion and impact, providing instant feedback on the materials, carrier handling, road conditions and other effects on the box throughout its trip in the supply chain.
Using this data, DS Smith says it can make recommendations on fiber usage, required strength and performance of packaging.
Through its R&D center, the company will accelerate investment in new materials development, including fully recyclable, translucent packaging to replace plastic windows in sandwich and ready-meal packs, and research into alternative natural fibers and new packaging designs, such as plastic and bubble wrap replacement.
DS Smith says it also will expand its barrier technologies, such as the company’s recent piloting of “Touchguard,” a packaging coating that resists the transmission of viruses, and its patented Greencoat, a moisture-resistant alternative to wax coating.
The company also will analyze different fibers in recycled paper and corrugated packaging to optimize resilience and recycling properties. That work could include adding chemicals, heat or even friction to make individual fibers bond better, providing more strength, DS Smith says.
The company launched its Now and Next strategy in the fall of 2020 and includes industry-leading goals, focused on the circular economy.
As well as conventional target areas of reducing carbon emissions, water and waste, the packaging company has challenged itself to cut 250,000 heavy truck journeys from the roads, replace 1 billion pieces of plastic from supermarkets and online shopping and educate 5 million young people on the circular economy.
Get curated news on YOUR industry.
Enter your email to receive our newsletters.
Latest from Recycling Today
- Buy Scrap Software to showcase its software at Scrap Expo in September
- LG details recycling activities
- Algoma EAF is up and running
- Toyota-Tsusho completes acquisition of Radius Recycling
- CATL, Ellen MacArthur Foundation aim to accelerate circular battery economy
- Commentary: Expanded polystyrene is 98 percent air, 2 percent plastic and 100 percent misunderstood
- AMCS appoints general manager for North America
- How tariffs, regulations affect LIBs recycling in US, EU