The multifaceted challenges in pharma packaging
Pharma companies face an array of challenges that extend beyond recycling. Upcoming legal requirements, stringent greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets, and the demand for high technical performance complicate the landscape. Although certain pharmaceutical and medical packaging has been exempted from mandatory recyclability and recycle content in plastics requirement, the European Union’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulations (PPWR) still mandates significant recycling and waste reduction targets that pharma companies must meet (1). Simultaneously, they must ensure medicine packaging maintains safety and efficacy of their products and does not compromise patient compliance.
The importance of system thinking
System thinking offers a fresh and comprehensive approach to tackling the complexities of sustainable packaging by looking at the entire packaging ecosystem and how each part of the packaging lifecycle interconnects. This method examines the intricate interactions between different packaging system elements, covering aspects like functionality, legal requirements, circular compatibility, and environmental impact. It emphasizes recognizing relationships between components (interconnectedness), combining them to create a more sustainable system (synthesis), and seeing how their interactions lead to new behaviours (emergence). It also involves understanding the ripple effects of changes (feedback loops), addressing root causes instead of symptoms (causality), and mapping out the entire lifecycle to spot improvement opportunities (system mapping) (2). By embracing these six basic principles of system thinking, pharma companies can innovate and develop sustainable packaging solutions that are both resilient and adaptable to future challenges.
Applying system thinking to sustainable packaging
Sustainable packaging innovation integrates functionality, legal requirements, circular compatibility, and environmental impact in the context of a packaging system for which the packaging has been designed. Integral part of the process is system mapping in which the boundaries and the scope of the development is defined.
A key element here is the Lifecycle Assessment (LCA), which is a scientific methodology used to quantify the environmental impacts of packaging throughout its lifecycle. Robust LCA calculations could be complex and often time consuming, however the methodology provides a blueprint for designing pragmatic impact mitigation strategies aimed and efficient management of resources (energy and raw materials) and elimination of losses to the systems in the form of waste and emissions.
Optimal compatibility with the system in which the packed product is used depends not only on functionality and adherence to design-for-recycling guidelines but is also influenced by geographical location and the infrastructure available for sorting and collecting materials. From a system perspective recycling should not be defined as a waste disposal practice. Instead, it must be regarded as manufacturing process of secondary resources. Simply using technically recyclable materials does not ensure that packaging is effectively recyclable, and the resources remain within the loop.
Without careful consideration of the reality of the common waste management practice for aluminium foil in Europe, increasing aluminium foil thickness in cold-forming blisters appears counter to eco-design principles.
However, in Europe, small size aluminium composite packaging, like aluminium blisters, are typically sorted into general mixed waste fraction destined for processing in municipal waste incineration facilities where the aluminium will be recovered from the bottom ashes of the furnaces (3, 4).
The recovery rate of aluminium is proportional to the original thickness of the packaging material (5). For foils with thickness up to 40µ, the average aluminium recovery rate from furnaces residues is 40%. This percentage increases to at least 70% for structures with aluminium thickness above 50µ combined with high share of aluminium in the overall material composition (5, 6).
The below graph (Figure 1) depicts the simplistic simulation of the progression in Global Warming Potential (GWP) of aluminium as raw material used in cold forming foils with different thicknesses. This simulation does not account for any other processes, or lifecycle stages and is covering four material use cycles under following assumptions:
- GWP of 1 kg of primary (virgin) aluminium European production = 6.5 kg of CO2eqv. (7).
- GWP of 1 kg of recycled aluminum = 0.5 kg of CO2eqv. (7).
- Recovery rate for 45µ foil = 40% (6).
- Recovery rate for 60µ foil = 70% (6).
- Material in the second, third and fourth loop is a combination of recovered amount of aluminum from previous waste cycle and primary aluminum necessary for achieving the required thickness.
By pinpointing the intricacies of aluminium recycling, this exercise demonstrates that extending the scope of the assessment from one loop into next consecutive loops offers a new perspective and inspires choices that would otherwise not be considered if an approach modelled after plastic and paper packaging waste treatment was applied.
While reducing the impact over one use cycle is important, in case of materials that maintain their original quality after each recycling round, system thinking encourages us to adopt a wider perspective and acknowledge the role of changing system dynamics.
The future of sustainable pharma packaging
Effective material recovery of pharma packaging, especially from structures with high polymer content, faces additional challenges such as material incompatibility, contamination risks, and the small size of packaging components. Overcoming these challenges necessitate innovations like mono-material packaging and advancements in sorting and recycling technologies. At the same time a question arises – is compliance with consumer goods packaging system the most beneficial strategy for pharmaceutical industry or should we be looking into tailored circular solutions that account for the specific characteristic of pharmaceutical packaging system?
