Fishbone with Chad Fields

Join us on November 6th, 2025, for the third annual Coast Summit, as we celebrate the visionary leaders who are pioneering solutions to some of the most pressing challenges of our time.

This year’s theme, "Healthy People, Healthy Planet," highlights the vital link between personal well-being and environmental regeneration. The Coast Summit brings together leaders from the worlds of sustainability, adventure, business, wellness, and storytelling in a format that blends the energy of a trade show with the insight of a summit.

This isn’t just a gathering—it’s a launchpad for people and ideas that are shaping the future.

Tickets are limited and expected to sell out quickly! Schedule coming soon!

Here is the link for Tickets: https://www.coastfilmfestival.com/coast-summit

https://www.atlanticpkg.com/sustainability-program/

In this episode of Sustainable Packaging, Cory Connors interviews Chad Fields from Atlantic Packaging and the New Earth Project. They discuss Chad's journey into sustainable packaging, the innovative Fishbone product, the shift from plastic to fiber alternatives, and the exciting developments at the Solutions Center. The conversation highlights the importance of sustainability in packaging and the future directions for Atlantic Packaging.


Takeaways

Chad transitioned from aviation to sustainable packaging after losing his job during COVID.
Fishbone is a sustainable paperboard beverage carrier that replaces traditional plastic options.
The shift from plastic to fiber alternatives is gaining momentum in the packaging industry.
Canopy Wrap is a new shrink film alternative that is recyclable and offers branding opportunities.
The Solutions Center at Atlantic Packaging provides design and testing services for sustainable packaging solutions.
Curbside recyclable materials are easier for consumers to understand and use.
The packaging industry is moving towards more sustainable practices and materials.
Chad emphasizes the importance of partnerships in achieving sustainability goals.
The Solutions Center allows for rapid prototyping and testing of packaging solutions.
Upcoming events like Pack Expo are crucial for showcasing innovations in sustainable packaging.


Titles

Sustainable Packaging Innovations with Chad Fields
From Aviation to Eco-Friendly Packaging


Sound bites

"This is a big win for us."
"It's a true partnership."
"I love what you're doing."


Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Sustainable Packaging
01:01 Chad's Journey into Sustainable Packaging
03:00 Understanding Fishbone: A Sustainable Solution
05:48 The Shift from Plastic to Fiber Alternatives
08:55 Innovations in Packaging: Canopy Wrap
12:03 Exploring the Solutions Center
14:55 Future Directions and Upcoming Events
23:15 SSP intro animation v1.mp4

Keywords

sustainable packaging, Fishbone, Canopy Wrap, Atlantic Packaging, New Earth Project, recycling, fiber alternatives, packaging innovations, Solutions Center, Chad Fields

https://www.coastfilmfestival.com/coast-summit

https://www.linkedin.com/in/cory-connors/

I'm here to help you make your packaging more sustainable! Reach out today and I'll get back to you asap.

This podcast is an independent production and the podcast production is an original work of the author. All rights of ownership and reproduction are retained—copyright 2022.

