Shipping creates packaging; more than in brick-and-mortar retail. And the fashion industry in particular has a hard time with plastic alternatives, as these offer good protection against dirt and have to withstand all weather conditions. Environmentally friendly solutions are required.
Mail order company Otto has teamed up with the Hamburg start-up Traceless to develop a mailer that is made entirely of plant-based material and can be fully composted.
A few weeks ago, a larger pilot test was to start with a bag made of a composite material made of traceless and grass paper. However, unexpected difficulties arose during an internal preliminary test, which is why the live test was postponed and the cooperation partners decided to invest more time in the development. However, a new prototype has been completed and initial preliminary tests have been promising, which is why a market launch is planned for next year.
Glue caused delay
The reason for the delay was the adhesive: “We at Traceless have developed the plant-based material for the coating, but that’s not all – the coating, packaging, printing, folding and gluing also have to be solved. Our claim is that companies can use our material on existing machines. That works – but of course not right away, because the machines have been optimized for decades for conventional plastics,” explains Traceless co-founder Anne Lamp in an interview.
“We also want to make sure that all processing steps are really sustainable. We found an environmentally friendly solution for the printing, the folding also worked, it only got tricky in the very last step: the last splice. This step was not quite ready for series production with the last prototype,” continues Lamp.
Plastic-free and plant-based
For them, the challenges are not frustrating, but exciting: “With this project, we are doing pioneering work together and are not just developing a shipping bag, but a whole new type of plastic-free, plant-based materials.”
A team of 30 is now working on the material, which was once produced in the laboratory, in a pilot plant. “The core of Traceless is a process we developed, with which we produce the Traceless granules from plant residues. At the same time, we are working on optimizing the material for different applications – the shipping bag is one of them,” adds Lamp.
Necessity is the mother of invention when it comes to bonding: “We found an environmentally friendly way to bond the Traceless material – using heat alone, without any adhesive containing plastic. Unfortunately, there was no easy way to integrate the technology for this at the partner’s production facility. The system would also have had to be upgraded for normal gluing,” explains Otto packaging expert Karla Jabben.
Together with partners, the film production is now to be tested on various scales and the traceless material is to be further optimized step by step, including further processing into bags.
“At the same time, the variant of the current prototype made of coated paper remains an option that we are keeping an eye on. We are therefore pursuing different approaches at the same time, which is always a strategic advantage in highly innovative projects,” adds Jabben.
Traceless is planning a larger plant for the material production, so that in the long term large quantities of plant residues can also be processed and the Traceless material can be made from them.
Also read:
- Otto presents recyclable collection
- Otto packages are now CO2-neutral