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With bans on Single Use Plastics (SUPs) becoming more popular, there is a high need for alternatives. Many of these alternatives are paper-based products. Single use plastics are a part of everyday life for many people, because of this there will be a great influx of paper-based substitutes. Common plastic items such as straws, cups, shopping bags, food wrappers, ready-meal trays and even water bottles can be switched to paper alternatives.
There are multiple active single-use plastic bans, and many more are coming. It can be difficult trying to accommodate to local and global SUP bans, but we found some common themes amongst many of them. Food service is being targeted heavily; this relates to cutlery, food containers, straws, and plastic bags. Companies are to reduce/eliminate plastic in the packaging of their products. The packaging must be recyclable and must contain post-consumer material. There may also be Extended Producer Responsibilities (EPR). Under EPR, producers would cover the costs of raising awareness of single use plastics, waste collection and litter cleanup. The producers would also be responsible for the costs of data gathering and reporting of food containers, packets and wrappers made from flexible material, beverage containers and many other products.
SGS-IPS testing works with companies to reach their sustainability and regulatory goals and this work touches every department within our Wisconsin-based lab. SGS-IPS is involved in the testing of new materials and coatings. These new materials help companies meet sustainability measures, but it is also essential to us that green alternatives perform as well as the products they’ve replaced. To ensure your packaging is recyclable, we can assess repulpability. This will confirm if the material can be turned back into pulp for paper mills. We can verify if your packaging/product has post-consumer material in it though fiber analysis. SGS-IPS Testing values the integrity of the product being sold to the customer. We offer many physical tests that can verify if the new packaging material following the SUP bans is of the same quality of the material used before the SUP bans.