Custom designed boxes 100% bio-degradable in water
21 August 2023
University of California buoys into the ocean project team came to the Larson Packaging Company with a left-field proposition – they needed packaging that they could push directly into the ocean and that would dissolve in water.
Solution
LPC’s packaging experts worked with the university’s ocean studies department to develop an affordable and biodegradable solution. The idea was to make a box containing the monitoring equipment that could be dropped directly into the ocean and dissolve without adding waste or damage to the water.
Choosing the box was the easy part – the team settled on a Kraft box made from 100% post-consumer recycled materials. The real challenge was what to do about the tape that held the flaps of the box together. The problem with conventional tape is that the backing tape uses fiberglass filaments coated with hot melt synthetic rubber adhesive. The solution that the LPC team came up with was to substitute the tape with a paper tape without filament that was 100% biodegradable in the water.
Outcome
The University of California team was delighted with the final packaging solution. The ability to push the equipment into the ocean package and all dramatically cut down deployment time and simplified the entire operation.