Collaboration drives packaging innovation

DuPont recognises significant achievement in sustainable packaging in its 22nd packaging awards

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ALUMINIUM bottles from Exal Corporation, which use new 'Coil to Can' (C2C) technology that makes them a new mainstream packaging option for beverage marketers, is one of the Diamond Winners at the 2010 DuPont Awards for Packaging Innovation. It shares the award for Excellence in Innovation, Cost/ Waste Reduction and Sustainability with an innovative packaging system enables safer transport of medical supplies from Entropy Solutions, Inc. (USA). Exal's manufacturing technology features recyclable aluminium alloy and allows marketers to consider aluminium bottles for large-scale beverage applications for the first time. This hybrid process marries the speed and light weighting of standard beverage can manufacture with proprietary shaping technology, to create highly stylised bottle design options. C2C aluminium bottles are made from 3000 series aluminium alloy, which typically has a post consumer content of 45 to 55 per cent, manufactured at faster speeds to enable a 40 per cent weight reduction at a cost comparable to PET and/or glass. This years winners in the 22nd DuPont Awards for Packaging Innovation also included the first fully compostable snack bag from Frito Lay and new PET bottles from Coca Cola that incorporate plant-based renewable polymer, which were amongst five Gold Winners for 'Innovation and Sustainability or Innovation and Cost/Waste Reduction'. "These winners demonstrate that collaborative innovation has no boundaries. It crosses disciplines, markets and geographies," said William J. Harvey, president, DuPont Packaging & Industrial Polymers. "The collective ingenuity of these business partnerships has yielded innovative new solutions that address pressing consumer needs." Five get the 'Gold' Frito-Lay North America, a division of PepsiCo, overcame significant technical hurdles to develop the world's first fully compostable packaging that reduces the environmental impact of its 'Sunchips' brand. To achieve compostability of the three-part packaging structure whilst providing maximum product protection, the snack company switched to poly lactic acid (PLA) for the outer bag, along with a compostable adhesive and inner barrier coating. The result is a bag that uses renewable materials and allows for new disposal options such as composting, which diverts packaging from the landfill. Gold winner Coca-Cola is being cited for the first plastic beverage bottle from renewable sources that can be recycled along with other PET bottles in the existing recycling infrastructure. In support of its zero waste strategy for packaging materials, Coca- Cola is using a PET resin (monoethylene glycol from sugar cane) sourced from up to 30 per cent plant-based renewable material. The new PlantBottle packaging, which has been launched in Denmark, the United States, Canada, Japan, and Brazil can be recycled with other PET bottles in the existing PET recycling infrastructure. The new bottle technology leverages the key environmental advantages of traditional PET, which include maintaining carbonation, resource efficiency and high recycling value, whilst reducing dependence on non-renewable resources. Other gold winners are: Fresh Step Cat Litter from Clorox (USA) a newly designed flexible bag that cuts packaging materials by nearly 80 per cent whilst offering sustainability and cost reduction across its supply chain; an anti-counterfeiting solution for ethical pharmaceuticals users from Degill International Corp (Taiwan); and a redesign that led to cuts in pack material warehousing by 80 per cent and materials reduction by 25 per cent for Procter & Gamble's Always Feminine Products (USA and Germany). Impressive strides Jury leader John Bernardo, president of Sustainable Innovations, said, "Sustainable packaging is gaining momentum. This year's winnAir Force 1 Low Upstep BR