Eco-spife makes kiwifruit even greener

Zespri and Scion are working on a project to combine packaging sustainability and consumer convenience.
The aim is to create a take-home pack including a plastic wrapper, kiwifruit, fruit labels and a plastic tool for cutting and scooping so all the waste can be disposed of in the same bin for composting.
Zespri sustainability innovation leader Alistair Mowat said recycling and correct disposal of waste was particularly important in countries such as Japan where people were expected to divide their rubbish into appropriate categories.
Speaking at a one day bioplastics workshop hosted by Scion on Friday, Mowat said Zespri needed to meet the needs of consumers in these markets.
"[In the primary sectors] there is a lot of competition with largely undifferentiated products and not a lot in the way of branding. So we asked ourselves how we compared in terms of sustainability."
Mowat said people were more conscious of where their food came from and what its environmental footprint was and Zespri wanted to make it easier for consumers to deal with waste from its products as part of its wider environmental awareness.
"People don't want to have to put the plastic bag in one bin, the skin in another and the label in another. We need to think about where it ends up - and that depends on the consumer."
He said consumer behaviour lagged behind awareness of waste issues and the aim was to create bioplastic packaging that could be disposed of with the skins. This includes a spoon/knife hybrid known as the spife.
Bioplastics are made from plant material, rather than petroleum-based resources and Zespri has been working with Scion scientists to develop a spife that can be composted and has the desired properties at a commercially viable price.
Scion's Martin Markotsis described work done to identify waste materials from the primary sectors that could be used to make the bioplastic - including kiwifruit hairs left behind in the grading machines.
"We have spent several years learning how to incorporate these into plastics."
Moulds from spife producers were used to create prototypes for testing to see which materials and processes resulted in the best spifes.
"The next step is to scale up to commercial volumes, then look at other applications across the kiwifruit industry."
Markotsis said the team was happy to talk to businesses about use of their waste resources to make bioplastics and how the resulting material could be used in their products and packaging.
He said New Zealand was rich in forestry, horticultural and agricultural biomass that could be suitable.
Work continues on enhancing durability or helping bioplastics break down more quickly to meet commercial demands.
STRATEGY

Businesses looking at using more sustainable products need to consider their market carefully and sell their green credentials clearly and accurately to consumers.
Australasian Bioplastics Association president Alan Adams told the Scion bioplastics workshop that businesses needed to evaluate the relevance of sustainable products and packaging in their markets.
"It needs to be part of a strategy and it needs to make sense with your products."
He quoted figures showing that 60 per cent of people would choose a greener option if everything else was equal, but only 20 per cent were willing to pay more for "sustainable" products - something firms had to consider before investing in environmental friendliness.
If initiatives such as bioplastics were a potential selling point for you, Adams said it was important to sell it to consumers.
"If you are investing the time and energy into putting these products in your marketplace, you need to tell people about it and you have to put it in a language customers understand."
He said it was important to be clear what it was you were promoting and to be accurate in your claims:
 "Claims will be tested by the Commerce Commission in New Zealand."