Packaging Europe Issue 14.6

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VOLUME 14.6 – 2019

HOW CAN WE BE SUSTAINABLE BY DESIGN?

EXPLORING MONDI’S INNOVATIVE APPROACH TO VALUE CHAIN PARTNERSHIP

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FACHPACK LABELEXPO ALTERNATIVES TO PLASTICS INDUSTRY 4.0 MARS & DVI INTERVIEWS

Head of Content Tim Sykes

Editors Elisabeth Skoda, Libby White

Senior Writer Victoria Hattersley

Head of Studio Gareth Harrey

Production Manager Rob Czerwinski

Advertising Coordinator Kayleigh Harvey

Head of Commercial Operations

VOLUME 14.6 – 2019

Jesse Roberts

Head of Sales Kevin Gambrill

Senior Sales Executive Dominic Kurkowski

Sales Executive Alain Rizk

IT Support Syed Hassan

Executive Assistant

Audience Development Executive

Amber Dawson

Andrew Wood

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Registered in England. VAT Registration No. GB 265 4148 96 Telephone: +44 (0)1603 885000 Editorial: editor@packagingeurope.com Studio: production@packagingeurope.com Advertising: jr@packagingeurope.com, kg@packagingeurope.com Website: packagingeurope.com Facebook: facebook.com/PackagingEurope Twitter: twitter.com/PackagingEurope LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/packaging-europe YouTube: youtube.com/PackagingEurope © Packaging Europe Ltd 2019 No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form for any purpose, other than short sections for the purpose of review, without prior consent of the publisher.

ISSN 2516-0133 (Print) ISSN 02516-0141 (Online)

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3 Editorial Victoria Hattersley 4 Mondi “Paper where possible, Plastic when useful” 8 Mars Wrigley Insights into FMCG brand-building 13 Freshness sensors A smart way to reduce food waste 18 Industry 4.0 Are we there yet?

25 dvi Packaging as a ‘lighthouse’ 28 FachPack 2019 Exhibition perspectives 32 Sustainability Awards 2019 Ready for FachPack 35 Alternatives to plastic More questions than answers 41 Packaging Masterclass Bobst’s new training concept 43 Transit Packaging journeys ahead 49 Japanese innovation The tale of the mysterious

saké bottle 51 Innovation Spotlight Factory of the Future:

connected packaging platform 53 Print and labelling Focus on Industry 4.0 57 Neuromarketing Wine labels on the brain 61 Colour management The challenge of consistency 64 Out of the comfort zone Chatting with Arco Berkenbosch 67 Serialisation Has the FMD deadline been met?

73 Innovation Spotlight Repurposing plastic, one

pack at a time 76 Shrink sleeves Siegwerk discusses innovation drivers 80 Innovation Spotlight Meeting your requirements

— mobile marking solutions from REINER 83 Greif Industrial scale sustainability 88 Innovation Spotlight Entirely linerless shipping labels 90 Innovation Spotlight Flint Group’s nyloflex® Xpress

Thermal System 92 Cats & dogs Nestlé Purina on packaging for pets 96 On second thoughts... Dana Mosora on the rite

of passage for global leadership

EDITORIAL |

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FachPack and LabelExpo approach, we are yet again reminded of the importance of looking outwards and building international bonds in order to foster innovation and talent – particularly in light of the escalating climate crisis.

Only through increased collaboration – not isolationism – can this threat be addressed. It is for this reason, and many others, that we at Packaging Europe are following the ever more tangled Brexit negotiations with trepidation.

But to move on to a more positive subject: the past year has seen some sterling examples of sustainable advancements in packaging and we will be highlighting the best of these at our annual Sustainability Awards. We have had more entries than ever before and we have been impressed by the sheer breadth of achievement these have represented across the categories of Bio-based and Recyclable Packaging, Best Practice, Resource Efficiency, Machinery, and Driving the Circular Economy. We can’t wait to reveal the winners, and you are warmly invited to join us at FachPack, in Nuremberg, from 4pm on 25th September for the awards ceremony, networking drinks, and unmissable sustainability discussion. This year we’re also introducing our special Readers’ Award, giving the Packaging Europe audience the chance to vote for their favourite sustainable innovations from the past year. Look out for an email from us inviting you to pick the shortlisted nomination you consider the most important. If you visit our sustainability-themed

Victoria Hattersley Senior Writer

booth at FachPack, you can also cast their vote there - and record your own perspectives on video.

In this magazine we’ll be previewing key topics and contexts preoccupying exhibitors and visitors at LabelExpo Europe (including colour management, a neuromarketing view of wine labels, and shrink sleeves) and FachPack. In addition, this issue delves into the subjects of alternatives to plastics, transit packaging and active freshness sensors. Mondi give us some valuable insights into their approach to value chain partnership, Mars Wrigley’s Richard Walzer sheds light on the challenges facing confectionery brands in a digital age, and Nestlé Purina’s Bernard Meunier shares an insider’s view of the pet care market. Interviews with Smurfit Kappa’s Arco Berkenbosch, Kim Cheng of the German Packaging Institute (dvi) and industrial packaging giant Greif continue the sustainability debate. Tim Sykes shares the packaging detective story of a mysterious Japanese bottle innovation for saké rice wine. We also ask the rather knotty question: Is Industry 4.0 realised?

Victoria Hattersley Victoria Hattersley vh@packagingeurope.com @PackEuropeVicky

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“PAPER WHERE POSSIBLE, PLASTIC WHEN USEFUL”

As carbon emissions accelerate the climate crisis, the urgent message from scientists is clear. If we pass the 1.5- to two-degree benchmark laid out by the United Nation’s Paris Agreement, then alongside melting ice caps, we will have far larger problems on our hands. The packaging industry has to play its part in developing sustainable solutions across the value chain. Along with many of the world’s other leading packaging and paper companies, Mondi is on a journey to contribute to a better world through its focus on sustainable product innovation, responsible manufacturing and an innovative approach to value chain partnership. Packaging Europe follows that journey.

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eter Oswald, CEO of Mondi is confident that it is possible to manage a sustainable business, and reduce carbon emissions while maintaining growth. He believes this strategy is a question of the right investments and mind-set. “Mondi is investing to reduce greenhouse gases across our business,” he comments. “Since 2013, we have invested €400 million in energy efficiency measures increasing the proportion of biomass-based renewable energy in our mills. This investment and other measures, such as switching to less carbon-intensive fuels, has made it possible to reduce our specific greenhouse gas emissions from our pulp and paper mills by 14.5 per cent since 2014.”

“Mondi has set long-term greenhouse gas reduction targets” continues Markus Gaertner, CEO of Mondi Fibre Packaging / Paper. “We have a target to reduce specific, production-related, emissions from our pulp and paper mills to 0.25 tonnes CO2 per tonne of saleable production by 2050 (against a 2014 baseline of 0.59 tonnes). Our investments help reduce Mondi’s climate impact, while at the same time helping customers meet their own sustainability targets and commitments by providing sustainable packaging solutions.”

