Ego Pharmaceuticals is doubling down on climate action with renewable UPM Raflatac Forest Film used on the labels adorning the packaging of its etchðos brand.
Australia is heavily affected by climate change, as the country is vulnerable to the impacts of increasing temperatures, rising sea levels, and more frequent and severe weather events. As risks of global warming become more apparent, Australian businesses are being called upon to step in to help mitigate climate change.
“In Australia, brand owners are facing increasing pressure both internally and externally to provide more sustainable solutions that help consumers reduce their impact on the climate and the environment. At Ego, our ethos of sustainable skincare products also extends to packaging,” says Nicholas Rodgers, packaging technologist at Ego Pharmaceuticals.
In September 2022, the company’s etchðos brand took home three trophies at the Australasian Packaging Innovation & Design Awards (PIDA). Ego Pharmaceuticals received the Gold award for Sustainable Packaging Design of the Year with a focus on Recycled Content, the Silver award for Health, Beauty & Wellness Packaging Design of the Year, and the Bronze award for Marketing Design of the Year.
etchðos received the Gold award for its unique packaging design that utilises 50 per cent recycled HDPE plastic from Australian milk bottles. The brand offers two options: a 300ml pump pack that is meant to be kept and reused, and a one-litre refill pack that can be recycled through kerbside recycling. Ego Pharmaceuticals estimates that etchðos will prevent approximately 200,000 milk bottles from being sent to landfill during its first year in market.
Sustainable label to boot
For the one-litre refill pack, etchðos uses UPM Raflatac’s Forest Film PE, a wood-based film label material that has been certified by ISCC. Forest Film PE is made using UPM BioVerno naphtha, which is derived from sustainably managed forests and is 100 per cent wood-based. The production process for Forest Film involves using renewable resources to replace fossil resources, in a method known as mass balance approach. This makes Forest Film the first of its kind on the market.
“A label that is made from non-fossil fuel PE was an interesting concept and the fact that it is ISCC certified and produced by using sustainable resources to replace an equivalent amount of fossil resources in the production process was a real winner from a sustainability perspective. Also, the Forest Film PE product concept matches our own brand concept of using natural ingredients,” Rodgers recounts.
Using Raflatac’s Label Life service, Ego Pharmaceuticals estimates that Forest Film PE gives a CO2 reduction of 48 per cent compared to using standard PE film. UPM Raflatac’s Label Life service is based on LCA, a scientific method that analyses the environmental impacts of Raflatac’s products. With Label Life, Raflatac customers can access LCA calculations on three key metrics: greenhouse gas emissions, energy demand, and water consumption.
Predictable performance
UPM Raflatac Forest Film PE maintains the same performance, quality, and recyclability as regular fossil-based film, without competing for resources or land used for food production.
“We were initially looking at the use of recycled film for the label stock for the one-litre refill pack. But when we saw that we could get the same functional performance from the Forest Film PE as we would from conventionally produced PE, we decided that it would be better to reduce the risk of label failures on the line by adopting the Forest Film stock for the brand rather than risking delays to launch by trying to bring in a film that would need extensive testing on the lines to ensure that we wouldn’t have any issues with applying the labels in the short timeframe that we had.”
Rodgers highlights the importance of a sustainable supply chain in creating successful products that help rein in CO2 emissions – positive climate actions never happen in isolation.
“Cooperation and collaboration are essential,” Rodgers says. “Without the participation of every company in the supply chain driving change, the efforts we make to bring more sustainable solutions to the marketplace will not have the impact to make the changes that are necessary. It’s time to be brave and take that first step on the journey to a better tomorrow, as every little bit of improvement shows the way for what can be done in the future.”
This article was first published in the September-October 2023 print issue of PKN Packaging News, p20.
