In Closing: Plantable Packaging
An innovative “green” carton grows a plant.
By Marie Redding, Senior EditorLast November, Pangea Organics collaborated with organic seed producer Seeds to Change to launch an innovative carton. Once customers remove the beauty product from the carton, the carton can be used to grow a plant.
The 100% compostable and biodegradable carton is molded with seeds in it. It is designed to soak in water for about one minute so the seeds can germinate. Then, the carton can be planted in 1-in.-deep soil. After a short time, a plant sprouts.
Joshua Onysko, founder and CEO of Pangea Organics, came up with the idea. “It has always been my dream to create cartons that ‘grow.’ I was first inspired to do this while on a trip to Joshua Tree National Park in California,” he says.
The die-cut cartons are manufactured by Molded Fiber (Clinton, IA). Sheets of molded fiber are used to create the cartons. The molded fiber sheets are made from a pulp, which is a mixture of 100% postconsumer newspaper and water. The pulp is then fed into a tank. “We had to place the seeds into the forming tank, rather than the pulper, so that they would stay viable and not be destroyed by the pulping process,” explains Steve McLaughlin, product manager, Molded Fiber.
One of the challenges for Molded Fiber was to find a way to disperse the seeds evenly among all the tooling used to create the molded fiber sheets. “We had to make sure there would be a similar number of seeds in each carton,” says McLaughlin.
Another challenge was main-taining an optimum temperature and pressure throughout the production process. “Heat was a major issue with the clamshell cartons used to package Pangea’s bars of soap because the process that is needed to finish the cartons and keep them formed properly involves heated dies that press the cartons into form,” explains McLaughlin. “We had to keep the temperature down in order for the seeds to survive.”
Pangea’s new packaging will appeal to the environment-conscious Pangea customer on many levels. “What better way is there to support sustainable consumerism than by planting flowers and herbs? Our packaging gives back to the earth,” says Onysko.