Tag: Research

Clemson students Sneh Bangar and Cayden Gates introduced their project, BioPack, at the College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life sciences annual Cultivate.CAFLS competition this year. Their project was awarded third place with a monetary prize of $500 to further their research and development. These students are working towards changing the future of sustainable packaging.

Biopack was inspired by the goal of turning today’s challenges into tomorrow’s solutions. It is a starch-based film to reimagine food packaging across the commercial landscape. Rather than being designed for standard recycling, Biopack was designed with the goal of biodegradability. So often our waste finds its final stage of life in the environment, so the goal of Biopack was to counteract the problem of harmful waste in the environment and turn it into biodegradable materials.

The two explain, “The food packaging industry is a major contributor to plastic waste because most food packaging is for single-use purposes. Our goal was to find a sustainable alternative to plastic-based food packaging which led us to develop starch-based films.” Starch based films are not designed to be recycled in the traditional fashion that we are used to, and if they are recycled, the options are limited on how to recycle it. If bioplastic contaminates recycled polyethylene terephthalate, the most common plastic, or other chemical components, the entirety of the products could no longer be recycled. Consumers can sort their recycling and dispose of bioplastics in designated areas of recycling centers or find a bioplastic-specific recycling program near them. The team hopes to reinforce the starch film using Kudzu, an invasive weed that has caused sufficient economic losses for the southeast, to act as a sustainable and biodegradable alternative to single-use plastic. This will create a water soluble material that can naturally biodegrade in the environment. They shared a common goal of developing the invasive Kudzu weed into Cellulose Nanocrystals to create something positive for the environment.

The two major components used are Pearl Millet Starch and Cellulose Nanocrystals, which are both plant-based. Pearl Millet Starch has been underutilized as a natural resource, but Sneh and Cayden put their knowledge together to utilize this material as a packaging alternative that ultimately benefits the environment in the long run. Pearl Millet Starch is primarily used for forage and livestock grazing, but it requires significantly less resources to grow compared to other starch crops, essentially making it a simpler and more efficient way to create their starch-based packaging. As a result of their material usage, Biopack is designed to completely degrade within 3-4 weeks of disposal, as compared to several years for single-use plastic. The best way to dispose of Biopack is by composting. It is designed to degrade into water or slil quickly and provice natural nourishment to the environment. If disposed of into waste bins, the packaging will biodegrade on its own.

Biopack is still in its beginning stages, but Sneh and Cayden plan to push their product to become applicable for commercial use. Developing Biopack for commercial use will reduce plastic waste that is harmful to the Earth, wildlife, and humans. “We hope to produce a film that can coexist with current manufacturing operations. Our focus is to develop active packaging films for wider market acceptability” (Bangar). The future of sustainable packaging lies within the curiosity and creativity of students, and Sneh and Cayden have demonstrated that together, we can strive for a better future with the right ideas.

Attendees from industry and academia attended the inaugural 2021 FRESH Food, Packaging & Sustainability Summit hosted by Clemson University in follow up to the 2019 Sustainability and Food Waste Summit sponsored by Sonoco in Hartsville, SC. The 2021 virtual Summit promoted the power of partnerships through illustrating connectivity among stakeholders to drive advances and send united market signals that will advance sustainability goals. The Summit began with a keynote address on the global challenges facing sustainable food systems, and over the next two days presented topics within food value chain verticals with input from stakeholders. Supply chain discussions provided overarching context for the Summit, with sessions progressing to issues specific to packaging that support safe, secure and sustainable solutions. The Summit concluded with two presentations emphasizing the importance of partnerships to drive innovation and a cohesive strategy to realize sustainable solutions.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE EVENT

February 24, 2021

World Food Programme
The FRESH Summit began with introductions from Jim Clements, President of Clemson University, and Howard Coker, President & CEOof Sonoco, giving attendees an in-depth look at the historic relationship between Clemson and Sonoco and the creation of the Sonoco FRESH initiative. The keynote presentation by David Beasley, Executive Director of the World Food Programme, underscored the importance of private sector engagement to achieve sustainable food systems. He emphasized three key global challenges: man-made conflicts, climate change and fragile governments as primary causes of the worsening of starvation, and projected that the pre -COVID-19 numbers of 80M – 135M people on the brink of starvation will escalate to 135M – 270M. Addressing issues with urgency will reduce mass starvation, the destabilization of nations and mass migration. Private sector efforts to help achieve food security and mitigate the environmental impact of food waste in farm to market are critical. Progress can be made through improved containment systems, storage systems and packaging.

