This material was produced by the Royal Society of New Zealand (RSNZ)
under contract to the Ministry of Education in 2000 and 2001. It was written
to assist teachers and schools in their delivery of the technology/ hangarau
curriculum statements. The project was jointly coordinated by personnel
from the Technology Education New Zealand (TENZ)
and National Association of Māori Mathematicians, Scientists and Technologists
(NAMMSAT) networks. Monitoring and evaluation of the material was carried
out by a national project advisory group.
The growing realisation that some conventional packaging will last
longer in landfills than the products they are designed to protect has
resulted in a noticeable worldwide movement away from plastics based
packaging.
This trend has motivated work by the small engineering team at Christchurch
based Blue Marble Polymers (BMP) to develop packaging products which
can replace the expanded polystyrene foam shapes commonly used as protection
around electronic devices such as TVs and stereo systems.
Their base materials and manufacturing methods are similar to those
used in the snackfoods industry and the new packaging products are easily
compostable. In fact the material is so eco-friendly that 90% of it
can be washed away by water if required.
A two stage process uses an extruder to produce pellets from a basic
starch mixture. The base material produced is able to be easily and
cost effectively transported. The pellets can then be expanded by microwave
to create the final foam shaped packaging product..
In addition to the benefits associated with a compostable packaging
product, the process itself will cut down on fuel use by allowing equipment
manufacturers to make their own protective packaging on site rather
than having to have it shipped in from another plant. Although the technology
used is licensed from overseas, the understanding of how to extrude
starch and expand it into foam was developed in-house by BMP, with funding
assistance from Technology New Zealand.
Ideas for classroom use
This report is based on April 2001 articles in a number of daily newspapers
on the development of a new type of environmentally friendly moulded
foam packaging.
In Europe there are legal requirements already in place for the use
of environmentally sound packing and in Japan and the USA consumers
are looking for greener alternatives to the traditionally used plastics.
The company concerned has taken existing technology and developed a
new process to target the identified need. The result is a product which
addresses many of the negative aspects of existing packaging and which
therefore has the potential for extensive world wide use.
Keeping down costs and retaining recycling potential is also the focus
of work being carried out by the Forest Research Institute in Rotorua.
Every week vast quantities of New Zealand meat, fish, butter, cheese,
fruit and flowers are exported across the world - mainly in packaging
made from paper. This is because of its low cost, low bulk, light weight
and recyclability. New Zealand's distance from foreign markets mean
that our horticultural food exports may spend up to four months in a
cool, moist, refrigerated environment which can weaken and lower the
protective properties of the traditional corrugated cardboard boxes
in which the produce is packed. Development work at the Institute is
designed to overcome this problem.
Further New Zealand based innovation in the area of 'smart packaging'
was revealed at this years NZ Seafood Industry Conference in Invercargill.
By combining three separate inventions, Global Licensing and Innovation
- a division of Carter Holt Harvey - has come up with what it believes
is the ultimate in covert throw-away surveillance. This new smart packaging
uses a paper thin saline battery to power a storage chip that can feed
its stored information to a mini scanner. The chip can record for example
identity, time, humidity and temperature and give access to data which
can usually only be obtained by breaking open the pallet. This makes
it particularly useful for tracking the transport of perishable goods
or sensitive equipment.
This illustrates the potential for the effective use of packaging as
a context for classroom practice in technology.
Students could begin their exploration of the topic by looking at the
implications of the introduction of these new types of packaging product
in terms of, for example:
potential environmental impact;
stakeholder considerations - the consumers, exporters, packaging manufacturers,
transport operators etc.
Additional NZ based resource material which is readily available to
build on this stimulus material, and generate ideas for further classroom
activity, includes:
PAC-IT: A resource which was jointly funded from the Minister for the Environment's
Sustainable Management Fund and from the Packaging Council of New Zealand.
Ideas for classroom development and links to sites with packaging activities
can be found at www.pac-it.org.nz
The complete package: The technologies of packaging- its purpose,
design innovation and re-use. - Written by Monika Fry. ISBN 0 582
86173X
