Food Pacific Manufacturing Journal

You have heard it, and you will hear it over and over – the call for sustainable production, use, and disposal of plastics, and the importance of working together to achieve the goal of reduced plastic waste. We are knee-deep in plastic waste. Consider the statistics from the UN Environment:

o 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic have been produced, using 17 million barrels of oil each year

o 1 million plastic bottles, 10 million plastic bags are bought every minute

o 50% of consumer plastics are single use, and 10% of all human-generated waste is plastic

o 80% remains in landfills or the environment

See more statistics in the article, Cohesive approach to solving the plastics waste problem on page 18.

Meanwhile, the development of better materials such as 100% recyclable food-grade plastics are long-awaited. Recent products include Propafilm™ Strata SL from Innovia, and from Mondi a fully-recyclable polypropylene film for MAP and vacuum packaging.

The technology to recycle PET into food-grade plastics is vital in the drive to reduce waste. In this issue we feature Chang Woen and partner Indorama, both companies supporting each other in the goal to produce high quality rPET for the food industry.

On the cover we also highlight blockchain entering Cambodia’s rice market. It seems Cambodia’s farming industry is look set to adopt the technology. With the success of the Blockchain for Livelihoods from Organic Cambodian Rice (BlocRice), a project that carried out the use of blockchain technology within the supply chain of organic rice, it probably won’t be long until we see farmers of other produce follow suit.