Social Hour
Introduced by Clemson’s Dean for the College of Behavioral, Social and Health Sciences, Sustainability chef Joel Gamoran demonstrated cooking sustainably at home and eco-travel expert Richard Crawford treated attendees to virtual travel experiences to eco-destinations – tracing grits from South Carolina to Peru. More tips and virtual experiences can be found at joelgamoran.com, withhomemade.com and in Amazon Prime’s Leave No Trace series.

February 25, 2021

Lessons Across the Food Value Chain
Introduced by Clemson’s Dean for the College of Business, Deloitte Consulting’s sustainability and fresh food value chain leaders provided the framework for the Summit by highlighting trends that emerged during 2020 and trends that will continue and/or evolve in the foreseeable future. Included is the emergence of the “Contemporary Consumer” representing 40% of shoppers and characterized by an increased interest in cooking at home, with 75% willing to pay a premium for fresh food, 68% trusting instore shoppers to pick out the highest quality fresh food items and 64% valuing brand attributes. The overall outlook for 2021 is positive for consumer products and food. Revenue growth is the top priority for executives. Five ‘no regret’ moves for the food value chain in an environment of continued uncertainty include 1) resetting go-to-market strategies, 2) accelerating the shift to digital, 3) building supply chain resilience, 4) investing in tomorrow’s business foundations and 5) connecting purpose to profit as purpose becomes a driver.

Overcoming Supply Chain Disruptions in Times of Change
This panel of thought leaders from Aramark, Titan Farms, Lineage Logistics and SC Ports Authority was introduced by the Dean of Clemson’s College of Engineering, Computing and Applied Sciences. The panel discussed the challenges and opportunities they have seen during the past year with significant disruptions attributed to COVID-19, and the increased demands on logistics providers – both globally and in the Southeast where Charleston’s Ports Authority doubled capacity and is positioned to meet new demands. Titan Farms shared its strategy for diverting foods from potential waste to working with a new USDA program to provide food to those in need.

IoT: The Power of Connected Packaging
Introduced by the Director of Clemson’s School of Computing and moderated by Rabobank’s executive director for supply chains, IBM’s blockchain platform and Digimarc leaders discussed advances in technologies. These technologies can be embedded into packaging to capture data to achieve safe, secure and sustainable results – highly valued by food producers, processors, retailers and consumers.  Opportunities to engage consumers with smart technologies and a future with broad adoption of technologies in multiple tiers of the farm to consumer journey were also discussed.

Going Bananas for Circular Solutions
Caue Suplicy, co-founder of Barnana, was introduced by Clemson’s AVP of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Caue shared the fascinating story of combining his passion for healthy food and the desire to reduce food waste to create a sound business model. Barnana has upcycled more than 100M bananas to date, while also providing economic well-being and educational opportunities in Caue’s homeland of Brazil. 

February 26, 2021

Designing and Delivering Cradle-to-Cradle Packaging Solutions
Moderated by AMERIPEN and introduced by Clemson’s Dean for the College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences, the panel included industry leaders from Charter Next Generation (films), Tetra Pak, PepsiCo and TerraCycle. To frame the discussion, AMERIPEN provided a snapshot of the greenhouse gas emissions of multiple materials vs. rates of recyclability, and also shared that the global food system accounts for 26% of environmental impact. Organized to include stakeholders from across the packaging supply chain, discussions emphasized the critical need for a cohesive approach and well-coordinated product development efforts between all stakeholders. The on-going need for clear messaging to consumers on recycling protocols and recycled content was also emphasized.

Plant, Product and Planet: A Case Study Using Sugar Cane Fiber
Innovation partners Tellus Products and Sonoco shared their roles in developing a biobased material using upcycled sugar cane fiber and assessing potential markets and customers. The key relationships and distribution plans were developed to successfully place the Natrellis product in the frozen and chilled prepared meal market. Other tableware, such as bowls and produce trays, are also being manufactured.