It is crucial to look beyond immediate solutions and adopt a long-term perspective. System thinking enables pharma companies to create packaging solutions that are not only compliant with current system and regulations but also adaptable to future changes in legislation and technology. To develop sustainable packaging solutions, pharma companies should integrate system thinking principles to address the entire lifecycle of the product, leverage lifecycle assessments to identify environmental impacts and opportunities for improvement, continuously embrace new technologies and materials that reduce environmental footprints and enhance recyclability, and collaborate across the value chain with suppliers, regulators, and other stakeholders to create a sustainable packaging ecosystem.
One of the very few examples of medicine packaging designed in accordance with system thinking principles are a PVC-free cold forming aluminium blisters with decreased polymer content and increased aluminium share. Replacing chlorinated polymers with thinner layers of less impactful and less chemically complex plastics (8) results in enhanced material recovery (3) and reduced air pollution (9) while maintaining the protective barrier (10) and patient experience. All those benefits are not only tailored to the current packaging system where the separate collection and recovery for pharmaceutical packaging are not available but take also into account the requirements of the future systems that are being developed towards increased circularity (3) and novel technologies like inert anodes that further decrease the environmental impact of aluminium production (11, 12).
This example demonstrates that by adopting a comprehensive approach to sustainability, pharma companies can meet regulatory requirements, achieve ambitious GHG reduction targets, benefiting the environment while enhancing corporate responsibility and consumer trust.
In conclusion, while recyclability and end-of-life considerations are vital, they are just a part of a larger sustainability narrative. Applying system thinking to pharma packaging innovation unravels complexities and leads to solutions that align with strategic sustainability goals. This approach ensures that pharma packaging provides the highest benefit with the lowest environmental impact, paving the way for a more sustainable future in the industry.
Figure 1. Progression in cumulative GWP of aluminium in foils with different thickness based on different aluminum recovery rate from bottom ashes of municipal waste incineration facilities.
REFERENCES AND NOTES
- European Parliament Texts adopted – Packaging and packaging waste – Wednesday, 24 April 2024 (europa.eu) Accessed on August 29, 2024
- Tools for Systems Thinkers: The 6 Fundamental Concepts of Systems Thinking — LEYLA ACAROGLU Accessed on August 29, 2024
- European Aluminium The ideal aluminium packaging sorting model – a study by HTP Consultancy, commissioned by EAPG in 2018/19 Accessed on August 29, 2024
- SUEZ Cornwall | How energy recovery works Accessed on September 2 2024
- Biganzoli L, Grosso M. Aluminium recovery from waste incineration bottom ash, and its oxidation level. Waste Management & Research. 2013;31(9):954-959. doi:10.1177/0734242X13493956)
- Flexible Packaging Europe Layout 1 (flexpack-europe.org) , Accessed on August 29, 2024
- European Aluminium european-aluminium-circular-aluminium-action-plan.pdf , Accessed on September 2, 2024
- United Nations Environment Programme and Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions (2023). Chemicals in plastics: a technical report. Geneva
- Brough D., Jouhara H., (2020) The aluminium industry: A review on state-of-the-art technologies, environmental impacts and possibilities for waste heat recovery – ScienceDirect. International Journal of Thermofluids Volumes 1–2 100007 ISSN 2666-2027
- Nagy, A., Kuti R., (2016) View of The Environmental Impact of Plastic Waste Incineration (ludovika.hu) Vol. 15, No. 3 (2016) 231–237
- Bastarrachea, L J, Sumeet & Sablani, S. (2011). Engineering Properties of Polymeric-Based Antimicrobial Films for Food Packaging: A Review. Food Engineering Reviews. 3. 79-93. 10.1007/s12393-011-9034-8. Table 3 Oxygen and water vapor permeability of some common plastic films used in packaging
- He, Y., Zhou, K. , Zhang, Y., Xiong, H., Zhang, L., (2021) Recent progress of inert anodes for carbon-free aluminium electrolysis: a review and outlook – Journal of Materials Chemistry A (RSC Publishing)
- Yasinskiy, A.P, Sai K., Polyakov, P. , Shabanov, A. (2020). An update on inert anodes for aluminium electrolysis. Non-ferrous Metals. 48. 15-23. 10.17580/nfm.2020.01.03.
