Huhtamaki launches “first to market” aluminum-free blister packs in healthcare recycling boost

26 Apr 2022 --- Huhtamaki is launching a monomaterial PET blister lid that is free from aluminum. The Push Tab is a “first-to-market” innovation for the global pharmaceutical and healthcare industry.

The solution is designed to meet the stringent safety requirements of highly regulated pharmaceutical and healthcare packaging and provides the industry with a more environmentally sustainable alternative to traditional push-through blister packaging.

The company highlights the innovation will help deliver environmentally sustainable packaging solutions for the growing global healthcare industry while maintaining functionality and efficiency, as the Push Tab blister lid runs on existing packaging lines without compromising on speed.

Facilitating circularity
Huhtamaki highlights the lid is made of monomaterial PET, which significantly improves the packaging’s recyclability while remaining compatible with existing high performance blister packaging lines, without needing modifications or extra investment.

The packaging supplier and its partner – Klöckner Pentaplast – introduce this “market first” innovation to help the global healthcare and pharmaceutical sector meet their environmental sustainability targets and achieve market growth at the same time.

The Push Tab blister lid is a “first-to-market” innovation for the global pharmaceutical and healthcare industry. In 2021, European packaging sales in the healthcare category had an estimated value of €1.4 billion (US$1.5 billion), of which approximately 50% were in blister packaging.

“This innovation is designed as part of our blueloop platform, enabling us to speed up innovation and improve circularity in high-performance flexible packaging solutions. We are working hard to turn all our products into monomaterial fully recyclable structures,” says Marco Hilty, president of Flexible Packaging at Huhtamaki.

“In addition, we are collaborating with partners across the value chain to deliver innovation that helps ensure ambitious environmental sustainability targets around the globe can be met.”

Switching to monomaterial
Tobias Fackler, senior manager of the Healthcare Business Unit at Huhtamaki Flexible Packaging, adds that the pharmaceutical industry is proactively searching for environmentally sustainable packaging solutions that enable recyclability.

“Since blister packaging traditionally contains multiple materials, it is difficult to recycle them in a single recycling stream.”

“Push Tab blister lid solves this problem because it is made of monoPET. Push Tab runs on existing blister packaging lines and is a plug-and-play solution, which means no additional investment is needed for our customers,” he continues.

“This newly developed unique technology makes PET-based lid film pushable and secures easy access to the tablet for the consumer.”

Huhtamaki in the news
Meanwhile, Huhtamaki is increasing its production of advanced smooth molded fiber packaging in Europe. The company’s site in Alf, Germany, is switching its focus from plastics to smooth molded fiber products to meet the growing demand for plastic-free alternatives for food packaging.

The company has strengthened its manufacturing capabilities in smooth molded fiber. This transformative and technologically advanced material can be used to produce high-precision food packaging and replace rigid plastics.

Meanwhile, Huhtamaki is initiating a complete divestment from all its operations in Russia after almost two months of war in Ukraine. The Finnish packaging giant says it has reached this decision after determining “the long-term outlook in Russia will prevent the realization of its growth strategy and long-term ambitions.”

By Natalie Schwertheim

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