The Prince of Wales visits James Cropper’s plastic free packaging facility

Print Solutions Green Solutions

The Prince of Wales has learned how master papermaker James Cropper turns paper fibre, including single use coffee cups, into plastic free packaging.

As well as visiting James Cropper’s new Colourform production unit, which produces plastic free packaging, The Prince of Wales also joined a ‘Seeing is Believing, Business in the Community’ roundtable to discuss and learn what more businesses can do to create value from waste.

The group of cross sector experts and leaders met to discuss some of the key challenges and opportunities related to bringing waste back into value chains. The move is part of the Business in the Community’s ambition to create a collaborative plan to tackle the UK’s growing waste problem, which will be brought to life at a significant summit later in 2018.

Phil Wild, James Cropper CEO, said: ‘We are proud that our plastic free packaging and coffee cup recycling processes are being used as inspiration for today’s discussions. We have developed these processes over a number of years because we recognise the need for brands to consider their packaging design and explore plastic free alternatives.

‘We believe a truly sustainable approach is not just about using renewable materials and committing to responsible, lower impact manufacture, but is also about ensuring packaging is easy for consumers to recycle. That is why our Colourform packaging is 100% renewable, recyclable and biodegradable, which means that even if it is not recycled, it breaks down without any harm to the environment.’

Gudrun Cartwright, environment director at Business in the Community, said: ‘There needs to be a change in mindset in how we handle waste and source materials for our products and packaging, and we have a responsibility to do something different. To achieve this, government and business need to come together to lead by example. This includes showcasing businesses like James Cropper, bringing waste back into value chains and unpicking the challenges that lie in the way of creating change at scale.’

Colourform provides all of the premium appeal that discerning consumers expect from packaging and demonstrates a significant environmental benefit when used in preference to plastic alternatives. Made using 100% renewable paper fibre from well managed forests and recycled coffee cups, it can be manufactured in any colour or shape, is fully recyclable with household paper and is naturally biodegradable.

Colourform’s mission is to offer brands a sustainable packaging option for their products, without losing the excitement and quality of experience that outstanding packaging provides.

Phil continued, ‘We are delighted that The Prince of Wales visited the Colourform production unit, just five years after Her Majesty the Queen’s visit to our CupCycling facility. We believe in helping brands use packaging creatively, and we continually innovate to make sure they can do that, sustainably.’

James Cropper’s plastic free packaging launch builds on the papermaker’s CupCycling technology – the world’s first process dedicated to up-cycling disposable coffee cups. The cups are saved from landfill and incineration, and turned instead into beautiful papers and consumer packaging such as Colourform.

The process involves removing the tricky polyethylene coating that makes takeaway cups waterproof, while preserving the precious paper fibres. CupCycling is all about collaboration. Working with coffee shops, waste management partners and brands who care about the environment, James Cropper has set out to help recycle some of the estimated 2.5 billion takeaway cups that are currently thrown away in the UK each year – the majority of which currently end up in landfill. To date more than 20 million coffee cups have been recycled through the process, and the facility has the capacity to up-cycle 500 million each year.

With 170 years’ worth of experience, James Cropper makes iconic, bespoke and luxurious papers for brands all over the world, supplying markets from luxury packaging to digital imaging. Based in the English Lake District, a UNESCO World Heritage site, sustainability is at the heart of everything James Cropper does – from sourcing raw materials, to investment in renewable energy, and world leading recycling innovation.