Weekly Roundup: Ball raises Aluminum Cup to 90% recyclate, Henkel invests in Emerald’s pack fund

22 Apr 2022 --- In packaging news this week, Ball announced that its Aluminum Cup is now composed of 90% recycled content. Also, Henkel invested in Emerald’s new fund for eco-friendly packaging, and Olympia Dairy became the first company in Belgium to fill products in aluminum-free SIG cartons. 

In brief: Ball Aluminum Cup
Ball announced that its Aluminum Cup now contains 90% recycled content, using 95% less energy than primary aluminum. This evolution builds on the Ball Aluminum Cup’s infinite recyclability by lowering its carbon footprint, further positioning the product as an environmentally sustainable solution for packaging waste challenges across the sports and entertainment, foodservice, retail and beverage industries.Olympia Dairy’s aluminum-free carton packs.

In brief: Circular plastics economy
Intertek launched CircularAssure – a program of assurance, testing and certification services that enables companies within the plastics and polymers sector to optimize the value of recycled materials while ensuring their quality and safety. The program can help mechanical and chemical recyclers, waste collectors, polymer producers and brands ensure profitability throughout the value chain. 

Human performance company Nutrabolt entered a partnership with Plastic Bank – an organization dedicated to stewarding the collection of ocean-bound plastic waste. Nutrabolt’s Plastic Bank partnership will support the collection of 1,255 metric tons of ocean-bound plastic in 2022 – equal to nearly 63 million plastic bottles. Ocean-bound plastic will be collected in targeted locations worldwide with significant plastic waste and then transformed into reusable plastic material for new products.

Berry Superfos equipped Spanish food producer Choví Group with a 25% recycled pot for its garlic mayonnaise brand, Allioli. The pot is produced with leading-edge material technology. While the pot still shines on the supermarket shelves in its sunny yellow color, it now includes 25% recycled polypropylene of the same quality as virgin plastic, the supplier said.

Volpack’s F 11 model for pharma.

In brief: New investment fund
Henkel Adhesive Technologies committed to investing in a new packaging fund launched by Swiss investment fund Emerald Technology Ventures. Focused on catalyzing environmentally sustainable low-carbon solutions in the packaging sector, the fund will provide Henkel as a Limited Partner with an annual deal flow of several hundred startups and exposure to thousands of innovative solutions.

In brief: Aluminum-free cartons
Olympia Dairy became the first company in Belgium to fill products in SIG aseptic carton packs with Signature 100 packaging material with no aluminum layer. Signature 100 lowers the carbon footprint of carton packs even further and is 100% linked to forest-based renewable materials.

In brief: Ipack-IMA
Sitma revealed it will display its new e-commerce wrapper, which offers a single solution for different materials, at Ipack-IMA in Milan, Italy (3-6 May, 2022). The paper E-Wrap machine fits within the company’s range of automatic and semi-automatic paper packaging machines. These include the Fast Pack machine, a “workhorse” for high-speed packaging in the e-commerce sector, and the 8002 model, specially designed for frozen food. The E-Wrap machine has all the typical features of Sitma solutions in terms of compactness, ease of use, flexibility and reliability.

Sitma’s paper E-Wrap machine for e-commerce.Volpack, a Spanish player in the flexible pouch packaging machine market, also announced it will take part in Milan with an offering aimed at the pharma industry. A major role will be played by Enflex, a Volpak brand focused on low-speed horizontal form fill seal machines. The company will present the F 11 model specifically designed for the pharma sector.

In brief: Bizerba’s new offices
Weighing, cutting, and labeling specialist Bizerba opened new offices and a label manufacturing facility in Milton Keynes, UK. In a state-of-the-art building, an ultra-modern printing plant has been set up, specializing in producing a wide variety of labels. The new plant is fully equipped with 10 full-color EFA 530 printing presses from MPS, another first for the company.

By Louis Gore-Langton