Plastics and Packaging
We are on the mission to accelerate sustainable circular packaging solutions to extend the lifetime of products, reducing emissions and minimizing the demand for virgin materials.
Material management including the extraction, refining, transportation and processing of raw materials, accounts for 67% of total GHG emissions (Circular Economy, 2019). Specifically, the global consumption of plastics has increased sharply from 2 Mt in 1950 to 348 Mt in 2017 (CIEL, 2019; Plastics Europe, 2018). The production requires finite resources where more than 90% of plastics are fossil fuel-based, accounting for almost 6% of the global oil demand and expected to rise to 20% by 2050 (World Economic Forum, 2016).
Additionally, today's convenience and throwaway culture cause most packaging to be incinerated, landfilled or recycled after only a single-use.
Our Projects
Plastic Recycling in Ghana
Polymers in Solution
Identifying risks and business opportunities of the growing awareness of the risk of polymers in the environment beyond packaging.
Status: Complete
News and Links
Packaging database for fact-checking sustainability promises
ETHZ News - 07.01.2021
ETH researchers have created a database of over 3,000 primary and secondary packaging items from the range of the retailer Denner as a basis for ensuring more environmentally friendly packaging.
Packaging Baseline to identify optimisation potential
Denner's Sustainability Report - 2019
In Spring 2019, Denner and sus.lab decided to join forces and develop the first packaging baseline to quantify the yearly packaging produced by each product category, by material type.
First results of the Packaging Baseline
Denner's Sustainability Report - 2020
Almost 50'000 tonnes of primary and secondary packaging is produced yearly through Denners standard portfolio, of which approximately 15'000 tonnes come from Denner's own brand.