Advanced Recycling Practices: What the Future Holds
With an overview and introduction by the Dean of Clemson’s College of Science, this panel was moderated by Sonoco and included panelists from the American Chemistry Council, Dow, The Kraft Heinz Company and Braven Environmental. Panelists focused on linking parts of the supply chain for more effective adoption of advanced recycling – including advocacy, materials needed for end markets, scalability and compliance. Braven Environmental treated attendees to a live virtual tour of one of their facilities. Key panel takeaways – buy and use recycled products, partnerships will be required to take resulting products to market, 3rd party certifications and dependable feed stock will be essential in driving acceptance and scale up and consumer trust that collected items will actually be recycled in tandem with communicating recycled content in package will be essential to success.

From Concept to Compost: How to Successfully Launch Sustainable Packaging Innovations
Moderated by BASF and introduced by Clemson’s VP of External Affairs, this panel illustrated the collaborations and commitment necessary to successfully execute a new concept with the goal of achieving compostability. The panel drew upon the KC Chiefs Extra Yard for the Environment initiative and engaged stakeholders from Missouri Organic Recycing, Mars, Printpack and Aramark. Motivation of the market is quantified by examining the top 10 US food manufacturing companies, of which 40% have compostable goals by 2025 and that 40% represents over $99B of total US food sales. The greatest hurdle in achieving compostable food packaging is in addressing the need for high barrier materials since aluminum cannot be used. Consequently, products with lower barrier requirements are first to market in this space. The timeframe for taking a CPG concept and translating it to an actionable product is typically 18-24 months and includes extensive testing to verify the safety to the consumer and the safety of the product; incremental changes also occur during this time. Ways to advance compostability were identified as establishing clear standards and 3rd party certification and using distinctive packaging when a product is “re-introduced” in a compostable package.

When Competitors Collaborate for the Greater Good
The CEO and co-founder of Closed Loop Partners (CLP) gave the final presentation and was introduced by Sonoco’s VP of Marketing and Innovation. Remarks underscored the messaging throughout the Summit on the importance of collaborative efforts to drive innovation and maximize the impact of circular solutions. Solutions enabled by CLP funds provide the foundation for solving problems that affect entire industries, sending unified market signals and accelerating advances. Issues are typically reframed beyond short-term to longer-lasting systematic solutions.

Student Poster Presentations
Clemson students were asked to submit poster presentations conveying research related to the issues associated with each part of the food value chain, from production through transportation and all the way to recycling. Dr. Chip Tonkin, Chair of the Graphics Communications program at Clemson and Director of the Sonoco Institute of Packaging Design and Graphics, introduced the 9 students who gave an overview of their projects and answered questions from the audience.

Closing Comments
Sonoco FRESH Executive Director Anne Barr summarized the themes of the Summit, highlighting the power of partnerships and the need for collaborative efforts that engage industry and academia – including students who represent the next generation of talent that will help innovate and drive the future of sustainability. Recurring themes throughout the Summit included the need for effective communication and collaboration across aligned food value chain verticals, understanding the “contemporary consumer” and addressing consumer trust through traceability, education and establishing third-party verification of sustainability claims. Summit attendees were invited to engage with industry partners and Clemson experts in advancing the important work of optimizing the food value chain – from production to consumption – to protect food and the environment.

By Kristy Pickurel

The Impact of COVID-19 on Packaging, Safety and Food Waste:
Clemson Creative Inquiry sponsored by Sonoco FRESH

Mint Innovations Team
Dakota Cook, Maria Camargo, Brennan Morgan, Ana Romero*
*Team Mentor

The Clemson COVID Challenge was a summer 2020 virtual research and design opportunity for teams of undergraduates to work on problems related to the current COVID-19 situation as well as future possible pandemics. Teams of students worked with mentors to identify problems and come up with proposed ideas and solutions. In mid-June, students submitted a pitch video of their ideas and competed for the opportunity to see their projects possibly continue to implementation. Sonoco FRESH sponsored a Creative Inquiry (CI) team to look at the impact of COVID-19 on packaging, safety and food waste. Below is a summary of the team’s project and a link to the team’s poster presentation.

When COVID-19 started to spread quickly across the country in early March 2020, restaurants, bars and many other places started closing. The resulting shift in food demand, combined with a change in consumer behavior, caused a strain in the supply chain.

The CI team members performed literature reviews, interviews with corporate experts in packaging and agriculture, brainstormed potential solutions and created a 3-minute video pitch describing their proposed solution of vacuum packaging.

Vacuum packaging is a type of packaging that extends shelf life by removing oxygen and preserves quality of food and increases shelf life by eliminating growth of spoilage bacteria (aerobic bacteria). Extending shelf life reduces food waste, and the tamper evident packaging will add an additional layer of comfort and safety in consumers’ minds.

