Fibrestar Drums

Fibrestar Drums is a packaging company which designs and manufactures packaging solutions providing economical, high-quality, versatile packaging to business customers.

Fibrestar Drums is proud to be the largest supplier of fibre drums in the UK, delivering innovative, packaging solutions across the globe.

The company were conscious of the challenge plastic pails pose to the environment and are developing a paper-based fibre drum to package powder, solid and hazardous products, as an alternative to traditional plastic pails. Fibrestar did not have a carbon lifecycle analysis of the innovative fibre drum product and were unable to fully validate its environmental claims. The scalability of the product relies on its environmental credentials.

Eco-I NW collaborated with Fibrestar to conduct a carbon lifecycle analysis of the fibre drums and compare this with the CO2 impact of traditional plastic pails. Research indicated that the carbon footprint of a plastic pail is around three times higher than that of the fibre drum, with the drums producing 66% less CO2. The drum can also be zero waste, helping soil enrichment which acts as a carbon sink.

This enabled the company to fully understand the environmental benefits of the fibre drum, communicate this effectively to customers with an independent credible assessment of the environmental impact and support the company’s business customers.

“Working with LJMU through the Eco-I NW programme we are driving innovation forward to explore how we can apply our product to other applications in other market sectors and measure environmental performance, success and benefits.

This is an exciting opportunity to access world-class academic expertise and facilities for innovation, measurement and developing solutions, which will have a lasting impact on the environment, while supporting the growth of the business.”

– Colin Pardoe
Managing Director