News

First packaging in the agri sector made from elephant grass

16 juni 2020

On Monday 8 June, Roy van den Heuvel, Account Manager of Argos Packaging & Protection, handed over the world’s very first packaging made from elephant grass within the agri sector to Valstar Holland. Valstar and Argos did this to make a statement to the rest of the market: only by innovating together can we ensure that trade is realised as fairly and sustainably as possible.

Amount of packaging continues to increase

Argos considers it important to contribute to making the packaging industry more sustainable. Because packaging in agri has a lot of added value (including in terms of shelf life), the demand for it continues to increase. In 2019, we used 26 billion pieces of plastic food packaging annually. The growth in plastic consumption is mainly due to population growth. Population growth alone leads to an increase of about a hundred million packages each year. Apart from that, Argos sees the demand for packaging getting an extra boost now that hygiene and food safety play an even greater role.

"And that is precisely why it is important that we as a link in the chain continue to innovate in order to reach more sustainable solutions. The development phase is the most important moment in this, think of the choice of material and the quality form", says van den Heuvel. "In addition to supplying packaging, we are also our own producer, which means we have the opportunity to produce samples, test them, and make necessary adjustments before moving on to final production."

Innovating together for sustainability

Argos, Valstar Holland and Vibers already introduced sustainable cardboard agri packaging made from locally grown elephant grass, an alternative raw material for packaging, during Fruit Logistica. Elephant grass grows on fallow land and is planted once. It is a perennial plant that produces an annual yield of 20 tonnes of dry biomass per hectare for up to 20 years. These properties and the fact that elephant grass captures more CO2 than a comparable area of trees, it is also referred to as “miracle crop”.

It is the first time that the alternative raw material is used for packaging in the agri sector, as it is still in its infancy and is therefore not the cheapest solution for packaging fruit and vegetables. Nevertheless, Argos and Valstar consider it important to take this step in order to achieve further sustainability in the packaging industry.

Interested?

Are you interested in our products or do you want to know what we can do for you? For more information, or for a non-binding quotation, please contact our agri product specialists. We are happy to provide you with appropriate advice!