Weekly Roundup: Kellogg updates Pringles design, Amcor adopts new recycle-by-design rules
11 Dec 2020 --- In packaging news this week, Pringles updated its iconic can for the first in 20 years with a fresh look featuring bold hues and a clean design, highlighting the crisps’ inventive flavors and unique, stackable shape. Meanwhile, Amcor announced new design rules to improve PET bottle recycling’s economic viability by removing coloring pigments and labeling, and removing materials problematic for recyclers from all forms of plastic packaging. Also, London City Airport, UK, announced TIPA as the winner of its Sustainable Security Bag Challenge, adopting 25,000 home-compostable bags.
In brief: Packaging design
Pringles updated its iconic can for the first in 20 years with a fresh, new look featuring bold hues and a clean design, highlighting the crisps’ inventive flavors and unique, stackable shape. The Kellogg brand also streamlined its mustachioed mascot to highlight the flavors in every can and showcase his new range of emotions to match. With a sleeker look including a more dynamic mustache, sharper bow tie, sparkling eyes and expressive eyebrows, Mr. P’s “Glow Up” puts focus on “the irresistible taste in every Pringles crisp and stack.”
In brief: Circular Economy
Amcor announced measures to significantly reduce plastic waste in partnership with 35 leading companies in the consumer goods industry. Amcor and its coalition partners – which have a collective turnover of €1 trillion (US$1.2 trillion) – will be enforcing two new design rules to deliver packaging that is easier and more cost-effective to recycle. The first design rule is expected to improve PET bottle recycling’s economic viability by removing coloring pigments and labeling. The second design rule will remove materials problematic for recyclers from all forms of plastic packaging. By implementing these rules, recycling will become easier, cheaper, more efficient and scale faster, the coalition says.
Paccor partnered with Total, a major French energy player, to produce PP containers including 37 percent post-consumer recycled (PCR) material. The recycled containers boast mechanical and appearance properties equivalent to virgin resin containers for non-food applications. Paccor is aiming for 100 percent of its packaging to contain recycled material by 2025.
In brief: Printing and inks
Metsä Board and DS Smith created a modern berry box with their partner network. The packaging is printed using process colour and Full HD technology, minimizing ink consumption while enabling enhanced image quality and bright colors. The berry box is food contact safe thanks to its fresh fiber material. Moreover, a fresh fiber package withstands humid conditions better than a package made of recycled fibers, the partnership says. After use, the corrugated box is easy to recycle.
Metsä Board and DS Smith’s ink-minimizing modern berry box.
Siegwerk launched mineral oil-free inks in India for packaging. The inks are supplied by the global printing inks for packaging applications suppliers plant in Bhiwadi, Rajasthan. They do not contain mineral oils as an intentionally added substance, comprising two fractions – mineral oil saturated hydrocarbons and mineral oil aromatic hydrocarbons. Packaging inks containing mineral oils are a mixture of various ingredients, and some of these chemicals can migrate through the packaging into foods.
AMB enhanced its environmentally sustainable production with a BOBST water-based flexo press. Encompassing five sites across Europe, AMB is a major player in the rigid and flexible packaging sector. The company’s investment in a BOBST EXPERT CI press expands its water-based flexo printing capabilities and reaffirms AMB’s commitment to environmentally friendly production methods.
In brief: Plastic reductions
London City Airport, UK, announced TIPA as the winner of its Sustainable Security Bag Challenge. TIPA provided the airport with a bag made from fully transparent materials, aligned to regulatory standards, that can be composted at home by London City passengers or disposed of as food waste at the airport. An initial trial using 25,000 bags is scheduled for spring 2021 as more passengers return to the airport in anticipation of COVID-19 restrictions easings.
Nestlé’s reusable containers for Nesquik cocoa powder, Ricoré chicory and coffee drink, and Chocapic Bio cereals.
Nestlé unveiled reusable containers for Nesquik cocoa powder, Ricoré chicory and coffee drink, and Chocapic Bio cereals in partnership with the French retailer Carrefour and TerraCycle’s Loop zero-waste initiative. Consumers can access the cocoa, coffee and chicory drink, and cereal products in reusable stainless-steel containers through Carrefour's e-commerce delivery platform. By the end of the year, the products will be available online and in 10 Carrefour stores in and around Paris, France.
Tesco removed over 20 million pieces of plastic from this year’s Christmas range. The UK supermarket’s crackers, lights, cards and puddings are all being produced with less single-use plastic. Tesco’s own label crackers are plastic-free for the first time, while 312,000 Christmas lights will instead be sold in recyclable cardboard packaging. Meanwhile, Christmas card packs are now free from plastic, and a layer of plastic has been removed from Christmas puddings and sponges.
Aldi announced a trial removing plastic-shrink wrap from multipacks of baked beans to further reduce plastic waste. The UK’s fifth-largest supermarket will remove the wrap from its four-pack of Corale Premium baked beans while still offering a multi-buy discount at the checkout. The plastic-free multi-buy offer is being trialed in 86 stores across the Midlands, UK, and, if successful, rolled out across all stores, removing 156 tons of plastic annually.
Sealed Air’s Cryovac Brand Shrink Bag can reduce plastic material weight by 50%.
Sealed Air brought together a host of leading experts from across Europe at its recent online event to help food processors and retailers address the sustainable packaging challenge. Sealed Air shared best practice case studies on how its Cryovac Brand Vacuum Skin packaging systems are helping food companies increase their sustainability. This included its Cryovac Brand Shrink Bag, ideal for protecting smoked and processed meats and cheeses. The solution can reduce the weight of plastic material by 50 percent, compared to other vacuum thermoforming packaging, saving three tons of plastic for every one million packs, the company says.
In brief: New production facilities
Liquibox opened a 140,000 sq ft flexible packaging “super-factory” in Madrid, Spain. The new factory more than triples the company’s bag capacity in continental Europe while expanding the types and sizes of flexible bags it produces. This new capacity is well poised to meet the increasing demand for bag-in-box and bulk products across the entire EMEA region as large packaging formats growth escalates due to COVID-19.
Ardagh purchased a facility in Huron, Ohio, US, which it will convert into a manufacturing plant producing infinitely recyclable beverage cans and ends. The facility will begin production in late 2021. Ardagh's Huron facility will initially consist of three can production lines, together with ends capacity, and generate approximately 200 jobs. The facility will produce beverage cans in multiple sizes for various categories, including sparkling water, soft drinks, teas and alcoholic beverages. The Huron plant’s output is secured by long-term customer agreements.
By Joshua Poole
