Ecolab

End of Life Value Creation for
Flexible Packaging

Company Background
A trusted partner at more than one million customer locations, Ecolab is the global leader in water, hygiene and energy technologies and services that protect people and vital resources. With 2017 sales of $14 billion and 48,000 associates, Ecolab delivers comprehensive solutions and on-site service to promote safe food, maintain clean environments, optimize water and energy use and improve operational efficiencies for customers in the food, healthcare, energy, hospitality and industrial markets in more than 170 countries around the world.

Open Innovation Challenge 
Looking for flexible packaging technology that allows for value capture at the end of its initial intended life.

Reason for Seeking External Innovation Partnership
Flexible packaging offers many sustainability benefits including source reduction of plastic material compared to rigid packaging and a decreased carbon footprint.  The downfall of many flexible packages is that they do not hold value after initial use.  Regulations and customer needs are changing to require packaging to maintain value at the end of life through recycling, repurposing, or reuse.  Industrial flexible packaging is particularly challenging due to the combination of materials required to provide a robust solution that is compatible with chemical products.  Ecolab is interested in ideas for flexible packaging technology that maintains critical performance properties and to develop ideas for value creation of the packaging material at the end of intended use. 

Scope of Solution Space

  • Flexible packaging solution must be suitable through distribution and compatible with concentrated chemistries.
  • Flexible packaging solution must have a marketable end of life value whether it be through recycling, repurposing, or reuse.

Innovation Solutions Not of Interest

  • Confidential information

Proposal Response Date Deadline
August 28, 2020

Website Link
www.ecolab.com  and   www.boldopenmn.com

Contact Information
BoldOpen / AURI – boldopen@auri.org

A trusted partner at nearly three million customer locations, Ecolab is the global leader in water, hygiene and energy technologies and services that protect people and vital resources. Around the world, customers in foodservice, food processing, hospitality, healthcare, industrial, and oil and gas markets choose Ecolab products and services to keep their environment clean and safe, operate efficiently and achieve sustainability goals.