Paint & Coatings Industry - December 2008 - (Page 18)

Closed-Loop a Sustainable Packaging Solution for W hile the coatings industry has dedicated a great deal of research, wealth and commitment to developing environmentally acute products, the industry’s innovative formulations continue to be packaged in containers that create waste. In the stirring of an uncertain economy and planet, there is an opportunity for paint manufacturers to generate savings and reduce packaging costs that will affect not only their environmental footprint but also their bottom line. Examining the Current Life Cycle of the Traditional Paint Container The measurement of one’s sustainability is largely weighed in the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and environmental footprint throughout the development, manufacturing and finality of one’s product and/or service. While Figure 1 is not specific to paint containers or plastic, the elements are similar. When you measure the virgin inputs against the emissions and offsets, recycling is the only solution that omits N2O, CO2 and CH4 emissions and actually offsets fossil fuel use and increases forest carbon sequestration. LCAs characteristically become an “end of life” flow chart. The allowance of recycled content in packagFIGURE 1 | Life cycle analysis. Virgin Inputs Materials Extracted: Trees, Ore, Oil, etc. Life Cycle Stage Raw Materials Acquisition GHG Emissions Sinks & Emission Offsets ing credits the virgin inputs, which dramatically increases the environmental value of the package and therefore the product. However, the general life cycle of a 100%-recycled paint container designed for recyclability is a continuous loop, allowing for minimal virgin inputs, minimal disposal and fractional greenhouse gas (GHG) affects. The largest factor in securing the circle is the manufacturer’s commitment to work with retailers, consumers and reprocessors to reclaim the containers and prepare them properly for recycling. Closed-loop recycling proves that a recyclable product is essentially a sustainable product. While most municipal waste and recovery facilities agree that paint makes up the “largest volume waste collected by metropolitan household hazardous waste (HHW) programs”,2 it is common myth that used paint and the containers cannot be recycled and therefore the only disposal option is to landfill. While the EPA has recognized that latex paints are non-hazardous,2 the inevitable hazard of household paint is the contamination of residuals with mixed stream recycling programs, and thus many waste handlers determine latex paint and their containers as landfill only. Despite the aggressive markets for plastic scrap, millions of gallon and five-gallon plastic containers that the coatings industry annually puts on the shelves and in the homes of American consumers are being buried, consuming natural resources and leaving the plastics industry starving for feedstock. Energy and Reduced Carbon Non-Energy- Sequestration Manufacturing Ralated Emissions in Forests Energy and Non-EnergyRalated Emissions Recycling Waste Management Increased Avoided Fossil Forest Carbon Fuel Use Sequestration Carbon Storage in the Soil Avoided Fossil Fuel Use Carbon in Long-Term Storage in Landfill Avoided Fossil Fuel Use Two Industries Meet Plastics recyclers all agree that their industry is starving for material.3 According to the Association of PostConsumer Plastic Recyclers (APR), the plastics recycling industry operates at less than 70% capacity, the export markets are combating for material, and reclaimers are forced to source from all over the world while valuable material stateside is being shipped to China.4 Simultaneously, as energy and material costs continue to rise, manufacturers are looking at their supply chains to reduce raw material and packaging material costs. In a Best Practices, LLC research and consulting project, a survey was conducted with Energy Use Energy Composting Energy-Ralated Emissions Combustion Emissions Emissions Uncontrolled CH4 Emissions or CH4 Flared and Recovered Energy Landfilling Source: EPA1 By Stephanie Baker | KW Plastics, Troy, AL 18 DECEMBER 2008 | W W W . P C I M A G . C O M http://WWW.PCIMAG.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Paint & Coatings Industry - December 2008

Paint &�Coatings Industry - December 2008 Contents Viewpoint Industry News Company News Closed-Loop Recycling: A Sustainable Packaging Solution for the Coatings Industry Calculating VOCs: Not All Low VOCs are Created Equal Products Supplier Showcase Buyers’ Guide Index Product Listings Supplier Listings Distributor Listings Classifieds Advertiser Index

Paint & Coatings Industry - December 2008

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