Green pack
Green pack
INGE ECO PACK
- Primary bioplastic packaging
Through the use of bioplastic, Inge Spa has already started to meet the needs for environmental sustainability.
This requirement will inevitably become increasingly pressing in the coming years, also in the field of primary packaging for pharmaceutical, cosmetic and nutraceutical products.
After halving the amount of PE used for the production of some of its products, in particular for the Push & Drink and Long Life separator caps, Inge Spa has been paying more and more attention to the protection of the environment.
The company located in Garbagnate Milanese, which has been producing primary plastic packaging systems for the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, trichological, diagnostic and nutraceutical industries for over 70 years, has decided to use innovative biopolymers.
A packaging is sustainable when its impact is assessed over the entire life cycle: from production to disposal.
There are two types of bioplastics:
a) Biodegradable and compostable (PLA)
b) Biobased non-biodegradable (e.g. a polyethylene PE whose origin is not fossil but renewable)
- PLA, through a technology for the polymerization of lactic acid, deriving from the fermentation of sugars from plants such as corn and sugar beet. PLA biopolymer or polylactic acid is produced from annual renewable sources (using 50% less non-renewable energy than traditional polymers such as PET or polystyrene and through the production of 60% less greenhouse gas), and it is also bio-compostable, according to EU 13432 standard on compostable materials, which requires the total decomposition of the material in a period of time corresponding to the necessary one for paper decomposition, so as not to produce toxic substances.
PLA biopolymer is a completely transparent, very bright and clear material. Being easily moldable, it can be worked like any other traditional plastic, thanks to different technologies: injection molding and injection stretch-blow molding. It is used for the production of bottles for mineral water, food containers, single-dose for supplements.
It has shown important characteristics such as high barrier properties against flavours and odors, optimal properties for moisture management, hypoallergenic characteristics and high rigidity, which allow to produce a lighter packaging than in the past.
- Green PE is a polyethylene in which the ethylene used is not of Fossil origin but renewable (sugar cane -> ethanol -> polyethylene). Chemically it is a polyethylene, as such it is extruded and obviously it is not biodegradable but recyclable in the normal plastic stream. Therefore Green PE TM is preferable to fossil PE because, with its production, it contributes not to increase the level of CO2 in the environment too quickly.
Using the Green PE TM (which has a negative CO2 emission impact for its production) it is therefore possible to compensate the CO2 coming from other activities that impact the GWP (Global Warning Potential) of a product.
The various grades of green PE resin have a fossil twin as they are both produced in the same polymerization line. It is not therefore a "specific" product but a commercial grade already present on the market for years. The difference consists only in the ethanol used for the polymerization.