What's driving sustainable packaging development?

Two primary drivers have been identified by a Pira Intl. poll for sustainable packaging development, and both start with the consumers. During a recent poll of a survey of key players across the global packaging value chain, Pira Intl. found that an overwhelming 79 percent of respondents said that consumer awareness of environmental issues and new material developments are the most important drivers in the development of sustainable packaging, as growth drivers. The growth drivers' specific terminology used in the poll was ‘Increased exposure of consumers to environmental issues' and ‘Advances in materials technology."

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Emballage papier : flexible, pratique et éco-responsable

Vous trouvez ci-dessous la conférence intitulée : Emballage papier : flexible, pratique et éco-responsable, que j’ai donnée dans le cadre de la deuxième édition du colloque sur l’éco-responsabilité organisé par l’Institut des communications graphiques du Québec (ICGQ).

Emballage papier : flexible, pratique et éco-responsable

Emballage papier : flexible, pratique et éco-responsable

Jeudi 26 mai 2011, je donnerai une conférence dans le cadre de la deuxième édition du colloque sur l’éco-responsabilité dans l’Industrie graphique organisé par l’Institut des communications graphiques du Québec (ICGQ).

Ma présentation s’intitule : "Emballage papier : flexible, pratique et éco-responsable". Je présenterai les diverses solutions proposées par Cascades pour compenser les défaillances du papier en termes de propriétés barrières et faire de l’emballage papier une véritable alternative viable et durable.

Pour les détails et le programme complet, cliquez ici

Au plaisir de vous rencontrer.

Europe may ban plastic bags

With each European using 500 plastic bags per year, and tonnes of plastic littering the Mediterranean, the European Commission may ban them from stores or tax them to combat pollution.

Europe produced 3.4 million tonnes of plastic carrier bags in 2008 -- the equivalent in weight of two million cars, according to the European Union's executive arm.

The bags often end up in the sea, taking hundreds of years to decompose, it said. Some 250 billion plastic particles weighing a total 500 tonnes litter the Mediterranean, threatening sea life which can suffocate eating them.

In some EU states, plastic bags are banned from stores or consumers must pay for them in supermarket lines, but there is no EU-wide regulation.

The EU Commission launched on Wednesday a public consultation which will run until August to decide the best course of action to reduce the use of plastic bags.

"Fifty years ago, the single-use plastic bag was almost unheard of -- now we use them for a few minutes and they pollute our environment for decades," said European environment commissioner Janez Potocnik.

"But social attitudes are evolving and there is a widespread desire for change. That's why we are looking at all the options, including a Europe-wide ban on plastic carrier bags," Potocnik said.

The EU executive said it also wants to gather opinions on increasing the visibility of biodegradable packaging products and boosting the biodegradability requirements for packaging.

 

Source

Packaging of the week: Split-it Food Tray

The Split-it product consists of a board skillet which can be lined at the point of packing with a thin film. This forms the sealing flange, providing an air tight seal. The finished package is easy to open but also easy to recycle, with the consumer able to “Split-it”, separating the film from the board with one swift pull. The board packaging is recycled as easily as all other card packaging product.

Controlled tests conducted by the independent Eco3 laboratories in Ashby-de-la-Zouch calculated a saving of 0.054 Kg of CO2 saved per unit when making a direct comparison between the components of Split-it and existing polypropylene ready-meal trays. Therefore, if Split-it were to take just a 30%  market share in the UK the total CO2 savings would be in excess of 100,000 tonnes.

PackNews of the Week: Bioplastics, BagTheBox, Sustainability Survey and Seven packaging predictions

Bioplastics to pass the one million tonne mark in 2011

Global bioplastics production capacity will more than double from 2010 to 2015. Capacity is predicted to pass the one million tonne mark already in 2011, according to a current study presented today by the industry association European Bioplastics in cooperation with the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Hanover at the interpack trade fair in Dusseldorf.

