The new wireless, noise cancelling over-ear headphones from Plantronics come, according to the reviews with a host of clever features that make them both convenient and easy to use. What most of the reviews forgot to mention is that the packaging is also a winner.
Custom designed for the BackBeat Pro earphones, it is made of PaperFoam, a commercially attractive, environmentally friendly packaging material that is produced by an innovative company was established in 1998 in Barneveld, the Netherlands. The PaperFoam ‘mountain’ on which the headphones nestle, encased in a clear plastic frame, was developed in cooperation with Plantronics and PKG Packaging, one of PaperFoam’s sales partners located on the US west coast.
PaperFoam contains no oil-based ingredients whatsoever: the packaging is made of locally sourced renewable raw materials- mainly potato starch, natural fiber and water – and is fully home compostable. It has a carbon footprint that is smaller from start to finish than comparable packaging made from plastic or paper pulp. The packaging has 4-star biobased certification, is extremely lightweight and fully biodegradable. It is completely safe: even when incinerated, no harmful substances are produced.
These properties make the PaperFoam technology especially suited to the production of low-quantity, high-quality packaging applications. The product is produced via an injection molding process. Basically, the ingredients are mixed and then injected into a heated mold. The material is foamed by evaporating the water, after which the finished packaging is ejected. The process is thus able to produce accurate shapes that provide better product protection. The design freedom and colorability make the material an attractive choice to designers.
Currently PaperFoam is currently used to pack electronics, cosmetics, medical and dry-foods. The company received a Cradle-to-Cradle Quality Statement from EPEA in May 2014.
Source
Bioplastics MAGAZINE, 2014-10-27.
Supplier
EPEA GmbH, Hamburg
PaperFoam
PKG Packaging
Plantronics
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