Transcript

0:59

Welcome to Sustainable Packaging with Cory Connors. Today's guest is my friend, Mr. Chad Fields from Atlantic Packaging and a New Earth Project. How are you, Chad? I'm doing great Cory. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be doing this. It's great to have you on. I'm a big fan of what you do. The products that you focus on are really an important part of the value proposition here at Atlantic and a new earth project. And so I'm excited to talk about those. But first, let's talk about you a little bit. How did you get into sustainable packaging as a career? um It's interesting, I would say, because I was in aviation, I was selling airplane commercial airplane parts, basically a middleman for the airlines. um Then that nasty little time we had in 2020 when COVID hit, airplanes stopped flying and I lost my job. And so my dad worked for Atlantic packaging for the last 22 years of his career. And he was on the phone with Wes one day, mentioned that I was unemployed and Wes basically gave me that opportunity. Got hired with Atlantic not long after. Didn't really have a role. uh Fishbone was a new thing at the time. They knew I had a lot of experience. I bartended for a long time before I got into aviation. That was about 10 years of my career. And so they were like, man, this guy will be perfect. Because the bees are going be good for the breweries. And they said, would you have any interest? what do you think about sustainability? And I was like, that's two things that I'm into already. So it was kind of a good fit. uh When New Earth Project started to come along, you know, I work a lot with Kyle Pischel, our director of the Solutions Center. And he introduced me to Don Meek and, you know, Don and I kind of meshed on some things. so then I became a member of a New Earth Project and everything just kind of went from there. I think that's the highest form of compliment when a family member will say that, you know, you would be a good fit and they would recommend a job to you because uh it's such a, such an important part of our lives. Oh yeah, definitely. You know, I knew the coolest thing about it, I think for me was that, you know, I knew what my dad did, but I didn't understand the industry, you know. So when I got here, I was like, wow, this is, yeah, just all this everyday thing that the packaging world is when you're on the outside of it. Looking in, you don't, doesn't really affect you so much or think about how big of a industry it is. And then, you know, once I got here that first year, I was bug-eyed. Everywhere I was. That's a great way to put it. think a lot of people don't realize how much packaging affects their everyday lives. Well said. Well, you mentioned fishbone. Let's let's talk about that. What is fishbone and why is it such an important part of sustainable packaging? Yeah, so fishbone, it's our sustainable paperboard beverage carrier. It's just an option to, at our alternative to the uh high cone that's been around for, I don't know, longer than you and I, that's for sure. I guess once Coke started making six packs, that's when high cone got introduced. So, yeah, everybody, of course, the idea of the turtles with the high cones around their neck. uh Or in the brewery world. It's the HTTP Caps that are going on top pack tech or some of the their competitors So basically just that alternative to them. We have options cans bottles we you know a lot of Opportunities so anything that's going in a two three six four eight pack. We have a solution for it or we'll try to create one the Yeah, our biggest footprint now would be in the brewery world, which is just a good fit because a lot of breweries have sustainability on their mind. once we started the program, which was late in 2020, that was the real, when we got rolling, mean, that's who it was, was just all of our brewery customers. I think that it's difficult for a change, right? So any bigger customers, we're still... going through that process of trying to get them to have confidence in it. But we do have one now that's really big and it's nationwide. So that's a big win for us. we think that they're gonna continue to come as I think that confidence grows seeing it on the shelves and stuff like that. I think that's exactly right. And people are clamoring away from plastic solutions when it comes to packaging and moving towards fiber alternatives. Is that what you're seeing as well with Fishbone? Yeah, for sure. You know, I hear even when I've just been mentioned what I do or something like that and people are like, oh, I hate those, you know, when I'm picking up my beers from the brewery and it's got those plastic caps and it's just, you know, it's not the worst solution. I don't want to totally be knocking anybody, but it's just, it's not an easy thing to figure out once you get at home with you. Like, can I take this back to the brewery or can it be recycled? You know, clearly it can't go in your, your bins at home. But so that's why fish bones great because it's it's an easy solution most people understand that fiber can be recycled so you come home with that pack just toss it in your bin and Yeah, just easy solution correct. Yep Uh, even some things that are plastic that say they are recyclable or have a, resin code on them with the chasing arrows around them, aren't always getting recycled when they go through the material recycling facilities. I think these fiber solutions make a lot of sense because they will, will most likely get recycled as long as they're put into the bin. Is that kind of the point you're, you're making? Yeah, definitely. You know, I think... the two easiest things for people to understand when they're recycling at home would, paper's easy. We've been recycling paper for a long time and I think people have enough understanding of that. even like, I remember as a kid growing up, like you get the daily newspaper, it goes straight into the recycling bin. That's 30 years ago, my parents were doing that 40 years ago. And then PET bottles, I think most people have that understanding, like that's easier, recyclable. But with fiber, you know. easy. People just toss that right in the bin. That's most of the feedback I get. I think you're exactly right. People know that that can go in the bin. They know that paper and corrugated and chipboard and things like fishbone are easy to recycle curbside or reuse. There are options for that or uh turn into something else. There's lots of things that can be done with paper. That's exciting. to see, but let's talk about some other materials from Atlantic Packaging and a New Earth project. Anything else you wanted to tell us about? Yeah, mean, one of our other newer programs that I'm very involved in would be our canopy