View the Team’s Poster Presentation

The mission of the Sonoco FRESH initiative is to have a major impact on the safety, security and sustainability of food. This means looking holistically at the food life cycle and identifying opportunities that reimagine processes, technologies and behaviors. More information on the Sonoco FRESH initiative can be found at www.clemson.edu/SonocoFRESH.

By Kristy Pickurel

Clemson University’s Recycling Services department manages a compost site which processes food waste from campus. The site is located at the Cherry Crossing Research Facility. Just like the rest of us it has been greatly impacted by COVID-19, but work at the site has not stopped. Student interns Matthew Lawrence and Jared Montgomery were kind enough to give FRESH a tour of the facility earlier this spring.

Food scraps, paper towel waste and yard waste are generated and collected on campus in green composting bins. Clemson’s recycling staff picks the bins up and takes them to the Cherry Crossing facility, where the organic waste is dumped onto a bed of wood chips. The chips and waste are mixed thoroughly to create a pile.

This mixture then undergoes a 6-week process of progressing piles, ending with the cure pile, which is loaded into a trommel and sifted into the final product of sifted compost. The sifted compost can be land applied or used as soil amendment. The compost piles are turned every other day to make sure they are aerated properly and decomposing as quickly as they can.

Clemson’s composting program began with a $25,000 grant from the South Carolina DHEC Office of Waste & Recycling, which allowed the university to purchase an in-vessel composter that is still in use today. An alternative to the manual process just described, the composter processes waste much more quickly. Waste and wood chips are combined in the unit’s mixer and then sent to the tumbler. The tumbler rotates once every hour and helps to accelerate the process.

Cherry Crossing’s final compost product is used by campus landscaping as well as the student organic farm. This past year a large majority went to Musser Fruit Farm, Clemson’s fruit research farm. The compost is also typically sold to the community, but sales were suspended at the time of our tour. With Clemson’s campus shutting down as a result of the pandemic, there had been an extreme shortage of food waste produced from campus. Before the campus closed due to COVID-19, the recycling staff was picking up about 48 bins per day. Now they’re only collected an average of 10 bins a week.

Aside from the effects of the pandemic, the composting program’s biggest challenge is contamination, i.e. items that can’t be composted being placed in the composting bins. These include film plastics such as plastic bags and saran wrap, as well as metal forks and plastic cups from the dining halls. According to Lawrence, Clemson’s composting program was constantly expanding until the virus hit. Since he began interning with the program in November of 2019, composting bins have been placed in two new POD (provisions on demand) markets on campus. The team has also started a community garden at the Cherry Crossing facility and hopes to begin distributing the fruits of its plants in the near future.

For more information on Clemson’s composting and recycling programs, please visit the Clemson Website.

The mission of the Sonoco FRESH initiative is to have a major impact on the safety, security and sustainability of food. This means looking holistically at the food life cycle and identifying opportunities that reimagine processes, technologies and behaviors. More information on the Sonoco FRESH initiative can be found at www.clemson.edu/SonocoFRESH.

Visit the FRESH YouTube Channel to view a video of the tour.

By Kristy Pickurel

During the spring of 2020, Clemson students Shemar Bryant, Maddyson Frierson, Caroline Joseph and Emily White, led by the university’s Recycling Manager Dave VanDeventer, participated in a Creative Inquiry (CI) sponsored by Sonoco FRESH to document the current life cycle of food waste on campus. The goal of their effort, the Clemson Food Waste Recovery Initiative, was to develop a guide that prioritizes actions to prevent or divert food waste from landfills.

The team researched colleges and universities across the United States that are considered leaders in the areas of the EPA Hierarchy of Food Recovery – institutions that implement actions at the top levels of the hierarchy, which are considered the best ways to prevent and divert wasted food because they create the most benefits for the environment, society and the economy. The project highlighted the programs that the team believed stood out and could benefit, and potentially be implemented at, Clemson.