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Best of both worlds There is currently a lot of confusing information available to consumers comparing one type of packaging material to another. Mondi’s aim is to provide clarity for customers so they can meet their sustainability targets in a fact-based manner that benefits the end-consumers and the planet.

This customer-centric approach, which Mondi calls ‘EcoSolutions’, aims to make packaging products that are sustainable by design by offering both paper and plastic based solutions. According to the company, the goal of this approach is to help its customers fulfil their sustainability goals and commitments while performing all functions needed throughout the supply chain and contributing to a circular economy. This begins with responsible sourcing, production, transportation, to point of sale, to the consumer’s home, and ends with being recycled and reprocessed.

Graeme Smith, sustainability manager for Mondi Consumer Packaging, elaborates: “We work with our customers to ensure that the packaging solution that is produced is fit for purpose and sustainable by design. In this way, we can help ensure that we manufacture a packaging material that has a reduced impact on the environment.

For example, we design packaging with recycling in mind, which means using as few materials as possible, so the product can be recycled without contamination from mixed materials. We use paper where possible, plastic when useful.”

Mondi offers both paper and flexible plastic solutions that are sustainable by design. For example, for food packaging, the barrier properties of plastic play a vital role in keeping food fresh, while still having a small carbon impact relative to the production of the food. Lightweight

packaging, which is also able to save on transport costs and emissions, and mono-materials with barrier protection that make plastics recyclable at the end of their life, improve the sustainability of packaging solutions.

In parallel, paper offers many benefits – it is a renewable material, and at the end of life it is easily recyclable and currently one of the most recycled materials around the world. It’s also a lot stronger than people realise.

Mondi Advantage MF SpringPack paper is an efficient, high-strength low-grammage paper grade. A single sheet lifted a 4.2-tonne shipping container, achieving a Swedish Guinness World Record in 2001. A few years later, in an unofficial test it lifted a 9.8-tonne train engine. It is used for example, for compressed roll-packing of mattress springs, allowing space-efficient shipping.

Mondi’s various papers can stretch and bend to provide structural protection. They can also protect customers’ products with barrier coatings such as ‘Sustainex’, which is based on renewable resources and is certified as fully biodegradable. This coating provides paper with the barrier protection to make a functional solution for dry food, waste bags and hygiene products.

Asking the right questions This customer-centric approach comes down to asking the right questions and understanding the customers’ needs for individual product protection throughout the entire value chain.

Graeme Smith explains the type of questions Mondi considers: “What is the end application, and what barriers are necessary to protect or extend the shelf life of the product? What are the transportation logistics and how can we ensure the packaging delivered is packed as efficiently as possible? What are the storage conditions?

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What certifications and responsible sourcing are necessary for the customer to have truly sustainable packaging? What sorting and recycling infrastructure is available where the products will be produced and sold?”

With this method, Mondi can begin to understand the entire value chain of the customer’s product, making it possible to innovate together to find new opportunities to optimise production and packaging while protecting the environment.

Back to the three Rs There are three actions that Mondi prioritises to provide sustainable solutions for their customers: replace, reduce, recycle. Replace materials with more sustainable options, reduce the volume of raw material used through operational efficiency and raw material choices, and design paper and plastic solutions for recycling.

An example of where the company has found a hybrid solution to replace a less sustainable solution is PerFORMing, a shallow paper tray that is treated with a barrier coating. Its challenge was to create a thermoforming paper packaging for fresh food products such as meat, fish and cheese slices, with the same food protection and shelf life characteristics as the original less sustainable packaging.

In Austria, REWE, one of Europe’s largest retailers, was looking for a sustainable solution to pack their cheese products of their organic brand ‘Ja! Natürlich’. Mondi worked with them to bring this new packaging to market, which can be recycled in the Austrian paper stream. Based on a life cycle and environmental impact assessment conducted

by Quantis, it has shown that it has a lower carbon footprint than the plastic tray it replaces.

On the paper side, another example is a new form-fill-seal bag made out of Advantage Smooth White Strong paper, which replaces a plastic bag for pasta packaging. Mondi worked together with its customer Fiorini - a European leader for converting paper for bag manufacturing for e.g. sugar, flour and pasta - to meet the growing demand for more sustainable packaging by providing a paper alternative with optimal production performance on the packing machines and excellent printability for food labelling. Mondi produces paper grades that focus on the special end-use needs for FFS applications. The sealing technique requires food glue that reactivates to heat inside the package that covers about one centimetre of the opening, which | 6 | Packaging Europe

is then folded and sealed. The pasta bag is made of 97 per cent paper including the window, making the packaging designed for recycling in most European paper waste streams.

For flexible packaging, BarrierPack Recyclable is a mono-material that was developed by the company as a sustainable alternative for customers. The material has the same barrier properties and functionality, but is fully recyclable, replacing a less sustainable multi-layer plastic pouch. It can be used, for example, to keep pet food fresh.

Working together with the Dutch Bio-Organic Pet food brands Yarrah and DANO, Mondi developed a BarrierPack Recyclable pouch with a resealable zipper to keep pet snacks fresh, while replacing the previous non-recyclable packaging.

Stronger Together When tackling climate change, a more holistic approach is necessary, and collaboration is vital to find the solutions to transition to a circular economy. According to Mondi’s vision, companies need to work closely with customers, and more innovative partnerships can take place when knowledge and expertise is shared between supplier and client. “Packaging can contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gases when managed responsibly throughout its life cycle,” says Mr Oswald. “It can be part of the solution, but only when coordinated across the entire supply chain, and recycled at its end of life.”

Mondi is working with partners such as the WWF Climate Savers and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the World Business Council Forest Solutions Group. Through these partnerships, different elements of the supply chain can work together to reduce the use of raw materials, their carbon footprint and increase the circular use of plastic through producing recyclable material, or reducing the need for virgin raw material by using post-consumer waste. One example is the Pioneer Project with EMF, Project Proof, where suppliers, converters, FMCG’s, and retailers worked together in a non-competitive space to engineer flexible packaging produced with 25 per cent postconsumer waste.

“Such collaborations will be crucial to finding sustainable innovations,” concludes Mr Oswald.

“In the race to protect our planet, sustainable packaging can contribute to a better world.”

MARS WRIGLEY: INSIGHTS INTO FMCG BRAND-BUILDING How does an FMCG giant like Mars bring its brands to life for consumers?

How does it respond to the challenge of tapping into the growing online market? Victoria Hattersley spoke to Richard Walzer, head of design, EMEA at Mars Wrigley – the corporation’s confectionery arm – to get an insight into its approach to the above challenges and more.

