Cyberpac Blog: April 2010

Wednesday, 28 April 2010

Cyberpac enter local triathlon.

Cyberpac took part in the local triathlon at Wattisham Airbase on 24th April. The Team came 197th of 233!

Disclaimer: Some images hosted on this blog have been collected from external research associates to be presented as stimulus to those seeking news from the cutting edge of packaging. The imagery is not being presented as our own and copyright still belongs to the owner/creator of said work.

Tuesday, 27 April 2010

Foreign & Commonwealth Office Blog about Harmless

Greener plastic wrapper causes global twitter frenzy.

An international Twitter frenzy is said to have broken out recently over a UK company's new water-soluble, plastic wrap product - involving twitters in Russia and the United States.

Big cover story: this plastic wrapper breaks down easily in water or a compost heap. Non-toxic Harmless-Dissolve is five times stronger than normal polythene. Developed in the UK, it is degraded by micro-organisms and moulds - the bugs love it. An international Twitter frenzy is said to have broken out recently over a UK company's new water-soluble, plastic wrap product - involving twitters in Russia and the United States.

Packaging company Cyberpac unleashed its novel "polywrap" system - called Harmless-Dissolve - on the UK's creative folk by signing a deal with the industry's premium magazine Creative Review. Since being used as the wrapper for the publication - which had the unashamed slogan "this bag dissolves in water" emblazoned across it - Cyberpac's managing director Will Anderson has been inundated for more information about his product, along with further requests from the media for interviews as far reaching as the Huffington Post in Chicago to NTV in Russia.

With just 65 Twitters following his feeds, it appears many of the site's mini-bloggers were so impressed by the 100-per-cent environmentally friendly product that they felt they had to tell all their followers about it. And it has not stopped there, since the product was revealed recently protecting Creative Review, global blog sites - and particularly those with a green agenda - are writing about it also.

Harmless-Dissolve is made from a hydro-degradable substrate that is five times stronger than normal polythene. It is a water-soluble polymer that completely biodegrades in a composting environment or in a dishwasher or washing machine.

It has no harmful residues and will break down into naturally occurring substances - the bugs love it. It is non-toxic and is degraded by micro-organisms, moulds and yeasts.

These organisms can occur in both artificial environments - such as anaerobic digesters and activated sewage sludge - and composts and natural environments such as aquatic systems and soil. The micro-organisms use Harmless-Dissolve as a food source by producing a variety of enzymes that are capable of reacting with it. In the end the bag becomes carbon dioxide, water and biomass.

A Cyberpac spokesperson says it has delivered an industry first: a clear, compostable bag that is hugely versatile and flexible."It can be produced in many colours and formats - Harmless-Dissolve can be made in any size of envelope, printed full colour process using biodegradable inks and finished with a biodegradable peel and seal lip.

"With a pedigree in the military, space, medical and automotive industries, Cyberpac has the ability to harness packaging processes from across all sectors to deliver the best creative and most innovative solutions."

Plastic facts:

Some polymer plastics can take hundreds of years to decompose, meaning that almost all plastic made still exists on our planet.
80 per cent of consumers' plastic waste ends up in landfill with only 7 per cent being recycled.
About 30 million tonnes of household waste is generated in the UK every year, of which 5.9 million is packaging.
96 per cent of dead seagulls in Scotland were found to have 28 pieces of plastic waste in their stomachs.

The packaging industry in the UK has been designing with waste prevention in mind for some time. Improvements in packaging design and production techniques have resulted in large reductions in materials use. A glass milk bottle is 65 per cent lighter than it was in 1940; a one-litre plastic detergent bottle is 58 per cent lighter than in 1970 and a cardboard box is typically 14 per cent lighter than in 1971.

And for a bit of fun click on to this YouTube link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Csj9yGxNco

Contact Information: www.cyberpac.co.uk

Disclaimer: Some images hosted on this blog have been collected from external research associates to be presented as stimulus to those seeking news from the cutting edge of packaging. The imagery is not being presented as our own and copyright still belongs to the owner/creator of said work.

Apple tackles child labour.