wrap, is a shrink film alternative. We've developed it. It's been a couple of years now. It's definitely not an easy process to get to the point where we're at now, but we do feel we're ready to go now. We've got equipment developed in a partnership uh with Invinia and we're actually taking our machine again, will be the second year that it's gonna be in a Vinius booth at PacExpo, so at Vegas this year. It's leaving the Solutions Center next week. you know, it's not a solution for everyone, of course, because that shrink film is needed. um For it to work, it has to be in a tray, which, you know, a lot of people aren't necessarily in a tray when they're using shrink film. But we're excited about the potential of it. to get to a store, um paper's ripped off, thrown in the recycling bin, as somebody's stocking the shelves, we really think that's the best solution for it. It has potential that can be picked up off the shelf on the paper and go home with the customer, but we'll have to see if it makes it to that point. That's great. And like you said, it's recyclable along with the corrugated tray. uh So both of those have the same, you know, endpoint uh or next point in their circular life. Right, yeah. You know, it's just that we have print capabilities with it, which I think is a big win for us because, you know, one of the things for me when trying to help get potential customers to change over to this solution, a lot of times, like if I can get the marketing team involved, that helps, right? So like they see more branding opportunity. That's the big thing with Fishbone. Let's say, you know, like got this opportunity like that's something that nobody else really has so if you can you know marketing team sees that like man that's a game changer so with canopy that that's another thing you know we can print what the product is and you know really other than you know shrink film is printed as well but that kind of helps us have that opportunity where it's just not like it's gonna be craft paper going around around your product Right. I've seen the samples that the printed samples at the Atlantic packaging solution center there in Charlotte, North Carolina. And wow, I was totally impressed with the print capabilities and it looks so uh different than uh the plastic over wrap films, which uh are are an effective solution. But like you said, they're difficult to recycle. And those those materials would need to be brought back to the store as a uh a store drop off to even have a chance of getting recycled. uh Whereas, uh you know, the canopy paper can easily be put in your curbside bin. Yeah, I think that's going back to like what the consumer understands of recyclability. very few I would imagine know if they got that shrink film what to actually do with it. And again, with paper they would notice throw that right in the bin. So we mentioned the solution center. I would love to tell the audience more about this facility because I think it's something that if you're in packaging and you're interested in being more sustainable that you should come by. Can you tell us about it? You work there uh nearly every day, right? Yeah, I'm here unless I'm It is a super impressive place. What we're able to do here, um know, a lot of credit goes to like somebody like Kyle Pischel and of course Wes for having the vision. But, know, it was kind of a, almost like we think we can do this. You know, this was a paper converting uh down here on the floor for the longest time once they acquired uh this building and That's what we were doing. So it was a big leap to say, all right, we're going to invest in this equipment in Europe that nobody else uses and see if it works. And it did. We were able to validate um load testing. And I think the biggest win for us when it got started seemed to be in the beverage space. You know, those are heavy loads on pallets and um we were able to really lock in on the wrap patterns to contain these heavy loads that have a lot of opportunity to move. um So it's basically a one-stop shop. I think that's maybe the easiest way to say it. can send us your full pallet loads. can send us just say you're shipping e-commerce and you just have a box and you're trying to figure out a way to get your product there better or you want it to be less plastic. So we have a design, a little small design center here with with a designer who she's able to help make a solution in house, cut it on our CAD table. We have a uh corrugate CAD table as well as a paperboard CAD table. And then downstairs we have all our ISTA testing. So we have a drop tester, compression testing, and then we have our multi-axis vibration table. simulate, know, majority of the stuff we're simulating on there would be back to the track or trailer, but. We can do a cargo ship, rail, uh cargo plane. We have our uh brake simulation sled or just simulating a truck backing up to a... my gosh, my eye went blank on that. A bay, the truck bay is all right. So all that stuff that we have in-house that we can do, uh stretch film, course, huge... huge part of what we're doing here in our must monitoring system. But uh when it comes in and it might be a problem with the way they're wrapping or the film you're using, we're able to spend a couple of days validating uh which film would work better, the wrap pattern. A big thing we can try to help customers with is getting rid of using even something like corner boards where that's taking more time, that uh their employees to add that on. or even more expense because we're confident in just strictly the wrap patterns and the films that we're selling here and all that's validated on that table. uh The sustainability side that's really, and I actually did a tour this morning with a company and it's like telling them about it, showing them what we're able to do and in a matter of a couple days they were blown away by it and that's a lot with the design center we've added because For instance, Mary Ashton, one of our sales guys sends her a product and it's a customer that's shipping e-commerce or just one-off packaging maybe through Amazon and they need help. They don't want to use the air pillows or the bubble wrap anymore. We have all the solutions here, so Mary Ashton can start working on the design. uh We can do an unboxing experience. We've got Harris Hoard here from our... marketing team and we can put all that together. She redesigns it. We go through the drop testing, compression testing. If we need to simulate it on the, I throw it on the table. We can do all that in a matter of days and present a customer with a new solution. And that's just, to me, that sets us apart because that's like what that person I was getting on tour today, they were like, no way, nobody else can offer