From a figure of around 700,000 tonnes in 2010, the production capacity for bioplastics will increase to a predicted 1.7 million tonnes by 2015. The current year will see capacity pass an important threshold: the first half of 2011 already shows production capacity exceeding 900,000 tonnes. The million tonne mark is close, and will likely be passed by the bioplastics industry within this year.

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Seven packaging predictions for a resource-strapped future

Tony Kingsbury, executive-in-residence, Center for Responsible Business, UC Berkeley, and an executive with Dow Chemical, shared some of his packaging-related predictions for a resource-scarce future:

1. The most resource-efficient package will win

2. Functionality will be king

3. Keeping the molecule in play will gain momentum

4. Reusables will gain marketshare where it makes systems sense

5. Bio-based packaging materials will grow, but not necessarily biodegradable

6. Transparency will drive societal full-cycle thinking about packages

7. Life-cycle data will increasingly drive material decision-making

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Malt-O-Meal® Bags The Box!

It takes 345 million pounds of paperboard to make a year's supply of cereal boxes – that's the weight of 734,747 jumbo jets! Through the new Bag The Box™ movement, Malt-O-Meal is out to change the way people think about their breakfast choices, and how products – such as cereal in a box – can affect the environment.

To kick off the program, Malt-O-Meal has launched a website and blog devoted entirely to Bag The Box, where users can view fan-created videos and exchange ideas on sustainable packaging and green initiatives

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Sustainability Survey Reveals Challenges in Global Packaging Industry

The need to package food, consumer and industrial products in a more sustainable and affordable way dominates the worldwide packaging industry, according to DuPont’s global survey of consumer packaged goods companies and packaging converters.

More than 500 packaging professionals were surveyed and over 40 percent sited sustainability as the toughest challenge while 33 percent named cost as a major factor.

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New coatings provide effective solution to mineral oil migration in packaging

BASF has unveiled a range of barrier coatings which it said offers a highly effective solution to the migration of mineral oil residues from all packaging types into foods.

The German-based chemicals giant said the four barrier solutions can be used with “every type of food packaging, including paper, cardboard and film”. Three of the coatings - Ultramid, Epotal A 816, Ecovio FS – are existing products, while its specially developed dispersions solution is new, the company told FoodProductionDaily.com.

Considerably decelerated

The efficacy of the coatings has been confirmed through a series of tests carried out by the official Food Safety Authority of the Canton of Zurich.

It was the same Swiss food authority that first raised concerns over themigration of high levels of mineral oils from recycled cardboard packaging into food in two studies in 2010. The first paper highlighted the inclusion of newsprint in recycled paper and board as the main source of the contamination. The second study found excessive levels in all 119 samples of dry food packed in paperboard boxes picked at random from retail shelves - demonstrating the potentially widespread nature of the problem.

Scientists at the Zurich Food Safety Authority employed the same dedicated method to verify the barrier properties of the coatings as they had originally used to detect the mineral oil residues last year, said BASF.

“During the tests, cardboard, paper and films were coated with materials from BASF and the results show that the migration of mineral oil residues was considerably decelerated. The time measured were far beyond the sell-by dates of the food products normally packaged in such materials,” said Heiko Diehl, of the company’s Packaging Network Team.

BASF declined to disclose exact results for each coating but a spokeswoman said: “We are talking about years by which the sell-by dates have been beaten.”

She added that full details for single applications and packaging solutions would be discussed with customers because factors such as bulk material, storage time and storage temperatures must be considered in designing particular barrier solutions for specific applications.

Coating applications

The company said that Ultramid is suitable for use as a barrier coating both for cardboard packaging and as an inner packaging component in bag-in-box systems. To date it has been used for applications including oxygen-barrier, robust multilayer packaging systems to keep meat and cheese fresh.

Ecovio FS Paper is a biodegradable plastic suitable for manufacturing coatings both for cardboard and biodegradable film packaging systems. The water-based dispersion Epotal A 816 is also suitable for film coating and therefore for use as a barrier layer in bag-in-box systems, said BASF

The water-based acrylate dispersions are available for paper and cardboard coatings. A variety of paper and cardboard grades coated with these products on a lab and pilot plant scale have exhibited “very good barrier properties against mineral oils”, said the firm. The new dispersions are also effective barriers against native fats and oils and flavourings. Preparations for industrial-scale product testing are ongoing.

