These last few years the packaging market has changed under the impulse of recipe boxes. Boxes suited for food aren’t necessarily useable for insects, but the range and availabilities have certainly been expanded. For Biobest, everything changed once they had developed a testing protocol which made testing so much more efficient.
‘You can tell the difference with this box at first glance’, Geert Geboers, Process Improvement Specialist Packing & Packaging at Biobest, says. ‘Cellulose fibres are pressed into a protective cardboard sleeve attached to the insides of the box. The sleeve prevents the insulation from being compressed, which would mean loss of insulating capacity. The entire box is 100% paper based. Using this mono-material means the insulation box is fully sustainable. There was no other way for us. A cardboard box with an aluminium bag and bubble wrap was never on the table because it’s not recyclable. We wanted the new box to meet our standards in terms of shock-absorbance and insulation and to be 100% recyclable.’
The main advantage of the new cardboard box is that it’s foldable and can simply be taken with the normal paper collection. It hardly takes up space and there’s no more disposal charge. And so, the days of warehouses filled with stacked boxes are history. For Biobest as well as our customers.
Geert says “Recently, we’ve switched 2 of our main products – Orius-System and Macrolophus-System – to a cardboard and PLA combination that is completely compostable. We also launched our newest aphid control agent Micromus-System in this 100% biodegradable carton. We want to use as much sustainable materials as possible; my ultimate goal is to convert our entire product range to reusable, recyclable and biodegradable packaging.”
The transport box will be commercially available in our small size box as from April 11th, the bigger size will follow later this year.