Greiner Packaging arms Symington’s Asian flavors brand with recyclable cardboard-plastic cup

11 Oct 2021 --- Greiner Packaging has secured its first UK customer for its recently improved tear-tab cardboard-plastic cup with Symington’s pot noodle and rice brand Naked. The K3 r100 cup delivers enhanced recyclability with an easy-to-detach and more visible tear-tab system. 

Significantly, if consumers choose not to utilize the tear-off system, the cup’s cardboard sleeve detaches by pressure at recycling centers.

Symington’s repacked Naked’s “The Big One” product in a new format, rebranding it as “The Big Eat” and saving over 50% in plastic.

Kevin Butterworth, Symington’s marketing director, discusses the rebranding and how Greiner Packaging’s K3 cardboard-plastic solution delivers on Symington’s recyclability goals.

“We did some work to discover who was choosing the larger format and the consumption occasions. The standard pot was hitting more of a snacking occasion, and the large pack was popular for lunch or an evening meal.”

“We wanted to know if consumers needed to have the physically bigger pot to justify the occasion and quickly reconciled they didn’t. This led us to rebrand Naked’s “The Big One” to “Big Eat.”Sabo demonstrates how the K3 r100 cup can be easily separated by consumers.

Consumers favor less plastic
Butterworth explains there needed to be a demonstrable difference between the core range and “The Big Eat.” The team learned consumers were “massively favorable” toward any format reducing plastic.

“Working closely with Greiner Packaging, we carried out a full review of the packaging options.

For “The Big Eat,” we reduced the diameter from 116 mm to 95 mm to match our core range. This resulted in an immediate plastic saving of over 50%.”

“Coupled with the advantage of the K3 cardboard-plastic packaging being perfectly recyclable, the pack format change has made a significant contribution to our mission to reduce the impact our packaging has on the environment.”

By moving “The Big Eat” to the taller cup, Naked also slightly reduced the size of its core range cups to underline the value differentiation without reducing the portion size.If the K3 r100 cup is not separated by consumers, pressure applied during the recycling process detaches the components.

“Throughout the project, Greiner Packaging worked closely with us, identifying the most suitable packaging solutions, and pushed the boundaries to create the new pack size, which was outside what its existing machinery could produce at that time.”

“Many factors contributed to this successful project. We were clear why consumers were choosing the larger pack and for which occasion, and rationalizing the format to match the in-store footprint of our standard product line delivered improved operational efficiency.”

“There is also a significant advantage from the plastic saving and recyclability of Greiner Packaging’s K3. Symington’s is on a journey to full recyclability, so we are currently investigating a range of options also to make the lid recyclable.”

Supporting the circular economy
Greiner Packaging’s K3 r100 cup boasts enhanced recyclability through an innovative tear-tab solution, facilitating easy separation of the cardboard wrap from the plastic cup.

Naked uses the wrap’s reverse side to show the fill-level and engage consumers with brand and recycling information.

On-pack recycling communication is key. Jörg Sabo, global marketing and innovation director at Greiner Packaging, highlights one of the main issues with the K3 cup is consumers are not typically separating the cardboard from the plastic.Symington’s repacked Naked’s “The Big One” product in a new format, rebranding it “The Big Eat” and saving over 50% in plastic.

However, the packaging supplier has developed a solution to this issue with the K3 r100 tear-tab. “When the cup is thrown away, and the consumer has not separated the cardboard from the plastic, the cardboard is removed by pressure during the recycling sorting process. This [solution] means the separated materials can go into the correct recycling streams,” he tells PackagingInsights.

Moreover, since the white or transparent plastic cup is unprinted, it can be recycled effectively. The cup’s carbon footprint is also “significantly smaller” than alternative packaging solutions.

Cyclos-HTP has given K3 r100 with a standard aluminum lid a recyclability rating of higher than 90%.

“We have learned our consumers are much more aware of recyclability, so being able to involve them with a strong message about reducing plastic and ensuring the pack is genuinely recyclable is all part of delivering our longer-term CSR commitments, particularly around environmental sustainability,” concludes Butterworth.

By Joshua Poole