Richard Walzer

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today’s multi-faceted retail environment, achieving – and maintaining – strong brand visibility is more complex than ever. The increasingly crowded online marketplace, growing demand to interact with consumers in a more ‘authentic’ way, and the decline of more traditional bricks-and-mortar stores are just some of the challenges to be faced. Even a company like Mars Wrigley, with a brand stable that is recognised throughout the world, must work constantly to maintain its strong market presence.

Rebranding SNICKERS® On an individual brand level, one of the first steps is to identify the market penetration barriers for an individual product category. For Richard Walzer, this is key to driving brand growth.

“Once we’ve worked out what these barriers are, we need to look at how we can overcome them through design. One example I’m quite proud of is SNICKERS®. It’s one of the best-selling chocolate bar brands in the | 8 | Packaging Europe

world and when I joined the company five years ago and looked at our previous packaging design it was quite brown – the same colour as the category – so it was difficult to get noticed in store.”

Looking at it from this perspective, it’s easy to see why a fresh approach may have been overdue. The company has developed a new branding design system for Snickers which it is now rolling out across the world.

“We put an awful lot of effort into working out what was distinctive about the Snickers brand – what personality we wanted to bring to life on the shelf. Now you’ll see a colour balance that’s red and white and blue, with brown. This has repositioned the brand from being quite recessive on-shelf to standing out.”

The ‘impulsivity element’ Today, FMCG companies face particular challenges when it comes to achieving success in the growing e-commerce market.

When a person purchases a bar of chocolate, this is more often than not an impulse buy triggered by behavioural moments for the consumer. And whereas

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before this impulsivity element would not be a challenge for Mars Wrigley as a business, when it comes to today’s marketplace it’s a little more problematic.

“When you fancied a treat in the past, you needed to be there in the moment. For example, people might go into a petrol station to pay for their petrol and buy a bar of chocolate for the journey. Now they often pay at the pump, so that opportunity for a sale is being lost.”

And clearly, this impulsivity factor presents even more challenges online.

To some extent, this comes down to the marketing conundrum of ‘System 1 vs. System 2’ thinking. For those unfamiliar with the terms, System 1 thinking is instinctive. If you purchase a product this way, you are making a rapid decision based on emotion rather than rational thought. System 2 decisionmaking, on the other hand, requires more effort and attention (i.e. stopping to think: ‘Do I really need this bar of chocolate?’). The delay you get from the latter when thinking about making an online purchase isn’t necessarily favourable for snacking and treating products. Yes, a consumer may see a picture of a Snickers bar and think they’d like some chocolate, but how does that translate into a sale? After all, if a chocolate bar is purchased online it can’t be consumed instantly.

But in fact, Mars Wrigley believes the e-retailer landscape is creating even more opportunities to bring treats and snacks to the consumer. “Today, the triggers for impulse purchase do not necessarily have to lead to immediate consumption. It’s about guiding the consumer to make connections. For example, if a consumer is shopping online for a birthday party or graduation, our products – like M&Ms or Skittles – have a place in their shopping cart.”

And for any brand, regardless of category, there is also the all-important question of how it is presented online to achieve optimum visibility. We have seen a lot of companies shifting from a simple thumbnail of the pack shot to a clearer online image or focusing on the brand’s distinctive assets to achieve noticeability with just a few pixels. “In the case of M&Ms, this might be the characters associated with the brand; or in the case of Snickers it’s what we call the ‘epic crop’, which is a corner of our logo.”

Only connect Taking the above into account, how is Mars Wrigley itself going about selling products online? “We’re looking at ways to engage consumers in their digital browsing, socialising and shopping journeys to re-create those impulse purchase trigger moments. In addition, we look to tap into growing customer demand for personalisation or premiumisation. If you

After

can offer something that is exclusively online – a novelty product that is different to those you can buy in the shops – a consumer might be more willing to wait rather than requiring instant gratification.”

After all, branding today is about engaging with and relating to consumers and their needs. To this end, Mars Wrigley’s partnership with the Chinese online and mobile commerce group Alibaba is indicative of this wider trend towards establishing a more ‘symbiotic’ relationship.

Back in 2016, the two companies announced a global strategic business partnership through which Mars Wrigley could leverage Alibaba’s most recent offering: product and brand development. As part of this, Mars Wrigley was able to use Alibaba’s marketing platforms, media properties, mobile reach, big data and consumer insights to directly engage with its hundreds of millions of customers in the Chinese market.

“This partnership has allowed us to engage directly with consumers and learn more about them, too. It also means we can launch something on a small scale – such as the online exclusive limited-edition Spicy Snickers, which was developed after studying the market data – and understand how it works and whether it’s worth bringing to market on a wider scale.

By doing historical consumer research, you are basically getting consumer input into future product design.

“This can also work for packaging design and branding – things like customisation, or more simplified packaging. You could use the data to see if consumers would buy into the idea of the product being sold in that manner.”

The interactive approach These discussions about a more interactive approach to brand development and consumer engagement also feed into something we have covered increasingly at Packaging Europe: augmented reality. (In fact, our most recent issue was entirely dedicated to the subject!) What opportunities does Richard see for AR when it comes to FMCG? “I think it’s interesting, but I don’t believe we have seen anyone in FMCG supremely own this space so far. Of course when it first came out, nearly a decade ago, it was very exciting and lots of concepts were being thrown around – but the reality is that when it comes to on-shelf products, consumers typically spend less than a couple of seconds on each purchase. They don’t really want to waste their time getting their phone out etc. It probably works better for things that are sitting in front of you on the dinner table, like a cereal packet or ketchup bottle.”

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That’s not to say there isn’t potential for the future in a supermarket setting. “It may work if there are scenarios where for example you wear a pair of AR glasses that block out half the shelf so you can only see the choices you want. This could be great for those on special diets, like coeliacs. I think Google glasses will happen, and you could then use them to drive brand engagement and bring the product to life, which would be really exciting.”

An infinite shelf?

All these strategies are key to ensuring a brand can differentiate itself from the competition in a crowded online marketplace. Indeed, every now and then we hear talk about the ‘infinite shelf’ – the idea that there are

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so many options available online these days, often at cheaper prices, that it can ultimately be damaging to large brand owners that have previously dominated the market. What is Richard’s take on this? Is it a real issue?

“I think it’s an interesting term but I’m not sure it genuinely exists, simply because of what we know about consumer behaviour. Consumers want our brands because they love what we sell, the trust is there and our branding is instantly recognisable, so while there are more options and therefore greater competition, I believe consumers will continue to desire our brands.

“I don’t actually think a plethora of choice is of interest to consumers. Consumers want enough choice to find what they want, but an infinite number of options to go through is simply too confusing and time-consuming. Our job is to make sure our brand is always in the top two or three options that the consumer thinks about. Personally, I don’t see that circumstance changing.”

