R & D for the Environment

When it comes to R&D for the environment, West has two primary goals:

1. Collaborate with our customers to explore feasible and value-driven sustainability improvements throughout the product lifecycle. 
2. Partner with customers to drive innovation and develop new approaches for reducing, reusing and recycling secondary packaging.

Currently, we are working to devise quantitative targets, in partnership with customers, to understand what is achievable to develop a strategy, roadmap and collaborative KPIs.

A few topics we are examining related to the product lifecycle include:

• Low-carbon aluminum
• Bio-derived plastics for flip-off buttons and poly bags
• Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs)
• Driving emissions down to the product level
• New product materials
• Product take-back programs

Topics related to secondary packaging include:

• Bio-derived poly bags
• Alternative corrugated materials
• Elimination of single-use packaging
• Establishing more robust recycling outlets

We are collaborating with dozens of customers to categorize them into interest areas that align with these topics, and piloting projects that are categorized by these focus areas.