Planet Earth

I found it interesting to read Incpen director Jane Bickerstaffe’s argument against the introduction of single measures to assess packaging’s impact on the environment. There is so much ‘green wash’ and ‘hogwash’ out there, that it’s not surprising people are confused.

I totally agree that a holistic approach needs to be  adopted, considering all supply chain implications. Companies need to aim for overall resource efficiency and work towards sustainability balancing economic, environmental and social considerations. This may sound ‘easier said than done’, but as Jane points out “it isn’t if it is based on actual information about product damage and spoilage rates and a good dose of common sense. After all, that’s what we all do when we go shopping – we look at financial cost, quality, quantity, aesthetic appeal, life-span and, increasingly, many of us look at environmental information. We balance them all out and decide what we want.”

So take a ’step back’ and think again about your corporate ‘carbon footprint’ policy or your move to make all of your packaging ‘lightweighted’, ‘recyclable or ‘reusable’. You may be ‘hitting the right’ buttons in terms of government policies and legislation, but are you really doing what’s best for the planet and a sustainable future?

Let’s have some common-sense here. With a little thought, a multi-faceted approach can be justified and work. Let us know what you think!

Chris Penfold

To read Jane’s full article just follow the link to our friends at Packaging News

The use of Multisensoric for confectionery packaging on the increase

By Jane Byrne , 15-Dec-2009

Appealing to consumers’ five senses through innovative packaging techniques can result in increased brand loyalty and greater impact at point of sale, and it is a key driver in confectionery packaging, according to the organisers of the 2010 Pro Sweets trade show.

Multisensoric is an approach to packaging design that allows packaging to stimulate and arouse emotions in consumers to encourage purchase and examples include such elements as striking colour schemes, windows to view the product, exciting rustling sounds and foldout trays.

The Pro Sweets team said that, as a result, the confectionery industry is increasingly focused on touch, sight and sound finished packaging elements such as foil lamination, textured embossing, and varnishes.

via Multisensoric trend key to confectionery packaging, claims German group.

Simulating drug-packaging conditions can save up to six months in development time.

For pharmaceutical companies, time is money: Those who get to market first with a new product will often capture the largest customer share and maximize profits.Innovators of new drugs commit considerable resources to developing and seeking approval for breakthrough products. The sooner they can market a new product, the sooner they can begin to see returns on their investment. Time is of the essence for manufacturers of generic drugs, too, since they often have a suite of drug applications pending and vie with competitors to be the first to commercialize their products for the 180-day period of marketing exclusivity. For these reasons, technologies and services that streamline drug development can provide important competitive advantages to drug manufacturers.Sophisticated packaging simulation modeling can help formulation chemists and packaging engineers identify the right conditions in which to ensure the stability and potency of drugs. This mechanism, referred to as ‘pseudo-empirical’ modeling, can be performed early in the development process, guiding production decisions and helping to avoid costly errors that could prove to be roadblocks to production.Pseudo-empirical modeling is a technique that uses empirically derived data measurements from the packaging materials, including moisture vapor transmission rate MVTR through the bottle, surface area of the bottle, sorbent adsorption isotherms, and drug product adsorption/desorption isotherms. Linking these variables together mathematically will pseudo-empirically predict the relative humidity of a pharmaceutical package’s headspace and drug product hydration level over time. This resulting information will ultimately determine the means by which manufacturers can maintain a drug’s chemical and physical characteristics over time.

via Healthcare Packaging.

SIG pips rivals to produce first one-litre aseptic FSC carton.

SIG Combibloc has won the race to produce the first FSC-certified one-litre aseptic beverage carton for packaging long-life juice drinks and ice teas.The first run of the new cartons, which are marked with the FSC logo on the corner of the packaging, have gone on sale in all German branches of supermarket Lidl.Its launch means that the company has pipped Tetra Pak to bring a one-litre FSC-certified aseptic carton to market.

via SIG pips rivals to produce first one-litre aseptic FSC carton | packagingnews.co.uk. Ben Bold

GSK takes a shine to filmless, ‘green’ holography cartons

A new carton for GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare’s Aquafresh White & Shine toothpaste shimmers with a subtle holographic rainbow effect with a heavy emphasis on the green end of the spectrum. Through the use of new printing technology, the carton is as easy to recycle —something that most holographic packages cannot claim.: “Traditional holographic packaging contains a laminated layer of metallized polyester that does not remove easily from the paperboard, making recycling very difficult,” says Michael J. Larocca, packaging development manager for GSK Consumer Healthcare. “This package has no polyester or metal content. As a result, there is no impact to typical paperboard recycling streams.”

via GSK takes a shine to filmless, ‘green’ holography | Greener Package.  by Anne Marie Mohan, Managing Editor, GreenerPackage.com

Chinese funding to cut specialist food packaging imports – worrying trend?

