This month, N Brown customers will start to receive their garments in dissolvable packaging from Polymax powered by Hydropol.
The dissolvable packaging garment bags are being deployed as part of the JD Williams and Simply Be parent company’s target of reducing plastic waste and preventing recycling confusion. N Brown said it is the first large online retailer to start using the innovative packaging material.
According to the retailer, this new packaging can be dissolved in hot water and through recycling without being harmful to the environment. The partnership is also expected to reduce N Brown’s plastic use by 44%.
The dissolvable packaging will be used for orders of the company’s own-label products. And unlike traditional plastic film, Polymax powered by Hydropol promises that its packaging can be recycled alongside paper, plastic, metal or food without any risk of contamination.
It can even by dissolved in hot water, with the companies saying it would leave no harmful microplastics behind.
According to Plastics Europe data, the amount of Polyethylene plastic produced is 110 million tonnes globally per year.
Polyethylene plastic used for film wrapping totals 55 million tonnes, according to the Ellen McArthur Foundation and McKinsey data, which also shows the amount of Polyethelene plastic used for garment bags that could be directly substituted for Polymax powered by Hydropol is 25 million tonnes.
Therefore, the claim is circa 25 million tonnes of conventional, hard-to-recycle packaging could be prevented from entering the environment each year.
Hydropol is based on the existing water-soluble polymer polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH) which has been safely used in packaging applications for many years, and is similar material to that found on some brands of dishwater tablet. Its is designed to dissolve when exposed to water, where it swells and breaks down into small, biodegradable chains, which are a food source for microbes, which degrade the material into natural components leaving behind carbon dioxide, water, and biomass.
Sarah Welsh, CEO of Retail at N Brown Group, which also owns Jacamo, commented: “Reducing our impact on the environment while ensuring a high-quality product experience for our customers is something we take very seriously.
“Packaging has always been a key area of innovation for us as it makes up a significant proportion of the plastic that is used across our operations. Polymax powered by Hydropol is a really exciting product that offers us the ability to package our clothes effectively without the use of conventional plastic and provides our customers with multiple easy and environmentally friendly disposal options.”
Full rollout of the dissolvable packaging to 100% of N Brown’s own-brand products is set to be completed by the end of 2025.
Tom Wielicki, global vice president of innovation & sustainability at Maxim Labels and Packaging, which counts Polymax powered by Hydropol as part of its stable of packaging brands, argued the packaging solves “the burden of conventional single-use plastic in the fashion packaging sector”.
“We hope that other large retailers in the UK will follow N Brown in choosing a more sustainable future for their garment delivery,” he added.
Read more about N Brown Group on Green Retail World
[image credit: N Brown Group]