Clemson has seen many successes when it comes to reducing food waste, but there is always room for improvement. Trayless dining has been implemented on campus, but according to rising junior Caroline Joseph, “people see the dining hall as an all you can eat buffet and they don’t think twice about throwing away the food they don’t like or loading up their plates with more than they know they are going to eat.” The CI team identified Clemson’s composting program as one of the university’s strong suits when it comes to food waste reduction and would love to see the program expand to non-dining hall locations on campus, such as Chick-fil-A and Subway.  Most of Clemson’s athletic programs have steadily approached zero waste. In fact, Clemson secured first place in the Game Day Recycling Challenge in 2014, 2017 and 2018. The challenge is an annual event where colleges and universities across the nation complete to see who can recycle or reduce the most waste during football games. 123,661 pounds of trash were recycled during Clemson’s 2018 home football games.

One area the CI students discussed at length was food donation. Currently, Clemson donates perishable and non-perishable goods to the Golden Corner Food Pantry in Seneca, SC. Thus far, 22,000 lbs. of items have been donated for the 2019-2020 school year. The university also supports the Paw Pantry, a student-run, on-campus space offering supplies of food and hygiene products. While the school holds food drives and encourages students to use their Paw Points/Tiger Stripe balances to benefit the pantry, the pantry cannot offer perishable goods like produce, milk or meat. According to CI student Caroline Joseph, “There are a lot of food safety issues, storage problems and a lack of transportation that feed into the inability to donate all of our leftover food. There are so many other schools around the same size as Clemson that have excellent donation programs to food pantries on campus and in the surrounding areas, so we know it’s possible.” The CI team would like to see Clemson create a Food Recovery Network, similar to what Northern Arizona University (NAU) has done. A professional nonprofit with 230 chapters across the United States, Food Recovery Network is the largest student movement fighting food waste and hunger in America. NAU started its initiative in 2014 and recovers approximately 4,000 lbs. of hot food every semester and donates it to local food banks. “When we look at donating food at Clemson, the first challenge would be knowing when food is available to donate. The second would be how we collect it and transport it safety,” explained VanDeventer. “I am hoping it can become a collaborative effort where student volunteers can be directly involved.”

Getting students to volunteer is both a challenge and an opportunity at Clemson. According to Joseph, “I think the biggest challenge for reducing food waste is getting people motivated and educated about the issue. If students don’t care because of a lack of knowledge, nothing is going to change. Though the dining halls and composting centers can do some things about food waste, the students are really the ones in control. We have the means and the motivation to do a lot of good for the community, but people just don’t know about the issue or don’t understand the severity of it.”

There are absolutely opportunities to learn more about the food waste issue, and/or to get involved with campus efforts. For more information on how waste is handled at Clemson, visit https://cufacilities.sites.clemson.edu/recycling/recyclingInfo. Also, Dave VanDeventer and FRESH graduate research assistant Ana Romero will be leading another CI project this fall, this time with a focus on the disposal of packaging. Sustainability has become a hot topic among consumers, who demand that the products they purchase have sustainable packaging. Yet the professionals who develop this packaging don’t always consider the end of the package’s life, creating more of a challenge than anything for the professionals working at the recycling and compost centers. For more information on this CI, visit https://www.clemson.edu/centers-institutes/watt/creative-inquiry/ or reach out to VanDeventer directly at dvand@clemson.edu.

Sonoco FRESH is a multi-disciplinary hub for innovation and research at Clemson University whose mission is to have a major impact on the safety, security and sustainability of food. Visit www.clemson.edu/SonocoFRESH for more information, including Clemson student and faculty research.

The Sonoco FRESH initiative at Clemson University has awarded four research grants to professors who are addressing issues regarding food waste. In the U.S. alone, food waste is estimated at 40% across the food chain. With funding provided by Sonoco (a global provider of a variety of consumer packaging, industrial products, protective packaging, and displays and packaging supply chain services), the project subjects range in scope from packaging innovation to consumer communication.

The faculty members receiving the research grants are:

• Ya-Ping Sun, Ph.D., Endowed Chair Professor, Chemistry Department
• Kristen Elaine Okamoto, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Communications Department
• Srikanth Pilla, Ph.D., Jenkins Endowed Professor, Department of Automotive Engineering
• Kay Cooksey, Ph.D., Professor and Cryovac Endowed Chair, Department of Food, Nutrition and Packaging Sciences

The mission of the Sonoco FRESH initiative, which was established with a generous philanthropic donation from the Sonoco Foundation, is to have a major impact on the reduction of food waste. With Clemson University’s top academic experts involved in every step of the food value chain, FRESH is a multi-disciplinary hub for research and innovation to deliver solutions to reduce food waste and promote sustainability. More information on the Sonoco FRESH initiative can be found at www.sonocofresh.com.