By Rory Harrington,

A Chinese packaging company said it is to receive multi-million dollar government funding to expand its operations and reduce domestic reliance on specialist packing imports.

Shiner International announced this week that the development of its Packaging Industrial Park project in Hainan will be part-funded by a government grant of RMB 29m ($4.26m).

Domestic boost

The company, which specialises in food safe and anti-counterfeiting packaging, said the cash will be used in the construction of a new facility. The Chinese Government gave the green light to the funding because the plant will help domestic food manufacturers reduce their reliance on having to buy specialist film packing applications from overseas, said the company.

Shiner CEO Jian Fu said: “For quite some time, the Chinese domestic market has relied on the importing of high quality packaging films for high-end consumer products at great expense to Chinese manufacturers. In recent years, the central government has begun to realise the importance of domestically developed key technology products that utilise intellectual property that is developed and owned by Chinese companies such as Shiner.”

Funding for its packaging project will allow the Chinese outfit to make its patented products in a state-of-the-art facility, he added. The money will be used for construction of infrastructures, improvement of capacity and recruitment of senior technical staff for the project.

via Chinese funding to cut specialist food packaging imports.

Design Cognition have teamed-up with Top10Tips.co.uk to provide support to small businesses. The Top10Tips website provides a range of resources for Small to Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) covering all sorts of areas pertinent to a business start-up, including the following:

Top 10 Tips Logo

* Packaging Design
* Search Engine Optimisation
* How to Choose a Marketing Mentor
* Strategic Marketing for Start-Ups
* Brochure Writing
* Social Responsibility for Small Business
* Brochure Design
* Email Stationery Design
* Marketing your Small Business

In terms of packaging design, I’ve provided my Top Ten Tips to help get you started. As I state there, “Packaging is often the last thing to be thought about in a long chain of events during the development of a product; often an after-thought. However, packaging is the main component to deliver consumer convenience and something that can vastly affect the satisfaction or otherwise of a products performance.”

So if you’d like to ‘get it right first time’, you can read the full article (all 1 -10 Packaging Design tips) by clicking the following link. Have read and let me know what you think. Cheers Chris Penfold

http://tinyurl.com/ycffqp2

Via www.cosmeticsdesign.com 29th Sept 2009

Focusing on the increasingly popular trend for faded special effects in plastic packaging, Clariant has launched a new more economical reflective technology.

The company introduced the fade special effect at the HBA show in 2008, and says that it has expanded its capabilities in the area because it has proved to be so popular with personal care and cosmetics providers.

The technology now includes increasingly sophisticated colors and layer combinations, which serve to provide a variety of finishes, from the very subtle, to bolder and more provocative designs, the company says.

Read the full article at: Clariant launches new technology for color fade plastics.

This is a really interesting article about the reuse of paper production waste – a new biotechnology method used to modify the chemical and structural properties of the cellulose materials that are left over – and has potential in all sorts of applications.

ScienceDaily (July 2, 2009)

Margarita Calafell, a researcher at the Department of Chemical Engineering of the UPC’s School of Industrial and Aeronautical Engineering of Terrassa (ETSEIAT), has developed the new method.

In many cases, the new material could replace plastic packaging and auxiliary building materials. The new patented material has unique properties. It is low density, mouldable, fire resistant, impermeable, porous and highly resistant, and it may replace less environmentally friendly materials in many industry and production sectors.

Read more here:  http://tinyurl.com/nloo99

#materials#environmental#compostable#brand#packaging

PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay is rolling out compostable packaging for its SunChips snack line bit by bit this year, with a fully compostable bag due by Earth Day in 2010.

Lauren R. Hartman, Senior Editor — Packaging Digest, 6/22/2009 4:00:00 PM

Just in time for Earth Day, PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay Div. is rolling out compostable packaging bit by bit this year, with a fully compostable bag due out on Earth Day in 2010. Applied to bags of its SunChips brand, a popular line of multigrain snacks, the plant-based, biodegradable material is a structure made of NatureWorks’ (www.natureworksllc.com) polylactic acid (PLA) film, said to decompose over 14 weeks when placed in a hot, active compost bin or pile—at home or at an industrial composting site.

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