Looking for biodegradable anti-static (ESD) bags

Hello all,

Is there anyone out there who knows a manufacturer of biodegradable anti-static bags that would be suitable to use to ship an electronic device?

I know there are recyclable plastics that can be used. The problem with recyclable materials is that it is only recycled if there is a local program that can take the material and the end user takes the time to properly discard the material. Otherwise, it just ends up in the end user's landfill for a very long time. We are trying to avoid that.

So, does anyone know of any manufacturers that make something suitable.

Perhaps there is a better solution out there. In general, we need to ship an electronic device (a PCB inside an aluminium enclosure) and we'd like to use all biodegradable shipping materials. We'd like to have an outer box for protection and then the device would be inside the box with some protection. The electronics must be protected from static discharges.

Of course we'd like a solution that is financially acceptable as well--we don't have the resources to pay for $10K+ setup costs of some exotic process.

Thanks for the input,

James.

Reply to
James Morrison
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I dont, no. All I know its theyre easy to make, by adding conductive impurities into paper.

However there are sound environmental reasons why plastic is preferred, so I'd look at your requirements closely.

NT

Reply to
meow2222

Could you elaborate on this NT?

James.

Reply to
James Morrison

Hello Joerg,

Ah, progress...

James.

Reply to
James Morrison

Hello James,

I don't but maybe you could talk to some older National Semiconductor folks. In the 80's they shipped parts and modules to us in Europe in biodegradeable anti-static cardboard carriers. They were of the brownish non-bleached type, probably 100% post consumer.

The nice thing: One rep gave us a pamphlet on how to throw it into one of those square balcony pots and grow kitchen herbs in it (the legal kind...). I tried it and it worked. After that you just threw it into the compost and the worms took care of it. Which, BTW, also worked. After a couple months you couldn't see a trace of it anymore. It had decomposed itself into great potting soil.

Unfortunately they gave up on that wonderful idea.

Regards, Joerg

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Reply to
Joerg

Carbon fibre or dust filled paperbag??

Reply to
Sjouke Burry

And your pcb, is it biodegradable? Or otherwise easy to recycle? Please post if you find the packing material you are looking for.

--DF

Reply to
Deefoo

I sense some sarcasm in this statement. The PCB itself is clearly the least recyclable part of the system. We will take it back at the end of the life cycle. There are no good, financially-sound solutions that I am aware of yet, although I do believe that there is plenty of research into this. Taking the lead out is a small step in the right direction.

Our policy currently is to use _no shipping material_ that isn't biodegradable. And where possible, we use enclosure materials that are not plastic, in this case aluminium. However, there are places where you can't use metal and something that is an insulator is required (like devices that come close to AC lines).

We are prepared to take a small hit in margin in order to follow this. Basically, our cost of goods sold equation has some fuzzy value that includes the cost to the planet. Its hard to quantify but we're doing our best. We have to leave this planet to our children!

I will.

James.

Reply to
James Morrison

Pink Poly ESD bags *do* degrade. Albeit slowly.

I think you're fretting over nothing.

Graham

Reply to
Pooh Bear

True enough. I suppose that I should have been a bit more clear. Everything will degrade eventually. We are looking for things that _quickly_ degrade, where _quickly_ is relative. Ideally a few years.

Graham, we're exploring if there is a better way to do things. Certainly our volumes won't make much difference, but in this case it comes down to principle. If we can show there is a better way and make money doing it then it will hopefully inspire others to do the same. If enough people do it then it will make a difference.

I'm in Canada, with a popluation that is less dense than most any country in the world. And landfill space is an issue. The city of Toronto can't figure out what to do with all the garbage it has. If they had thought about this 20 years ago and reduced the waste in the city they would have no problem today. There are many other cities within 1 hour of Toronto who have made great strides and have increased the lifetime of their landfills by decades, if not longer, through various programs of recycling and conservation.

Obviously if everything in the landfill took 1000 years to decompose then once the landfill is full then its done. But if it all took 5-10 years to decompose then there would be a possibility that the landfill could be reused. Certainly I don't think it will come to that but that would certainly be the ideal.

If this is an issue in Canda how much more so in the US, or Europe, or Asia!

James.

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James Morrison                      james@stratforddigital.ca
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Reply to
James Morrison

You could try some of these:

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Good Luck! Rich

Reply to
Rich Grise

Well, it's not biodegradable, but aluminum foil is pretty easy to recycle. At least it is most places I've been that do recycling. I've never used it to ship products, but I've bought surplus computer boards that came wrapped in it (luckily none had a battery). It provides excellent static protection.

With regards to getting the lead out of electronics, I agree. I'm not sure how big of an issue disposing of old consumer electronics really is. Lead is pretty stable in a metallic form. But getting manufacturers to use something else that's not as nasty has benefits. One place I worked found out that their waste water discharge was a few parts per million of lead above the legal rate that you could dump into the sewer system. Their solution was to just add more tap water to the production process. They were still dumping the same amount of lead into the environment, it was just more dilute, which probably doesn't make much difference in how it gets absorbed into the environment. By the way, what they did was legal at the time they did it. I just don't think it was very ethical.

I just hope whatever process is used to replace lead doesn't have more problems. Look at the problems using MTBE has caused in the US. Refiners used it as a cheaper alternative to adding ethanol to gasoline. And as long as you burn it, it's not that big of a problem. But when it gets into your water table ...

It's refreshing to find a company interested in the life cycle of their product. And looking for a less obnoxious packaging material is nice too.

You've aroused my curiosity, what are you making?

Mark

Reply to
mhahn

A simple method of making paper bags antistatic is to spray them with glue and carbon, or wipe them with a charcoal block. I didnt mention it before bcos doing this in quantity is unlikely to be practical. However I can think of at least come circumstances in which a quick squirt from a hand held spray would be workable.

You dont need to use carbon, anything that conducts to some extent would work. In extremis I imagine even diluted mud might work - not suggesting using that, but making the point that mixed junk will inevitably contain something conductive.

Have you looked at your waste streams for a percentage of the packaging material?

NT

Reply to
meow2222

Sure. There is more than one issue no matter what you choose. Consider shoping bags. Plastic bags use very much less energy than paper to manufacture, and this matters. Also the volume and weight of material that has to be transported and disposed of is much higher with paper. Finally, and importantly, paper bags have higher failure rate than plastic, and one spoiled product can wipe out the enviro benefits of quite a large nubmer of bags.

Now to translate this to your app, paper is biodegradeable, but uses far more energy and matieral. What would be ideal is degrading plastic, then you get the best of both worlds. Here some shopping bags are made of plastic that disintegrates. I'm not sure if its mixed with a degradeable filler, or whether the plasticiser leaches quickly. Either way it disintegrates.

You can't win, there is no perfect solution. Just gotta pick the best one, bearing in mind that what is called green is often not.

Aluminium is very high in energy use.

NT

Reply to
meow2222

presumably youre using paper-phenolic PCB?

NT

Reply to
meow2222

What about antistatic caps over parts that are sensitive? It can at least me small that way, and it is probably better to have a little non-degrading waste than a lot of quickly degrading stuff.

The aluminium box will be a pretty good shield against static.

I'm sure you are already reducing volume. It has changed the landscape of consumer products: most packaging contains very little air, to the poinmt that it is often a puzzle to get the product and accessories back into the original box.

Thomas

Reply to
Zak

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