Ocean-farmed resin substitute enters packaging market

Ocean-farmed resin substitute enters packaging market

One product introduced at PACK EXPO Las Vegas is being touted as a sustainable material with a virtually limitless, renewable supply. U.S. Aragonite (www.usaragonite.com) has launched this as Oshenite, a naturally occurring form of highly purified calcium carbonate, which can be an additive in many types of packaging plastics used as a substitute for petroleum-based resins.

This mineral, found exclusively in the Bahamas, has physical characteristics unlike any mined or precipitated calcium carbonate, according to company CEO Marc Goldberg. He says Oshenite offers manufacturing and performance benefits for blow molding, film and sheet extruding and thermoforming at lower costs than fossil fuel-based products. In addition, he says the calcium carbonate can help reduce carbon footprints and is sold in either ground or master-batched formats.

Already, several companies have announced plans to include Oshenite in their products:

• Pine Poly (www.pine-poly.com) introduced a range flexible packaging in LLDPE, HDPE and co-ex products, with up to 40 percent Oshenite. It reportedly provides savings through improved strength at lighter gauges.

• Zip-Pak (www.zippak.com) launched a line of zippers made with Oshenite in both PE and PP grades.

• First Choice Packaging (www.firstchoicepackaging.com) offers thermoformed products such as transport and cosmetic trays, gift sets and custom trays made with Oshenite film produced by Primex Plastics (www.primexplastics.com).

Here's how the material is created: As the tides change on the Great Bahaman Bank, cooler waters rich in CO2 rush into the turbulent shallow shoals where a rapid heating of the Caribbean waters occurs. The warmed seawater cannot release the dissolved CO2 fast enough into the atmosphere, leading to carbonate ions combining with calcium in the water. This process forms an oolite in the shape of an egg. These egg-shaped oolites can be covered by several layers of the solution until they fall to the shoal floor. Goldberg says it takes approximately a year for the oolites to mature to harvesting size.

Unlike mined calcium carbonate, which varies based on the range of sources, the oolitic aragonite continually produced under the same conditions found on the Bahaman Bank does not vary in consistency as harvesting progresses. U.S. Aragonite estimates the Bahamian source contains a reserve of nearly 1 billion tons of Oshenite, which replenishes naturally.