Continuously adapting What does all the above tell us? For a company such as Mars Wrigley – well-established throughout the world – the challenge is not so much about brand-building per se as it is about continuously refreshing existing brands to adapt to new retail environments.

From a packaging point of view, it’s been instructive to get a snapshot of how just one FMCG giant approaches this challenge, particularly with regard to the online marketplace. Success is not necessarily guaranteed – even for an acknowledged global leader.

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A SMART WAY TO REDUCE FOOD WASTE

According to research by the SAVE FOOD initiative, around one third of food produced for human consumption every year worldwide – approximately 1.3 billion tonnes – is wasted. In industrialised countries, more than 40 per cent of losses happen at retail and consumer levels. Food is sometimes thrown away ‘just in case’ when it is still fine to consume. Active freshness can give consumers useful information about the freshness of the food they are buying or have bought. Elisabeth Skoda explores various innovations in the field, ranging from colour changing labels to tags that link up with smartphones to give detailed information and sensors that indicate how ripe fruit is.

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ccording to Dr Graham Skinner, product development manager at Insignia Technologies Ltd, there are two main challenges in the fight against food waste: poor chill chain management within the supply chain and uncertainty about how long ago food packs were opened after purchase. The company has developed tags that help retailers and the restaurant industry address this issue.

Colour-changing tags The company’s FreshTags are colour changing TTIs (time-temperature indicators) which can be applied at point of manufacture, then stay with the product throughout the supply chain.

“If the product has been kept within the recommended storage temperature range, the label will change colour in line with the expected shelflife of the product. However, products are often temperature abused due to sub-standard refrigeration units or poor chill chain management, such as leaving refrigerated truck doors open. This results in a lower quality

product by the time it gets to the restaurant. Insignia’s FreshTag labels will change colour faster if food has been temperature abused, which allows the restaurant to prioritise those products.”

Insignia’s customers have observed significant positive behavioural change of staff maintaining the chill chain when the FreshTags have been utilised.

“The overall impact of this behavioural change has led to fresher, better quality produce, a significant reduction in product rejections and a reduction of food waste,” says Dr Skinner.

He points out that Insignia also offer after opening/secondary shelf life timers for consumers, which automatically start to change colour once a pack has been opened, allowing the consumer to make more informed decisions on the freshness of the food after opening.

“When the pack is opened, the atmosphere around the label changes, triggering the colour changing process, and the centre dot changes colour from yellow to purple as the food becomes less fresh. This gives a clear indication of how long the pack has been opened.”

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Monitoring carbon dioxide Insignia’s patented intelligent smart pigments and plastics are formulated to change colour when there is a change of carbon dioxide levels in modified atmosphere packaging.

“The intelligent label is embedded in the inside layer of the lidding film of a modified atmosphere package or bag. When the package is flushed with CO2, the label turns yellow but remains the same colour until the package is opened, releasing the CO2. Once the package is opened the label begins timing, responding with a colour change that can be pre-set. The colour change response is faster in higher temperatures, aligning the label with actual product freshness. The colour changes are reversible, and we can also alter the chemical formulation of the pigments to produce a wide variety of indicators with different sensing properties. There is a colour chart next to the sensor so consumers can be sure what colour to look out for,” Dr Skinner adds.

Eating fruit and vegetables when they are ‘just right’ Knowing when the best time is to eat a piece of fruit can be tricky and can involve a lot of guesswork that could result in food waste. ILIP’s Smart Ripe addresses this issue by providing real-time information on the ripeness of fruit.

Developed in collaboration with Radio6ense, a spin-off of the University of Rome Tor Vergata, and with the University of Turin’s Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences, it works thanks to a sensitive sensorized RFID tag that is integrated within the packaging, which can detect certain dielectric variations in the fruit pulp associated with ripeness, such as turgidity, acidity as well as water and sugar content.

This information is transmitted to a terminal that can be programmed to return the desired information, ranging from a simple indication of whether or not the fruit is ripe, to advice on how or when to use it. In the case of avocados, the first product on which Smart Ripe was successfully tested, data can be obtained regarding consumption times (‘not yet ripe’, ‘ready to eat’, ‘creamy’) or methods of use (‘for cooking’, ‘for salads’, ‘for sauces’, etc.).

Currently, the technology has been designed for ‘premium’ fruit and vegetable products, such as avocado, mango and papaya; however, the principle can be applied to different types of fruit or vegetables, as Luigi Caravaglia, R&D manager at ILIP, points out.

“Smart Ripe is a technology that can monitor – in real-time and in a non-invasive way – the freshness and ripeness of a fresh product. With

Credit: Imperial College London | 16 | Packaging Europe

this innovation, we are paving the way to numerous applications that will improve handling of fruit and vegetables at the point of sale and the consumer purchase experience.”

Monitoring meat and fish with paper-based tags Back in the UK, academics at Imperial College London have developed paper-based, smartphone-linked spoilage sensors for meat and fish packaging. The researchers say the new sensors, made by printing carbon electrodes onto cellulose paper, could help detect spoilage and reduce food waste for supermarkets and consumers.

Dr Firat Güder and Giandrin Barandun from the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London explain the benefits of these new laboratory prototype sensors which are known as ‘paper-based electrical gas sensors’ (PEGS) and are designed to detect spoilage gases like ammonia and trimethylamine in meat and fish products.

“Many freshness sensors already on the market rely on chemical reactions that lead to a colour change. However, judging a colour change is a subjective measure. Our sensor gives an electrical signal which can easily be used in digital data processing. The RFID tags into which the sensors will be integrated are already used in packages for many different foods and other goods, for example for security or information purposes. This makes it very easy to add our sensors to the packaging process. Our sensor is also suitable for very humid environments.”

Powered by NFC The tags are powered wirelessly by the smartphone once it comes close, i.e less than ten centimetres, to the tag, enabling the smartphone and the tag to communicate, as Dr Gürer explains.

“This technology, near-field-communication (NFC) is already commonly used for contactless payments or public transport, such as on the Oyster card in London.”

The researchers say that the sensors integrate easily in existing RFID tags on packs, but that protecting the sensors is something that still needs to be looked at.

“The sensors should not get in contact with the food or any liquid, as this would alter the readings of the sensor. We are looking at ways to protect them by adding a gas permeable, waterproof layer to protect the sensor. Packaging manufacturers already use many layers of different plastics to optimise their packs for retailers’ needs.”

The sensors, which were manufactured in the lab for a cost of under £0.02, were tested with cod fillet and chicken breast.

“In general, they can detect all water-soluble gases but are most sensitive to ammonia (NH3) and trimethylamine. These are the nitrogenous products of protein decomposition by bacteria. That said, our sensors can be used with any food that is packed in a sealed atmosphere, where the relative humidity is over 50 per cent and there are some nitrogenous compounds accumulating from bacterial activity. The materials are biodegradable and nontoxic, so they are safe to use in food packaging. We feel that they could eventually replace ‘use-by’ dates,” says Mr Barandun.

