Ricerca partner: packaging riciclato e riciclabile per fiori

L'azienda sta cercando di ribaltare l'industria dei fiori, in meglio. Come? Interrompendo la tradizionale filiera. L'impresa crea collezioni stagionali utilizzando steli insoliti per fornire composizioni floreali uniche. Usa sempre fiori freschi di alta qualità direttamente dal coltivatore e li consegna ai clienti attraverso una piattaforma high-tech e altamente creativa. L'azienda sta rimuovendo tutta la plastica monouso dalle proprie attività e sta selezionando i materiali con i punteggi di valutazione del ciclo di vita (Life Cycle Assessment) più bassi possibili. In particolare, vorrebbe trovare soluzioni per sostituire 1. il pluriball per proteggere i vasi di vetro, ceramica e simili e 2. retine per la protezione dei fiori con i petali particolarmente delicati.

E' un servizio gratuito in collaborazione con il progetto SIMPLER - Enterprise Europe Network. Per stabilire un contatto diretto, scrivere a simpler2@finlombarda.it citando il codice di riferimento. La lingua di lavoro sarà l'inglese. Segue il testo della proposta di collaborazione ricevuta.

Full description

The company is removing all single-use plastics from their operations and are selecting materials with the lowest possible Life Cycle Assessment scores. As of last year, the changes they have made will save 60,784kg of plastic and polyester from going to landfill.

Here are all the changes they have made:
● Paper wraps instead of cellophane
● Paper flower food sachets instead of plastic
● Recyclable plastic plant bags
● Recycled paper
● Ribbons made from recycled bottles
● Recyclable flower nets
● Environmentally friendly inks
● Even the offer cards they pop in magazines and other companies’ boxes are made from recycled paper and environmentally friendly inks!

However, at this point they still use plastic in some forms: either for the packaging of certain flower feed, as bubble wrap around vases and as nets around certain flowers. They would like to eliminate these plastics altogether, through alternative materials that are more universally recycled (in every municipality), and that have a lower environmental impact (either by selecting an alternative that is biodegradable or otherwise), without impacting quality.

The biggest two challenges are:
1. Bubble wrap around vases: they currently ship most of their vases with shredded cardboard to reduce reliance on plastic. Since they are shipping a variety of vase sizes and shapes, they cannot do this for all their vases. They are currently able to use the shredded cardboard solution for their standard assortment vases which are our S/M/L glass vases, S/M/L ceramic vases, all Atelier glass vases and their ceramic Mono vases. However, incorporating and fitting a new vase in the already existing cardboard solution is a major challenge. Therefore, they are keen to learn more about what is possible here, without increasing the risk of breakage and without overly increasing stock management complexity by expanding their packaging assortment.
2. Certain flowers (particularly roses, alstroemeria, sunflowers & lisianthus) are transported with nets around them, to protect the petals. This is done with HDPE netting that is stretchy, which is recyclable but can be complicated to do so in some locations. They are interested in lower impact materials, though the product needs to be equally flexible (to fit around the flower), withstand moisture, and cannot interact with the colours (colour bleeding).

This technology request is part of an innovation challenge and is published on an open innovation platform from 06/06/2022 and will close on 10/07/2022. If an organization does express interest in collaboration with this company before closing date, it will be guided through this open innovation platform and will be introduced to its moderator and the company’s experts. Mind that posts on this platform are not confidential.
Next step is that the company will select the SMEs with whom they would like to cooperate in the development of the solution.

Advantages and innovation

● Work together with an advanced e-commerce scale-up in the UK and EU.
● Exchange knowledge.
● A chance of making real impact with regards to sustainability.

Technical Specification or Expertise Sought

● Material technology
● Knowledge of waste recycling
● LCA scoring
● Packaging & logistics
● Creative thinking / problem solving

Expected role of the partner

The company is looking for new ideas to further reduce their impacts in terms of packaging. Any ideas which contribute to one (or more) of the challenges described above are more than welcome! Ideally the solution is ready to use at scale, but they are willing to work together with innovators that are keen to pilot new materials as well.