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SUSTAINED MOMENTUM Leveraging packaging line automation to move the needle on packaging sustainability
s many of the world’s leading food and beverage companies are quickly finding out, moving packaging sustainability from niche applications into mainstream mass manufacturing processes has been a daunting endeavor, often held back by the lack of speed and scale these manufacturers need to make a real significant impact with their sustainability strategies. With much of the existing global stock of operating packaging machinery having been designed to work with packaging materials that have proven to be highly problematic to achieving the vaunted Circular Economy goals of closed-loop packaging recovery, recycling and reuse, simple material substitution has often proved to be a noble but inadequate strategy for meaningful environmental footprint reduction due to the lack of not just the volumes of planet-friendly packaging materials, but the ability of their packaging machines to process these materials at the same production speeds and efficiency levels as with the packaging they are meant to replace. Happily, progressive companies like the Atlanta, Ga.-headquartered paper packaging systems manufacturer WestRock Company are working tirelessly to narrow that gap with a new breed of highly automated packaging line solutions that can enable CPG (consumer packaged goods) manufacturers to really move the needle on packaging sustainability. As an integrated producer of both paper packaging and the machinery used to apply that packaging onto all sorts of consumer products, the company has earned plenty of industry-wide praise in the last few months with the introduction of its CanCollar Eco paperboard packaging solutions—developed to replace plastic ring carriers widely used in beverage container multipacks—along with the advanced high-speed packaging machinery to support their widespread implementation by leading beverage producers. Over the last two years, three major global beverage producers have installed WestRock’s CanCollar Eco packaging line
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technologies at their operations, including: • Leading Mexican brewing company Grupo Modelo partnering with WestRock and Grupo Gondi in transitioning to CanCollar Eco packaging in Mexico, eliminating over 100 tons of plastic waste. • Asahi Breweries, Ltd., one of the largest Japanese beer companies headquartered in Tokyo, introducing CanCollar Eco Plus technology to the Japanese market. The initiative is projected to reduce their paper usage by 8,000 tons, and the GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions associated with material production by 7,400 tons. • WestRock implementing the CanCollar Eco paperboard can ring technology with Coca-Cola European Partners in Spain in 2020, making it the first European country to roll out these sustainable rings on multipack cans. The use of CanCollar through this partnership is projected to save more than 18 tonnes of plastic annually. Recently, the Canadian Packaging magazine caught up with WestRock’s director of corporate sustainability Chris Davidson to relate the company’s efforts to scale up the conversion to sustainable packaging worldwide through improved automation capabilities.
Q. Please explain how advances in automation are making fiber-based alternatives like CanCollar Eco more cost-effective for the food and beverage industry. A. Across industries, automation allows us to drive innovation that helps our customers optimize their operations, reduce costs and drive efficiency at scale. With automated processes, our customers can optimize resources used, enabling them to reduce electricity and water usage to lower their transport carbon footprint. Sustainable, fiber-based packaging and
A schematic drawing of the automatic CanCollar Fortuna mcahine cpable of applying the CanCollar Eco paperboard clips to beer cans at lightning speeds of up to 2,000 cans per minute.
Chris Davidson, Director, Corporate Sustainability, WestRock Company.
plastics replacements are generating significant interest and greater market demand. Our broad portfolio of innovative fiber-based solutions, many of which are engineered to match the performance of plastic, make WestRock uniquely positioned to take advantage of this shift. In the beauty segment, rigid tube packaging is increasingly becoming of interest for products like deodorant or lipstick. Even cosmetic palettes are now available in a fiber-based format, as consumers become more discerning about waste and the environment. In grocery, many of our partners are being asked by consumers to help them load less plastic into their shopping carts. We recently launched our EverGrow produce packaging, which is a recyclable alternative to single-use plastic. We partnered with Liquibox to develop a new SIOC (Ships in Own Container), bag-in-box e-commerce solution for liquid products. It leverages one of our automation offerings—the Meta box design for speed and flexibility in case forming. This packaging replaces rigid containers, while helping liquid products arrive safely at their destination.
Q. Please describe the automation process and equipment used in the production and application of Can-Collar Eco packaging. A. Our CanCollar Eco is compatible with our CanCollar Fortuna, Chunk and Corsair automation platforms. The CanCollar Fortuna is the fastest and most flexible of the CanCollar automation systems, running up to 2,000 cans per minute. Designed for mid-speed can lines, the Corsair system can run up to 240 cans per minute. Given its speed and size, it’s typically best-suited for craft or artisanal beer. MAY 2022 · CANADIANPACKAGING
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