The scientists used ballpoint pens and robotic cutters to create the first prototype sensors and believe in its scalability.

INDUSTRY 4.0:

ARE WE THERE YET? We have been talking about the many facets of Industry 4.0 for so long now that it no longer feels like something that is ‘up-and-coming’. But has its full potential truly been realised, and what comes next? Victoria Hattersley talks to a few industry insiders to get their insights on these questions.

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s Industry 4.0 realised? Certainly, unless you have had your head buried in the sand or elsewhere for the past decade or two you cannot have failed to notice the digital transformations taking place in smart factories and businesses across the world. We might imagine that machines are all now happily interfacing and making autonomous decisions, and the revolution is complete.

In reality, as we all know, it’s not a question with a definitive answer. The movement towards automation and data exchange in manufacturing processes is hugely complex, involving so many different aspects, from cyberphysical systems to the IoT, cloud computing and AI. And just as we can’t pinpoint an exact start to all this, neither can there be a clear end point.

What does ‘digital transformation’ really mean?

What we can say for certain is that the ways in which factories and businesses operate has radically changed since the term ‘Industry 4.0’ became ubiquitous. We see certain ongoing trends, such as the move towards customisation, performance optimisation and improvement, food safety and green strategies, which are all influencing the ways in which decisions are made. | 18 | Packaging Europe

But what does a ‘digital transformation’ mean in practice, and how can this be brought about? Rockwell Automation is one company that has been working with its packaging clients for years to implement Industry 4.0, and Paolo Butti, its OEM director EMEA, says that broadly speaking there are two main stages a company needs to work through. “Number one is clearly for machine builders to have the right conversation with the end customer from the start and try to build what we call the ‘use case’.

Technology will only be successful if it addresses a clear business need.

“The second step would be a solid ROI calculation. It’s about going through the separate steps before implementation: What would be the cost of each technology? How will it be implemented? What will be the ROI, etc?”

Connectivity is also central, of course. Once a networked system has been installed, data exchange must be implemented between each networked system. “This poses a challenge for the packaging industry to change its own view of the product,” says Sören Rose, CEO of industrial software specialist inray. “Of course, packaging remains the central function of a packaging machine, but in the future a packaging machine will not be sold as a stand-alone system, but as part of an Industry 4.0 structure.”

“In the resulting ‘smart factory’, such intelligently restructured value chains optimise stock keeping units and create easier, faster and more efficient ways to feed raw materials and ingredients into production,” Raffaele Pace, vice-president Equipment Product Management & Digital Solutions, Sidel

inray’s OPC Router is an example of a central data hub that, with multiple plug-ins, enables different production systems to be coupled with each other. Through graphical configuration, the exchanged data between systems can be defined and the times for the data traffic be determined.

But the digitisation trend doesn’t just affect a single product line in terms of digitally connecting machines and workflows – it impacts the entire supply chain. What we are also seeing, then, is manufacturers creating upstream connections with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Supply Chain Management (SCM) systems as well as downstream connections to their logistics.

“In the resulting ‘smart factory’, such intelligently restructured value chains optimise stock keeping units and create easier, faster and more efficient ways to feed raw materials and ingredients into production,” says Raffaele Pace, vice-president Equipment Product Management & Digital Solutions, Sidel.

“Additionally, we already see an intensification of built-in intelligence employed across the packaging lines. Such automated solutions are key in the factory of the future, in the form of features such as prediction, aided guidance and self-adjustment. The latter one, for instance, lets the Packaging Europe | 19 |

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machine correct itself independently of human intervention as data shows when its production values are out of range, as well as when manufacturing parameters should change based on new production needs.”

Improved data capture In order to truly reap the rewards of Industry 4.0, then, companies need to take a more sophisticated approach to how their data is analysed. Big data is no longer a new term – it’s been around for decades. But while most companies are now fully aware of the importance of data capture to improve their process and service offering, the challenge is to think in new ways about how data is analysed and the decisions that should be made as a result.

For Rockwell, this could be about moving the problems away from human decisions to data analysis. “The technologies we have been investing in when it comes to analytics and system maintenance are focused on using data to map trends and enabling machines to make autonomous decisions.”

“In terms of collecting data, you can do it in a very agnostic way. I think Rockwell has been going increasingly open standard and really data aggregation is coming. What we are most concerned about is data orchestration, which is the first step before complex data analysis so that decisions can be made fast enough.”

“In our view, digitising the entire value chain through the meaningful use of data will ultimately open up the opportunity to link the manufacturing site to the point of sale,” says Raffaele Pace. “This move will offer various benefits, such as the optimisation of initial investments, reduction of time and costs by avoiding downtime and optimising resource consumption, and the possibility to steadily meet demands for long-term efficiency – as well as product mass customisation and increasingly faster time-to-market.”

Furthermore, as data and decision-making are increasingly moving into the cloud, in the future businesses will need to decide how much needs to be in the cloud and how much needs to be on the premises. “For certain discrete manufacturing processes, the amount of data that needs to be in the cloud is not that huge,” claims Mr Butti. “We are still strong believers that a lot of the high-speed real time data analysis needs to happen at the premises.”

“An Industry 4.0 implementation generates costs that are reflected in the price of the machine and packaging,” Sören Rose, CEO of inray

Where are the challenges?

With such a huge and ongoing technological revolution, it is inevitable that some elements of the industry will have been quicker to embrace the changes than others. Aside from the continuing problem of cybersecurity as data moves into the cloud, one of the key challenges to be faced is a lack of organisational maturity when it comes to implementing new technologies.

“I think that when it comes to packaged goods such as home/personal care and food & beverages they are getting very close to what life science has been experiencing in terms of traceability, serialisation etc.,” says Paolo Butti. “What packaging still needs to address is being in control when it comes to OEE, for example to minimise downtime during machine upgrades, changeover and so on. This is ultimately the next step in the flexibility of production.

“Also, many companies are still not organised and don’t have a huge after-sales department. They are not focused on data analysis, data security, performance management, remote diagnostics, or the possibilities for augmented reality. They don’t have the concept of the machine as a service, which is where I believe the industry is heading.”

For some companies, there is still a certain reluctance to implement these technologies, and this can be exacerbated by a lack of demand or understanding from customers. “An Industry 4.0 implementation generates costs that are reflected in the price of the machine and packaging,” says Sören Rose, CEO of inray. “The customer must be able to identify and calculate the additional benefits. Only then will demand rise.”

