Weekly Roundup: Mondelēz avoids 59,600 tons of packaging

17 May 2019 --- This week in packaging, Mondelēz International reduced its packaging by 59,600 tons meaning it is on track to eliminate 65,000 tons by 2020, according to a 2018 Impact Progress Report. In biodegradable packaging news, online food delivery service Delivery Hero has invested in the Series A funding round for BIO-LUTIONS, a producer of disposable tableware made from agricultural residues. Paper-based packaging giant Smurfit Kappa reported a host of sustainability gains, including a 29 percent reduction in carbon emissions.

In brief: Sustainability action
A 2018 Impact Progress Report found that Mondelēz International has reduced its packaging by 59,600 tons in a bid to eliminate 65,000 tons of packaging by 2020. The global snacking company also reportedly reduced its carbon emissions by 10 percent, waste usage by 22 percent and total waste by 13 percent. In October 2018, Mondelēz pledged to make all of its packaging recyclable by 2025.

Songwon Industrial's 20kg polyethylene (PE) bags made with 50 percent recycled PE.Delivery Hero invested in BIO-LUTIONS, a company whose mission is to end the excessive use of petroleum-based plastic and cellulose-based paper. Delivery Hero works with more than 290,000 local and global restaurant partners worldwide. It claims that more customers are asking for sustainable packaging options. “The investment of Delivery Hero reflects our common goals of achieving a sustainable combination of business, ecology and customer experience,” notes Eduardo Gordillo, BIO-LUTIONS Founder and CEO. “BIO-LUTIONS offers the ecological alternative to plastic on the market. Delivery Hero has recognized this and wants to support us with its professional expertise on our way to global expansion and reduction of their carbon footprint.”

Smurfit Kappa also reported significant sustainability gains in its latest Sustainable Development Report. While Smurfit Kappa’s paper-based packaging is renewable and recyclable, the paper production process itself is energy intensive. Good progress was made again on its target for climate change with the company reporting a relative reduction in fossil CO2 emissions by 29 percent compared to its baseline year, 2005. Smurfit Kappa has focused on energy efficiency and the use of renewable sources of fuel such as biomass, where feasible.

Working in partnership with RPC bpi nordipac, global chemical company Songwon Industrial has become one of the first chemical companies in the world to package its products in 20kg polyethylene (PE) bags made with 50 percent recycled PE. The recycled material is sourced from a variety of different waste streams, including pre-used industrial printed bags. In addition, all of the solvents that are required for de-inking are also recycled continuously in a closed loop process. The new bags have been successfully trialed over the last 12 months to ensure they meet Songwon’s quality standards for strength, color stability and handling.Mosca's EVOLUTION SoniXs MS-6 KR-ZV strapping machine.

In brief: Miscellaneous
Mosca launched the EVOLUTION SoniXs MS-6 KR-ZV, a tailor-made, cost-effective strapping solution for securing lightweight products on pallets, dollies or pallet cages. In the past, these goods required much larger strapping machines. With a low strap tension of maximum 450 newtons, the EVOLUTION SoniXs MS-6 KR-ZV works perfectly in light operations. The cost-saving model is CE-compliant from the factory without a safety enclosure when used as a stand-alone machine or with non-driven conveyor systems. The machine's movable strap lance maneuvers between planks, feet or runners and, together with the side-mounted sealing unit, enables strapping close to the ground. The sealing unit uses Mosca's proven SoniXs ultrasonic technology to ensure machine availability even at maximum capacity.Cetina's new look.

Coding and marking specialist Linx Printing Technologies has appointed a number of new channel partners in North America to expand support for its product portfolio. Diagraph, Linx’s long-term exclusive channel partner for Linx’s continuous ink jet products in the US and Mexico, will continue to focus on that industry platform, while the new partners help to expand into other product offerings and support for the US market. Five new distributors have been announced in the US, including Technopack Corporation, Florida, Colorado Scale Center, Colorado and Tourmaline Enterprises, AWLSS, and F.J. Smith Sales in California.

Pet Engineering created a new brand identity for Croatian water company Naturalis. The new visual identity gives a contemporary twist to Cetina’s brand equity elements thanks to a more modern and thinner font and to the simplification of the symbols that previously stood for the green fields, the lake and the water source, now symbolized by simple and smooth lines. The importance of the mountain Dinara, where the journey of Cetina water begins, is clearly communicated through the stylized mountains on the label and the two embossments on the bottle; the purity, achieved thanks to a century running in the dark among limestone rocks, is conveyed by the pure white background.

By Joshua Poole