The products have all been designed to be implemented easily within existing technologies, said BASF.

The company hailed the significance of the development explaining the mineral oil migration problem affects all cardboard packaging systems in the world that are manufactured from recycled paper. Some 9.2m tonnes of raw cardboard currently are used for food packaging in Europe annually – with virgin pulp accounting for just 2m tones of this.

Source

Coors Light debuts two-stage cold-indicator packaging

The World's Most Refreshing Beer continues to out-cold itself, as Coors Light packaging now features a new design that tells you when your beer reaches the "peak of refreshment." As part of its upcoming Super Cold Summer, the brand is debuting the latest in cold-activated technology: New Coors Light Two-Stage Activation bottles and cans, which make it easy to see when your Coors Light goes from cold... to Super Cold.

Studies indicate more than 70 percent of legal-drinking-age men have put their beer in the freezer to achieve the desired level of cold. The trick is to know when to take the beer out. Now on Coors Light bottles and cans, the iconic mountains still turn blue when the beer is cold, and in addition, a new Cold Indicator bar will turn blue at the same time. Then, when the Coors Light temperature is at the peak of refreshment, a second Super Cold Indicator bar turns blue.

Starting this month, the launch of Coors Light Two-Stage Cold Activation will be supported in many ways from coast to coast. The brand is amping up its advertising support by rolling out 11 new TV spots touting Two-Stage Super Cold Activation. These include new creative featuring entertainment mogul Ice Cube in two ads, titled "Cold Talk" and "Cold Challenge," that depict a humorous stand-off between Ice Cube -- hip hop star, actor, screenwriter, director and producer -- and Super Cold Activated Coors Light in a battle over who is colder.

Coors Light is celebrating the debut of its newest innovation with an iced-out N.E.R.D. concert May 25 in Atlanta. Tickets to the invitation-only event are being awarded solely through local radio prizing and retail promotions, but for consumers who can't be there, the concert will be simulcast on the brand's Facebook page and on Ustream.tv. This is the first of many ice-clusive special events Coors Light is hosting across the country this summer.

From a digital standpoint, the Coors Light Facebook page will introduce "The Master of Cold," an online champion for Super Cold refreshment. His focus is on upgrading average consumer experiences -- how to go from cold to Super Cold. The Master of Cold will introduce and promote exclusive content and behind-the-scenes access on the Coors Light Facebook page and the brand's YouTube channel.

As an extension of the Two-Stage Cold Activation packaging launch, nearly 3,500 beer retailers who meet certain criteria to ensure Coors Light is Super Cold at the point of purchase will be "Super Cold Certified" this spring. The retailers will display a neon sign as evidence that the Coors Light in their store is Super Cold.

Source: MillerCoors via Packaging Digest

Chemicals in food packaging linked to breathing problems in babies

A gender-bending chemical found in food packaging is linked to breathing problems in young babies, researchers have found.

A study showed pregnant mothers with the highest levels of bisphenol A in their bodies were twice as likely to have babies who suffer from wheezing in their first six months.

Wheezing in babies can be a symptom of lung damage, asthma, bronchitis, allergies or an infection.

Bisphenol A, or BPA, which is used to harden plastics, is one of the world’s most widely manufactured chemicals and can be found in dozens of everyday items including baby bottles, CD cases and food and drink packaging.

Because the chemical mimics oestrogen, many scientists believe it interferes with the way hormones are processed by the body.

Although several animal studies have shown it to be safe, others have linked Bisphenol A to breast cancer, liver damage, obesity, diabetes and fertility problems.

The latest U.S. study looked at the BPA levels of 367 pregnant women, with researchers at Penn State College of Medicine measuring levels of the chemical in expectant mothers in the 16th and 26th week of pregnancy.

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