Mr Rose believes that one way the process can be accelerated is through the introduction of current standards to lower the barriers for implementation of Industry 4.0 for all parties involved. “There are already very good approaches such as the ‘OPC UA PackML Companion Specification’, which combines the PackML standard with the Industry 4.0 protocol OPC UA.” There is also the question of whether Industry 4.0, and the greater industrial automation this brings, poses a threat to the workforce by decreasing the demand for human skills. Do industry insiders think this is a genuine issue that needs to be addressed?

Not according to Raffaele Pace: “The use of advanced technologies has already begun to change the image of the industry but not exactly toward a reduced demand for human skills. Rather the opposite: due to the innovation focus, factory-based jobs are much more attractive than a few years ago – a trend that is set to increase as Industry 4.0 and the opporPackaging Europe | 21 |

complex tasks and providing the potential for less skilled operators to work on a larger range of equipment, including the ones with a high technological complexity.”

Beyond Industry 4.0

tunities it presents for automation gather momentum. One thing seems certain: the next ‘Z generation’ will have aspirations beyond jobs requiring them to simply undertake repetitive, manual activities all day long.”

‘A cultural shift’ But it’s not solely about the implementation of the necessary technologies themselves: Mr Butti is keen to point out that digital transformation is about a cultural shift as a much as a technological one – and this can be a challenge in itself as it requires additional expenditure in new skills to reflect the new realities of the workplace.

“The perspective we are trying to give is that it is a cultural transformation both internal and external and it touches upon an organisation’s business model,” says Paolo Butti. “The majority of this transformation – even if it comes through the installation of new machines – involves humanmachine interfaces which means a new set of skills and new people.”

For example, cobots, which combine the capacities of a robot with the skills of human, can improve working conditions for employees by eliminating the need for potentially damaging manual activities. They will ultimately enhance human productivity by allowing workers to take on higher, value-added rather than manual tasks.

“For our customers, we also concentrate on aspects like an improving welfare to work, making job tasks more central to human beings.

This is also an area where the increasing use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and smart machines can generate advantages, by effectively simplifying

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The question of whether Industry 4.0 is implemented is, it is clear, a more complex one. Are we there yet? No, in short: it’s an ongoing process and some elements of the supply chain are more advanced than others. Maybe the question we should be asking now is: What next – both for the ongoing evolution of Industry 4.0 and beyond it?

There are some clear trends that will influence the way decisions are made going forward. A major one is the ongoing shift from mass production towards mass customisation and personalisation. This will require a greater level of agility than we are currently seeing – something the industry is now addressing. Sidel’s Agility 4.0 program, for example, is designed to help its customers make the shift towards mass customisation via the use of smart solutions, digital connectivity and simulation tools, which it says can create manufacturing plants that are ‘responsive, flexible and connected’.

But some might feel we’ve already heard enough about Industry 4.0 and it’s time to move on to the next thing. This is where we can start to talk about Industry 5.0. While the overriding focus on Industry 4.0 is machine interface, Industry 5.0 is bringing it back to the human level by focusing on the necessary interaction between people and machines – something we are already seeing to a certain extent with the rise of the cobots. It’s about making life easier for both employers and the workforce.

“This could mean, for example, that in the future a machine builder would not have to be present in a manufacturing plant: they could work remotely through a digital VR model,” says Mr Butti. “Rather than spending ages in a plant, they would only need a matter of weeks because everything could be developed in the engineering lab. This would bring huge cost reductions, better quality of life, and they would be able to react far more quickly to changing requirements.”

Here, the question is not the development of the tech itself – drones, robots, vision systems – they are already available. The change is in the business model and who is doing what and where and when and how.

One thing is for sure: the growing demand for convenience means the factory of the future is going to look very different.

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PACKAGING AS A ‘LIGHTHOUSE’

The German Packaging Institute (dvi) is a platform for information, insights und impulses, and works to be a network for the packaging industry, supporting know-how transfer as well as a dialogue between companies, institutions and partners. Its members come from all levels of the value chain.

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rior to Fachpack, where dvi will host its annual packaging German Packaging Award 2019 ceremony on September 24th, the day before Packaging Europe’s Sustainability Awards, Elisabeth Skoda catches up with Kim Cheng, dvi’s managing director, and talks about the ongoing packaging sustainability debate from a German perspective.

Connecting the entire supply chain Showcasing the industry’s innovative strength, what sustainability solutions already are out there and what solutions are in the pipeline in the future is one of the key purposes at dvi, which is supported by regular events, as Ms Cheng explains.

Kim Cheng

“We strongly believe that it’s only through including the entire supply chain that it is possible to create new solutions. That’s why we host regular events, like our Packaging Days and our Packaging Congress, which aim to bring members of the packaging supply chain closer together.”

A passionate discussion An emotional debate has raged in recent months and years about packaging and its environmental impact, and we asked Ms Cheng what this has meant for the industry.

“In the public perception, packaging is often considered waste. This view affects the entire industry, and not just one material. When there is plastic bashing, the entire industry takes note. The topic of ocean littering

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is currently on plastic and ocean littering, but all materials and processes are being questioned with regards to their sustainability, and recyclability is a key criterium for a circular economy. Political will, consumer desires and demands from brands and retail will mean that packaging manufacturers won’t be able to ‘afford’ insufficiently recyclable products from an image point of view but also from an economic point of view.”

Misunderstandings about packaging are commonplace, as she points out.

“One of the things that come up repeatedly is the perception that packaging equals rubbish. Of course that is not the case; it is a valuable secondary raw material if it is disposed of correctly. I often emphasise that packaging does not have any use on its own, but only works in combination with the product it packages, it has a job to do that often isn’t seen by consumers.”

A nuanced view has really captured the public’s imagination not least through intense media coverage. But it is of course more than just an ‘image’ problem for the packaging industry – it is a problem that needs to be addressed.

Packaging has the function of a ‘lighthouse’ and is very visible to consumers. But this can be turned into a positive if the industry becomes a pioneer of innovation. Packaging was an initiator for product responsibility and the circular economy, and we can take our responsibility seriously and showcase our innovative strength further.”

Rules and regulations In Germany, the Verpackungsgesetz and reaching recycling quotas is a hot topic. How has this affected the industry? While the German recycling and return deposit system is often considered exemplary, there are challenges linked to the dual systems for recycling.

The concept of the ‘dual system’ goes back to 1991, when the German government passed a new packaging law requiring manufacturers to take care of the recycling or disposal of any packaging material they sell.

German industry then set up a ‘dual system’ of waste collection, which picks up household packaging in parallel to the existing municipal wastecollection systems. This system is now provided by a range of providers.

“Stakeholders face the challenge of having different recycling systems which are in competition with one another and each have slightly different criteria for the recyclability of a pack. The Central Authority (Zentrale Stelle), established through the Verpackungsgesetz, defines minimum standards. But as private players, the dual system providers aren’t very keen to change. The industry wishes to simplify, as of course the system also isn’t in tune with other European countries,” says Ms Cheng.

