2023 has already kicked off with a bang for BioPak! We are delighted to announce our remarkable achievements at the Worldstar Packaging Awards, where we proudly claimed three prestigious accolades. Our FSC™ Rectangle Paper Containers were crowned winners in the food category, while our sugarcane pulp hot and cold cup lids emerged victorious in the beverage category. Adding to our triumphs, we were honoured with the esteemed Gold Sustainability Award for our innovative cup lids. Read more about the recent awards we received.
What Are The World Star Packaging Awards?
Since 1970, the World Packaging Organisation has been organising WorldStar awards and providing awards to numerous packs from all around the world. The WorldStar Competition is one of the major events of the World Packaging Organisation (WPO) and is the pre-eminent global award in packaging. WordStar illustrates the continual advancement of the state of packaging design and technology and creates a living standard of international packaging excellence from which others may learn. Each year WPO is recognizing the best of the best in packaging innovations from across the globe. The objective of WPO in organising WorldStar is to increase awareness on the importance of packaging in having a better life and to recognize the innovation and efforts of brand owners, designers, students and branding agencies for creating packaging solutions of the future and in responding to new challenges and global trends such as sustainability, hygiene and other trends. (Source).
Food Category: FSC™ Rectangle Paper Containers
Plastic takeaway containers that are contaminated with food (think greasy curry, pasta and other oily foods) cannot be recycled and putting them in your recycling bin can jeopardise the entire bin of recycling. Even paper and cardboard that is contaminated with food cannot be recycled. Putting these in your recycling bins could mean a whole batch of recycling is contaminated and sent to landfill.
With this all in mind, our rectangular paper containers and paper lids have been created to replace the humble plastic container. They are PLA bioplastic-lined to allow them to carry hot, greasy foods without spoiling/ breaking.
Up until now, using BioBoard we have only been able to use this method of manufacturing for round paper bowls, however with new machinery and tooling, we have been able to achieve the rectangular shape with the performance of a round paper bowl.
About The Award
The food category for the World Star Packaging Awards is classified as all food packaging, including fresh, frozen, dried or other.
Our FSC™ Certified Rectangle Paper Containers were judged on the following criteria:
- Material: Responsible Raw Materials sourcing, including materials from renewable resources
- Social: Benefit to society
- Source Reduction: Weight reduction when compared the previous package or to general packs in its class
- Energy: Optimisation during transportation, storage and use
- Recovery: Reusability, recyclability, recoverability, post consumer material recycling, ease of disposal
Beverages Category: Sugarcane Pulp Hot and Cold Cup Lids
While environmentally friendly hot and cold paper cups were a packaging product already developed, there was a requirement to complete the story by creating matching, fitting lids for coffee roasters, cafes and QSR situations, like, slurpees and milkshakes.
Bagasse, also known as sugarcane pulp, is a fibrous material left behind in the sugarcane harvesting process. It has a multitude of uses and is a sustainable alternative to conventional plastic packaging.
BioPak have released these lids, certified home and industrially-compostable to Australian standards (AS4738/AS5810) and made from plant-based, renewable resources and are PFAS Free.
While many paper-based products can also be composted, the advantage of bagasse is that growing it does not have the same environmental impact as paper, which comes from trees.
We spent a considerable time fixing the bagasse weight/thickness to ensure they hold onto cups firmly with a distinctive snap feel when applied to cups.
Switching from single-use plastic packaging derived from finite fossil resources to sugarcane packaging makes a big difference. if a large QSR swapped out 10 million conventional plastic lids to sugarcane pulp BioCane alternative they could avoid 37,400 kgs of fossil-fuel plastics, offset 83,478 kgs of carbon emissions and if all were composted at home, the organic waste would create 25,900 kgs of nutrient-rich soil which in return sequesters even more carbon from the atmosphere, reversing climate change.
About The Award
The beverage category for the World Star Packaging Awards is classified as packaging for liquid or dry tea, coffee, water and soft drinks, including wine, beer and spirits.
Our Sugarcane Lids were judged on the following criteria:
- Material: Responsible Raw Materials sourcing, including materials from renewable resources
- Social: Benefit to society
- Source Reduction: Weight reduction when compared the previous package or to general packs in its class
- Energy: Optimisation during transportation, storage and use
- Recovery: Reusability, recyclability, recoverability, post consumer material recycling, ease of disposal
Special Award – Sustainability – Gold
BioPak is thrilled to have also won the most highly coveted award of the whole event, the GOLD award in the Sustainability Category for our Sugarcane Pulp Hot and Cold Cup Lids. This category is dedicated to focusing on the responsible use of packaging material (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Restore) to promote sustainability. BioPak was selected from a pool of 140 companies vying for this award. It is the very first time that an Australian company has been awarded Sustainability Gold and we are very proud!
