dell declared its sustainable packaging initiatives including objective for a wastefree packaging stream by 2020 as well as an innovative wheat straw material that turns into the agricultural waste into boxes. the company mentions that it will attain its goal of wastefree packaging by making sure that 100 percent of dell packaging is derived only from sustainable materials, including rapidly renewable and recycled content, or substances that was previously part of the waste stream. making sure that 100 percent of dell packaging is either compostable or recyclable at the end of its life. at present, above half of dell&rsquos packaging fulfils both these criteria, says the company. in introducing its packaging proposal, the company also declared that it will start using a sustainable material &mdash wheat straw &mdash in maximum of its cardboard boxes for notebooks being produced in china. currently, several chinese cultivators treat this derivative of wheat harvesting as waste and directly burn it for disposal, resulting into air pollution and related health issues. starting in august, dell will include the straw in its boxes, ramping up as operations scale and beginning with 15 percent by weight. the remnants of the box will mainly come from recycled content fiber. furthermore, the boxes will look and function like a regular cardboard, and at the end of their life, they will be recyclable. dell guesstimates in the beginning it will use about 200 tons of wheat straw each year, derived from farmers in the jiangsu region. this initiative could lessen 180 tons of co2 emissions on a yearly basis, dell says. during the phase of pulping, the wheat straw will pass through an enzymatic procedure &mdash similar after the way cows digest grass &mdash that uses almost 90 percent less water and 40 percent less energy than conventional chemical pulping. dell was the first company in the field of technology to apply bamboo cushions in place of foam in transporting lightweight products like notebooks. currently, the company is also using mushrooms as an organic substitute to foam for heavyweight products such as servers. both materials are either compostable or recyclable. anheuserbusch inbev also dedicated to new sustainable packaging goals. the company mentions that, by 2017, it will minimize the packaging materials by 100,000 tons. source of information httpwww.environmentalleader.com20130606dellpledgeswastefreepackagingby2020