that. And it's true. And with our sustainability push that we're making like That uh just perfect scenario to help validate what we're doing and solidify to the customer that we're the right partner. I totally agree. That vibration table, I think is one of a kind in the U S right now. And it is, uh, it's an incredible piece of equipment that actually replicates traveling down the road in a, in a trailer, which I think a lot of people need to understand how, aggressive that can be on their, and abrasive to their packaging that that trip can be. And we can replicate that in-house. We can show, okay, here's what you're using now. And here's what we would recommend as a new solution to you. And here's why it will protect your load better. And by the way, it's also a cost savings because like you said, we're going to eliminate the products that you don't need. We're going to invest in uh the science that you need to actually really look at what's more sustainable for your packaging. Yeah, uh definitely. um Yeah, just to have a one stop shop where you can validate design, know, test all that. yeah, there's just nobody else around that's able to do that. And, know, we kind of say it's the closer, you know, once we get people here and able to show them that, like, that's when they're like, all right, these guys are legit. oh And I think people are a lot like me, they're visual. They want to see, they want to bring their product to the solution center in Charlotte and they want to say, okay, here's what we're using now. Can you show us some alternatives that would be better options for this sustainability moving forward? And I think that's exciting, like you said, to bring the product in and just a day or two have a solution that will uh end up physical sample produced right there that they can take back to their team and show them. Yeah, the two programs that I mentioned earlier, the Fishbone and Canopy, it's such a big change, especially if it's a large scale change for somebody that's shipping huge quantities. And that's what helps me to be able to talk about it. It's like, come here, let me show you that we can make this work. We're the right partner because we can give you all the data and help show how this will survive through the supply chain. So it just helps gives that extra confidence and definitely with fishbone because people are very hesitant to make that switch because why change when something's been working for so long. So getting them here to show that they don't have to worry about it because we're you know we're going to make sure that we've gone through all the steps to prove it out and say something does come up like Who else would you want to be working with that you could just send that product right back here to get the problem fixed? that's what Atlantic is. I think you hear Kyle or um even Wes, how they talk about, it was a big unknown when they started doing this stuff in the Solutions Center. But the knowledge that we've gained is, and that we're able to share it now with anybody that comes through. And just a huge advantage to working with us. I agree. It's a great partnership and it's, it's a true partnership where we're uh asking for input from our partners and, providing solutions that are, are there, uh, know, we'll meet their goals in the future and the present. But, well, let's talk about, uh, the future here, Chad, what's, what's next for you, what you've got the, the, pack expo coming up. You're going to actually. display the canopy equipment there. Yes, so actually first I'm headed to head out to Vegas for the first time tomorrow. We're doing the International Bakery Industry Expo, which is the show every three years and it's gonna be the first time I'm there for that and we're excited to talk through must there because we think we can really help a lot of those bakeries uh out with with monitoring their loads and then you know We're excited to show off Paperform there, which is another exciting product that we have. uh Basically a blister pack replacement that's sustainable for curbside recyclable. And uh those two things really what we're going to be focusing on there other than the shrink film, of course, that a lot of those guys need uh partnered with a Texture App and Kleisar. And then after that, I am headed back to Vegas. I'll come home for a few days and head back out there. uh And we're going to be in Invinia's booth, so under the Duravant family. It'll uh be a big, huge one-off booth. And Canopy will be featured there. We'll be running demos all the time. So if anybody got interest in Canopy and they'd like to find out more, um I'll be around Kyle, Nick Ott. All three of us will be around at some point. So we're excited to be able to show that off and hopefully find a good partner for it. how these shows are so valuable to actually get to see the materials working and running on the equipment is an incredible experience. think it's nice that we're moving the equipment to Vegas to go to the show. And it's an exciting part of packaging. It's a big time. It's kind of the Super Bowl, I think. right? is. The first time I showed up back at this show was the Chicago one and I was like, man, you know, I did a bunch of aviation trade shows and I was like, they don't have anything on this. It's crazy. But I'm excited for the Bakery show because I've heard that that one's a big one and you know, since it's only every three years that usually those shows that in that format usually have a big turnout and it's an impressive show. So that one should be fun. Hopefully I'll get some good sweets. Well, keep up the good work, Chad. Really appreciate what you're doing for Atlantic and a new Earth project. How do people get in touch with you and your team there? Yeah, thanks. for having me, Cory. I just want to mention that I'm stoked to have you as part of our team. yeah, I love what you're doing. I think a lot of us here have been fans of your podcast. So to add you to our team is a big win. And we're excited about that. But yeah, if there's ever anybody that any questions, I could help. You know, New Earth related products or specifically fishbone and canopy. You can reach me at Chad F. So F as in fields is my last name. At AtlanticPKG.com you can find both those products on our website. You can buy Fishbone Direct without even having to get in touch with me in low order volumes which would be ah just a basic carrier like this. It comes with a handheld applicator. You can buy those in just a box of a thousand so that's straight off the new earth. project website, which is the newriffproject.com. The catalog there is a, you can just order straight from there. And then, yeah, it canopy and also on atlanticpkg.com. Thank you, sir. Appreciate you. You too.