Tackling the recyclability challenge Recyclability has only been a focus in packaging for a relatively short time.

In general, packaging companies are on the ball and well prepared, but there is no room for complacency, as Ms Cheng explains.

“Recyclability in packaging has come to the fore thanks to the Verpackungsgesetz and in particular paragraph 21, which encourages manufacturers to use packaging materials that consist (partially) of recycled materials or a high percentage of materials that can be recycled. The public’s focus

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At the moment the overall sustainability debate centres firmly around climate protection.

“Product damage resulting in food waste can cause harm to our climate, and here, packaging has an important role to play. But on the other hand, we cannot just sit back and continue as we have done. Looking at changing demographics, and the fact that developing countries will want to have similar lifestyles to the ones the West enjoys now, at some point rethinking how and what we consume will become inevitable,” Ms Cheng says.

She warns against quick fix solutions such as compostable plastics.

“At least here in Germany, solutions such as compostable plastics aren’t a panacea. The EN 13432 standard stipulates that there must be a ‘sufficient level of disintegration after 12 weeks in industrial or semi-industrial composting conditions’. For German composting companies, this period is too long for economic reasons. They consider biodegradable plastics as impurities in the compost and reject their disposal via the compostable waste bins.”

‘Plastic free’ In recent months, individuals and supermarkets have declared their environmental credentials by introducing ‘plastic free aisles’ or entire shops that don’t use plastic. We asked Kim Cheng what her opinion is on this.

“The packaging that is visible to the consumer only tells half the story.

Even if food is not packaged in the actual shop, it still needs packaging across the supply chain – for example, how did those unpacked nuts get into the trays in the shop in the first place? There a danger of green washing and more food waste. On the other hand, these initiatives increase consumer awareness and make people think about packaging and about their purchasing choices, so that is a positive thing.”

In conclusion, we asked Ms Cheng about a packaging solution that particularly impressed her in the last year.

“There are a wide range of exciting packaging solutions out there, many of which dvi has awarded with our Packaging Awards. One example that stood out for me is Bio-Lutions. The company develops fibre packaging using regional agricultural waste, made from banana stems, tomato plants, pineapple shrubs, or other plant leftovers which are often just burnt. The packaging is manufactured locally – addressing the issues of sustainable packaging material, reducing waste and long transport routes.

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FACHPACK 2019:

EXHIBITOR PERSPECTIVES The key unifying theme of FachPack 2019 is of course ‘Environmentally friendly packaging’, but this covers a huge diversity of topics from across the entire packaging supply chain. We asked exhibitors about the ideas and solutions they will be presenting at the event, and which trends or developments they are most curious about.

SN Maschinenbau

Wipak As our five-year aim is to become a completely carbon neutral flexible packaging company, our new solutions are weighted towards carbon neutral, fully recyclable and lighter packaging. We will introduce a new sustainability app that calculates the opportunity for CO2 reduction for our customers as well as packaging covered in invisible barcodes to mention but a few.

The world is going carbon neutral and our children will grow up as non-smoking vegetarians or even vegans. At the same time reducing waste requires quick and credible action, not least to implement circular economy models.

We are delighted and intrigued by these trends and are on the look-out for partners who provide a technological advantage to tackle these big questions of our time.

GMG Color GMG will demonstrate its colour management solutions for colour-accurate proofing in packaging printing. Complex packaging designs and layouts including spot colours can now be simulated with colour accurate proofs on media close to packaging production substrates, including transparent or metallic film using the Epson SC-S80600.

The key theme of FachPack 2019 – environmentally friendly packaging – is for GMG, as for the whole industry, one of the most important topics. Focusing on that, GMG will speak on Wednesday, September 25, at PackBox Forum about efficient print production and solutions to reduce production failures and customer complaints.

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SN Maschinenbau is presenting an innovative pouch-making technology that is compatible with sustainable and recyclable film materials. SN will show a running machine at the booth, producing sachets from recyclable PP and PE material. We will also show the production of pouches made from recyclable coated paper which can be disposed of in the regular waste-paper stream.

We are interested in the packaging technologies at FachPack that address the challenge of moving towards a more sustainable economy and consumption patterns. We are especially keen to see machines that are capable of handling sustainable packaging materials. We are also interested to see the development of ‘in-line’ digital printing and other technologies that address the trend towards the individualisation of packaging.

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RETAL HEUFT We have once again optimised our pulsed radiometric inspection technology for foreign object detection. Unique X-ray flashes can now pass through even larger packaging volumes and product quantities and be aligned so flexibly that the systems equipped with them meet almost every requirement regarding X-ray inspection at the end of the line.

The best example: the updated HEUFT eXaminer II XS to be showcased on our stand.

What mainly interests us on other FachPack stands are new products and trends regarding primary and secondary packaging materials for beverages, food and pharmaceuticals. We ask ourselves in particular whether and how these can really be inspected continuously in-line before and after filling and which technologies can be used to achieve this.

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The RETAL Baltic team of film experts will be on hand to discuss our latest line that produces films of up to 100 per cent rPET, a great boost from our current 60 per cent rPET. RETAL Baltic values FachPack’s strong focus on sustainability and how this core issue impacts us all. We expect to learn more about how we can all contribute and play our role in the circular economy.

THE SUSTAINABILITY AWARDS 2019

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2019 Sustainability Awards are nearly upon us, celebrating another year of sustainable packaging innovation.

The shortlist has been announced, and we’re all looking forward to finding out who will be the overall winners in each category.

This year’s edition of the world’s most prestigious sustainable packaging innovation competition attracted a record-smashing 193 submissions, across the categories of Bio-based and Recyclable Packaging, Best Practice, Resource Efficiency, Machinery, and Driving the Circular Economy.

“It’s exciting to see such geographical and technological breadth in the 2019 entries,” commented Tim Sykes (head of content at Packaging Europe, which organises the Sustainability Awards). “We’ve had engagement from six continents and across the whole of the packaging value chain, but more importantly, the quality of submissions feeds optimism that the industry is taking huge strides to meet the environmental challenges. The competition features both high-profile developments and innovations I hadn’t previously come across, and the competition is fiercer than ever before. Really strong entries achieving grades that could have won a trophy in the past have failed to make this year’s final.”

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Introducing the Readers’ Award We’re also excited to announce a new dimension of the Sustainability Awards, which puts the power in your hands: introducing the Readers’ Award! We have invited our readers to nominate a sustainable packaging innovation that especially impressed them in the last 12 months. The Readers’ Award aims to shine a spotlight on a packaging solution that really has made a difference and addresses the many challenges the industry faces today.

The three most popular nominations will then be put to the vote.

You will be able to vote for your favourite solution on our website, or at Packaging Europe’s sustainability-themed stand at FachPack (Hall 7, stand 416) for a chance to win an iPad!

