ECO Bowl: DS Smith and MULTIVAC collaborate on plastic-saving fresh foods solution

12 Jun 2020 --- DS Smith and MULTIVAC have teamed up to design and produce ECO Bowl – an innovative solution for fresh foods in modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) based on corrugated cardboard. ECO Bowl is a fully recyclable corrugated cardboard tray covered with a plastic skin film and lid film that reduces plastic by up to 85 percent compared to a traditional tray. The companies formed a strategic partnership to ensure maximum scalability of the ECO Bowl solution to customers in food production and retail industries across Europe.

With one in two Europeans sorting and recycling more than they did five years ago according to MULTIVAC, ECO Bowl’s plastic skin and lid film can be easily separated for disposal, leaving the corrugated tray for recycling while also eliminating excess packaging.

The ECO Bowl allows for easy and effective implementation for customers – it is designed to run on MULTIVAC thermoforming packaging machines and tray sealers and guarantees equal shelf life when compared with conventional MAP for fresh food, or even improve it, the company indicates.

“At DS Smith, we have facilitated the development of ECO Bowl to be a fully recyclable corrugated cardboard tray, made of 100 percent recycled corrugated board and reducing plastic by up to 85 percent versus a traditional tray,” Sofie Vesschemoet, Head of Marketing at DS Smith Packaging, tells PackagingInsights.

The ECO Bowl reduces plastic by up to 85 percent compared to a traditional tray.“With this design and composition, the solution addresses the concerns of 70 percent of European consumers who see plastic packaging as their top concern and brings us one step. closer to achieving greater [environmental] sustainability in the retail landscape,” Vesschemoet adds.

Plant-based ECO Bowl adoption
ECO Bowl has been market tested with amidori. The German producer of plant-based meat alternatives chose ECO Bowl and implemented the solution at the end of 2019.

“We’re thrilled to see the success amidori is having with ECO Bowl and this is a great example of the benefits that customers can reap when they choose to implement this new generation of packaging innovations into their supply chains,” comments Marc Chiron, Sales, Marketing & Innovation Director Packaging at DS Smith.

“The innovation behind ECO Bowl demonstrates the strides DS Smith is taking to encourage greater sustainability within the retail landscape, and through our partnership with MULTIVAC, we are committed to driving the circular economy at greater scale,” he says.

“We are constantly working on innovative solutions to reduce the quantity of packaging materials and on packaging concepts that meet the current requirements in terms of resource efficiency and recyclability. ECO Bowl is yet another example of these efforts,” adds Bernd Lasslop, Vice President Partner Products & Consumables at MULTIVAC.

In May, DS Smith revealed its new Circular Design Principles, developed with input from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, to drive environmental sustainability in packaging. The principles have been designed to support companies design reuse and recyclability into their packaging and come as a new study from DS Smith reveals that confusion over recycling contributes to more than 2.5 million tons of rubbish going to landfill in the UK.

By Joshua Poole