In Apple’s 2010 Supplier Responsibility Report they announced that, among other things, some of their suppliers were found to have hired underage workers. They also uncovered that their suppliers underpaid workers, over-worked workers, improperly disposed of hazardous waste, conducted employee discrimination, and falsified formal records meant to cover up these violations. In a shocking display of transparency Apple released the report which found that one or more violations were found in 60 of the 102 facilities audited.

Apple announced this news in its Supplier Responsibility Report, a report released for three years running that audits of Apple’s supplier factories. These factories aren’t owned by Apple, but while working on Apple’s goods they are contractually obligated to work within Apple’s worker’s rights rules and the laws of the country that they operate in. The violations occurred in both of those categories. For instance, workers were found to have worked beyond Apple’s 60 hour-per-week limit in 60 of the 102 factories audited and 11 workers across various facilities were found to have been hired at 15 years of age, one year below their respective country’s legal working age limit.

Apple found three factories had hired non-certified hazardous disposal agencies to do away with their waste and 44 facilities that didn’t have a proper environmental impact assessments including 11 which didn’t have air emissions permits. In the Supplier Responsibility Report they state, “when social responsibility performance consistently fails to meet Apple expectations, [they] terminate business.” In many of the cases of violations the wrongs have been righted, for instance underpaid workers have been paid for the discrepancies and the underage workers are all now at the legal working age.

Though the violations come as a shock it’s nice to know that Apple is clearly displaying their assembly line faults and laying out a plan of action to fix them — if they haven’t already. Apple also noted in their report that all of the factories audited stated that Apple was the only company to have ever audited their facility. The report highlights issues that occur when the supply and manufacturing chains are geographically removed from the business operations. Without oversight factories violations can slip under the radar. Kudos to Apple for finding these violations and laying out plans to fix them. You can rest easy knowing Apple is doing something to make sure your gadgets are made with responsibility in mind.

Disclaimer: Some images hosted on this blog have been collected from external research associates to be presented as stimulus to those seeking news from the cutting edge of packaging. The imagery is not being presented as our own and copyright still belongs to the owner/creator of said work.

Tuesday, 20 April 2010

Cyberpac return from a fantastic trip to China.

9th March 2010

Cyberpac china is now up and running.

Share

Disclaimer: Some images hosted on this blog have been collected from external research associates to be presented as stimulus to those seeking news from the cutting edge of packaging. The imagery is not being presented as our own and copyright still belongs to the owner/creator of said work.

Harmless on Radio 2

26th February 2010

Will Anderson appears on BBC Radio 2 with Simon Mayo to discuss Harmless Dissolve. Interview no longer available online.

Disclaimer: Some images hosted on this blog have been collected from external research associates to be presented as stimulus to those seeking news from the cutting edge of packaging. The imagery is not being presented as our own and copyright still belongs to the owner/creator of said work.

Harmless on Radio Suffolk

10th February 2010

Will Anderson talks about Harmless Packaging on Radio Suffolk. Interview no longer available online.

Disclaimer: Some images hosted on this blog have been collected from external research associates to be presented as stimulus to those seeking news from the cutting edge of packaging. The imagery is not being presented as our own and copyright still belongs to the owner/creator of said work.

And Harmless Dissolve hits the US.

Demo courtesy of Butch in a US gas station!

Greener Plastic Wrapper Causes Global Twitter Frenzy.

2nd February 2010

Harmless hits the London Press Service. Click here to view the whole article.

Disclaimer: Some images hosted on this blog have been collected from external research associates to be presented as stimulus to those seeking news from the cutting edge of packaging. The imagery is not being presented as our own and copyright still belongs to the owner/creator of said work.

Cyberpac sponsors Creative Review's Grown Your Own.

25th January 2010

Check out the latest use for the Harmless Compost Range at CR's blog site.

Cyberpac product range at a glance.

22nd January 2010

Please email us at info@cyberpac.co.uk to receive our snapshot flyer for Cyberpac projects.

