Around the world, around the clock:

building resilience

in international supply chains.

Sustainability Pillars

Building resilience is not just about supplier redundancy and diversification.  Long-term resilience includes choosing products that are safe for people, safe for the environment, affordable and accessible for customers and businesses.  Concerns about excessive waste, ever-changing single-use packaging legislation, and your company’s environmental footprint are all important considerations in corporate risk-mitigation strategies.  At Current, we use the triple bottom line to guide our decision making, delivering truly sustainable products for future-proof businesses:

Improve the well being of all consumers, workers, and communities your products touch, and adhere to the world’s highest health and safety standards. ​

Minimize the environmental footprint of your packaging, and strive to regenerate natural ecosystems. Eliminate waste by all means possible and enable a circular economy.​

Use solutions that minimize cost to consumers, businesses, and society as a whole, and deliver maximum value in a way that is resilient and accessible for all. ​

Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. Recover.

We follow the “4R” hierarchy to design packaging that is as sustainable as possible:

The first and most obvious choice, use less!  Removing unnecessary packaging and reducing weight by down-gauging is often the easiest way to lower your footprint and your bottom line.  Contact us to learn how we save brands millions by optimizing designs and eliminating waste. 

2oz PP Soufflé Cups
Achieve up to 20% weight reduction by optimizing wall shape for increased stability after down-gauging.
4oz Paper Cups
Many businesses commonly using 180gsm paper are able to see the same functionality with 150gsm paper.
Beverage Napkins
Significant cost and material savings can be achieved by changing from a 23x23cm 18gsm napkins to a custom 23x21cm 15gsm napkin.

Reusable packaging has a huge opportunity to reduce waste while bringing maximum value to consumers.  While practical applications can be limited, reusable cups, bags, and cutlery are by far the most sustainable options available.  Whether organic cotton tote bags, stainless steel, ceramic, or glass mugs and tumblers, Current can upgrade your brand to the most premium reusable packaging without breaking the bank. 

Organic Cotton Bags
Premium organic cotton tote bags for a sustainable promotional giveaway program.
Stainless Steel Tumblers
High-quality custom branded tumblers for corporate giveaways.
Ceramic Mugs
Low-cost custom branded mugs for cafés seeking to upgrade their customer experience.

Recycling is the optimal end-of-life stage for any material, and improving both recycling rates and use of post-consumer recycled material is critical to building a circular economy for packaging.  At Current, we have the ability to use high-quality PCR resins safe for food contact in the majority of our products. 

100% PCR Buckets
Ultra-thin wall buckets made with post consumer recycled polypropylene, for retail distribution of flowers.
rPP Cups
Recycled polypropylene cups using a high quality 100% PCR resin safe for food contact with high transparency.
Recycled Napkins
100% PCR pulp, at a price point and qualilty competitive with virgin pulp.

Most materials must be disposed of eventually. With 50% of global plastic waste being sent to landfills, 23% mismanaged and littered, and 19% incinerated, designing packaging with these scenarios in mind is essential if we want to make any significant change in our lifetimes.   

Recovery happens in 3 main ways:

  1. Renewable natural gas capture in sustainable landfills (like those operated by Archaea Energy)
  2. Waste to energy facilities (incinerators)
  3. Material recovery through composting and biodegradation

At Current, we provide a full range of the latest biodegradable and compostable materials, including our in-house brand “Recur Perishable Plastics”.  Contact us to learn how all single-use plastics can be transformed into “Perishable Plastics” with no change in performance or appearance, at significantly less cost than all other plastic alternatives. 

Compostable PLA Cups
Industrial compostable cups with high durability and transparency, for brands seeking to minimize persistent plastic pollution.
BioPBS Compostable Paper Cups
A home compostable alternative to PLA lining, BioPBS is a great way to waterproof cups while minimizing end of life impact.
Recur Perishable Plastic Tote Bags
Our in-house brand, Recur Perishable Plastics leverages biodegradable-modification technology to become landfill and ocean biodegradable.

Sustainable Packaging FAQ

Plastic is essential to our modern world, and something that has had a bad public image lately.  We promote the responsible use of plastic, and hope to help restore it’s image as a sustainable material by improving understanding and leveraging emerging technologies. 
 
Plastic is often the lightest weight, lowest cost, most resource efficient, and highest performing option. To the extent that it can be properly managed and recovered as a resource after use, it will remain a top choice for sustainable single-use packaging. (fun fact: plastic bags were originally promoted as the sustainable alternative to paper bags- they save trees!)
 

While we sell single-use packaging of all materials, our priority and first recommendation to brands is to start by using less of it, no matter the material.  We aid this through strategies like down-gauging, design optimization, and improving stack-ability for more efficient shipping.  All are primary ways to reduce cost, and just make sense as a part of good design. 

 
Humans will always need to buy things (food, clothes, shelter, medicine, etc.) and those things will always need to come in some sort of packaging.  That’s where we come in, to make sure humans do it right. 
 
Recycled content, designing for recyclability, biodegradable and compostable materials, biodegradable additives, biocomposites, and reusable packaging are the main tools in our sustainable packaging kit.  Get in touch with us to learn how we can make your packaging more sustainable. 

Sustainable is one of those words that has been overused to the point of becoming meaningless. 

Sustainability means the ability for something to endure. In our case, the ability for humanity to continue living in harmony with nature, and the ability for businesses to continue providing long-term economic value to society, without destroying ourselves or the environment we depend on.  This is the essence of the triple bottom line approach we advocate. 
 
Sustainability is simply a part of good design.  The challenge is, sustainability isn’t immediately tangible in a product. It must be tested, certified, validated in the real world, and communicated to consumers before adding commercial value.  A lot goes on behind the curtains, and that’s where we help.  
In short, we strive to eliminate waste by any means possible. This means reducing, reusing, recycling, and recovering materials, in that order.  These are the key principles for building a circular economy for plastics. 

There are many ways to evaluate a packaging material’s environmental  sustainability. The best way is to compare the LCA of each, which includes:

  1. The total energy and water used to extract or grow the natural resource and process it into a usable product

  2. The degree of impact the extraction, production, distribution, use, and end of life disposal scenario has on the natural environment

  3. The ability of the material to be either recovered for recycled content or for energy after it’s useful life

In addition, we evaluate packaging’s social  sustainability by looking at:

  1. Any potential toxicity
  2. The social working conditions along the product’s full lifecycle, from resource extraction to disposal

  3. The performance properties of the material, and it’s ability to package goods safely and hygienically

And finally for the most quantifiable metric, economic  sustainability, we consider: 

  1. The price and availability of the material, and how accessible it is for the desired end market 
  2. The total cost of societal externalities, such as end of life waste management 
  3. The cost of using this material vs. the value gained by using it long term

Yes, you have to.  Sustainability is not optional.  We make it easier.