Disclaimer: Some images hosted on this blog have been collected from external research associates to be presented as stimulus to those seeking news from the cutting edge of packaging. The imagery is not being presented as our own and copyright still belongs to the owner/creator of said work.

Oxo-biodegradable: not suitable to be landfilled or composted.

20th January 2010

Writing in the November/December issue of bioplastics, a European trade publication, Dr. Gerald Scott, long time proponent of oxo-biodegradable technologies and chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Oxo-biodegradable Plastics Association, stated that products made with oxo-bioedgradable additive technologies are not suitable to be landfilled or composted.

"Let us be clear…that oxo-biodegradable plastic is not normally marketed for composting, and it is not designed for anaerobic digestion nor for degradation deep in landfill…"

Rather, Dr. Scott claims that these additives are designed to lessen the impact of plastics that are littered.

To view the full article please click here.

Disclaimer: Some images hosted on this blog have been collected from external research associates to be presented as stimulus to those seeking news from the cutting edge of packaging. The imagery is not being presented as our own and copyright still belongs to the owner/creator of said work.

Cyberpac - Barcoded products to boost recognition

13th January 2010

Cyberpac look at QR Codes on some of the latest projects to boost recognition and direct people to view new projects on the website.

Cyberpac sponsors the Design Week Awards.

4th January 2010

Harmless appears on Environmental Graffiti, a site for "environmentalists that dont take it too seriously".

28th December 2009
Take a look at the full article. Please click here.

Disclaimer: Some images hosted on this blog have been collected from external research associates to be presented as stimulus to those seeking news from the cutting edge of packaging. The imagery is not being presented as our own and copyright still belongs to the owner/creator of said work.

Cyberpac joins Facebook.

7th December 2009

Cyberpac produces Creative Review's December issue: Build your own christmas tree.

2nd December 2009

To see how this went down with the CR readers, check out the blog.

Disclaimer: Some images hosted on this blog have been collected from external research associates to be presented as stimulus to those seeking news from the cutting edge of packaging. The imagery is not being presented as our own and copyright still belongs to the owner/creator of said work.

Cyberpac sponsors the Benchmark Awards.

1st December 2009

Harmless appear on Russian TV.

20th November 2009

To view the TV programme please click here.

Disclaimer: Some images hosted on this blog have been collected from external research associates to be presented as stimulus to those seeking news from the cutting edge of packaging. The imagery is not being presented as our own and copyright still belongs to the owner/creator of said work.

Harmless makes it on to YouTube.

7th November 2009

East Anglian Daily Times - Flood of global interest in water soluble packaging.

3rd November 2009

Cyberpac joins Twitter.

14th October 2009

Cyberpac runs an industry first with Creative Review.

31st October 2009

Newsstand copies of the November issue of CR come in a revolutionary new bag that simply dissolves in hot water. No waste. No landfill.
Anyone buying their copy of CR on the newsstand this month will find that the issue comes in a transparent bag bearing the words 'This bag dissolves in water'. And it does.

To review the CR bloc please click here.

Disclaimer: Some images hosted on this blog have been collected from external research associates to be presented as stimulus to those seeking news from the cutting edge of packaging. The imagery is not being presented as our own and copyright still belongs to the owner/creator of said work.

Cyberpac showcases the latest portfolio on YouTube.

Tuesday, 6 April 2010

The Secret of Nike Air

Courtesy of CR Blog. April Fools Day prank. Nike present this great film that documents the process of collecting and inserting the very special air that's included in Nike Air sneakers...

QFoglio becomes a puff for adults and an armchair for kids.

Looking more like plant motifs, the “QuattroFoglio” or “QFoglio” from Rado Studio is a family chair that greets both adults and children alike. Allowing two separate variations, the functional furniture can be used either as a puff for adults, or you may just roll it over to turn it into an armchair for kids. Featuring a simple, smooth form, the QFoglio is not only aesthetic to look at but its ergonomic design fulfills the comfort needs of the users as well. Made in plastic that makes it lightweight for safe and easy transportation, the multifunctional furniture becomes a functional chair for adults and a toy to the kids without losing its functional purpose.

View the full story, click here.