Join us at FachPack The winners for each category and overall 2019 Sustainability Awards winner will be announced at FachPack, Nuremberg, Germany on 25th September. Join us from 16:30 at FachPack’s PackBox Forum for sustainability discussion, networking, drinks and the big reveal.

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Plastic packaging has been vilified and scapegoated by mainstream media, governments, greenwashing PR campaigns, and consumers alike, drawn into the epicentre of the sustainability debate as the plague of our planet. Indeed, plastic waste has produced the most horrifying and impactful images taken from the remotest corners of the earth.

As the value chain prepares for the year’s big polymeric event, K 2019, Libby White explores whether it’s as easy as some would suggest to shift to alternative materials.

ALTERNATIVES TO PLASTICS: MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS

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erhaps this material has been elevated in the debate as it is easily comprehended by the human eye in very public and globally shared natural landscapes. We can’t see emissions, and contrails paint a pretty picture against a blue sky. If you google ‘food waste’ you can’t see quantifiable real-life graphic images of the widely reported, roughly one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year – approximately 1.3 billion tonnes that gets lost or wasted – as it isn’t dumped on our beaches, but instead in landfill. Out of sight, out of mind.

But plastic – we can easily witness its unbounded and brash spread across our planet, and swiftly form a narrative around these shocking images. Of course, the flash focus on this material has led to a sprint towards forming more sustainable, and closed loop approaches. This is a step in the right direction from an innovative, resourceful and fast-paced packaging industry.

Let’s assess the materials marathon though. Diving into this debate leads to more questions than answers: if every last plastic bottle is scraped from the beaches, and we find alternatives to plastic packaging tomorrow, would this provide the silver bullet? Do we have enough resources for alternatives to plastics to work on an industrial scale? Are alternatives the answer, or should we turn our gaze towards the overall efficiencies of all materials throughout the supply chain, choosing the optimum approach? Can alternatives provide the same barrier functionalities as plastics and therefore help tackle the ultimate sin against sustainability – product and food waste?

Dr Liz Wilks, European director of sustainability at Asia Pulp and Paper, one of the biggest producers of pulp, paper and packaging in the world, shares food for thought. “The main reason plastic packaging has been adopted and developed by society is to address a rising global supply chain. Consumers want to see the food they purchase for example, and of course, plastic also helps to combat food waste and prolong shelf life.

“In a global supply chain, businesses also have the responsibility to closely review the practices of the companies from which they source materials. Re-examination of the supply chain establishes a system of checks and balances that keep private organisations transparent to one another, and subsequently consumers’ behavioural change makes it possible to shift away from our disposable society.”

Rising up to the challenge Kajsa Dahlin, group innovation manager, AR Packaging, with core markets in the folding carton and flexible packaging sectors in Europe, comments, “Since plastics usually provide strong barriers to keep food and consumers safe, there are challenges for providing plastic-free alternatives while maintaining basic but crucial packaging properties.”

In January 2018, Iceland Foods boldly stuck its head above the parapet, announcing it had committed to becoming the first major retailer globally to eliminate plastic packaging from all of its own brand products. At the time, Packaging Europe | 35 |

our head of content, Tim Sykes, heard from Iceland’s then head of packaging, Ian Schofield: “Replacing plastics presents significant challenges in terms of functionality, particularly for microwavable and ovenable ready meals, where we will need to find an alternative to black plastic trays. There is also the economic challenge of ensuring that the new packaging doesn’t cost more.”

But how have Iceland’s ambitions panned out? The retailer has recently returned to plastics despite its commitment to removing it from stores.

The frozen food giant had to postpone a plastic-free greengrocer trial and reintroduce plastic packaging for its bananas, equating to 10 million plastic bags a year, when it found the replacement paper bag did not meet expectations and it saw a reported 20 per cent drop in sales.

Richard Walker, managing director of the frozen food chain, said the sales dip proved that the Liverpool greengrocer trial in particular was not sustainable.

Although just a microcosm of the wider debate, assessing the packaging of bananas underlines the challenges we face when it comes to answering questions around sustainability. Why didn’t the consumer respond well to the sustainable alternative? Did this lead to more food waste? How do we weigh up sustainability against profit?

“It’s damn hard work and it’s costing us a lot of money,” admitted Mr Walker.

He said as a private business Iceland is able to focus money and effort on these initiatives but has to be mindful of the impact on the firm. “We can’t do anything that will endanger the success of the business, because there are 25,000 jobs depending on it,” he said.

Iceland continues to strive towards its 2023 goal with new initiatives addressing its plastic-free pledge. Perhaps the struggle this retailer is facing should be a lesson to us all. Funding, sourcing and implementing viable alternatives to plastics is complex; meeting consumer expectations such as longevity of shelf life, and the offering of global foods locally, is deeply entrenched in our globalised supply chain – a tough challenge to address.

Merav Koren, VP of marketing, TIPA, a company focused on the development of compostable packaging, underlines that it is vital to emulate the same | 36 | Packaging Europe

properties as plastics with alternatives, “In order for compostable packaging to be accepted as a viable replacement for conventional plastic packaging, the former must provide at least the same technical properties as the latter.”

A myriad of features must be reached in order for the packaging to be suitable for diverse applications. For instance, she explains, “Vegetables that respire such as cucumbers require special packaging with technology that leaves moisture outside of the bag. TIPA products know how to answer these different requirements, emulating conventional plastic packaging in properties such barriers, durability, transparency, shelf life, sealability and flexibility.”

More development is needed at end of life processing for these alternatives, however, points out Merav Koren, “Arguably most dire is the lack of proper infrastructure set in place for organic waste and compostable packaging alike.

The powerful duo of government action and consumer awareness is bringing us closer to establishing infrastructure which supports a circular economy.”

Forward-progression?

An area of particular concern within the public sphere is single-use plastics due to their instantly obvious transformation from packaging to waste.

Alex Peacop, consumer sector manager, DCA Design, one of the world’s leading product design and development consultancies, shares that many briefs they receive specifically ask for ‘no plastics’ rather than to develop a sustainable approach. “Our perspective is that we don’t see plastic as the enemy. Heinz Tomato Ketchup is a great example of a shift from glass packaging to plastic with obvious benefits and progression,” he comments.

“Switching to an alternative should be carried out in a way that adds value in a forward progression. It’s not as simple as substituting one material for another.

Brands invest so much in manufacturing capabilities that steps should be taken over years for alternative futures, rather than by making snap decisions.”

Brands know that consumers now expect them to make packaging more environmentally friendly. Tony Hutchins, general manager of Pro Carton, the European association of carton and cartonboard manufacturers, comments, “There are numerous media reports about major retailers and brands that are in the middle of sustainable packaging drives, with a

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large number of drinks brands including recently Guinness announcing a move into 100 per cent recyclable and biodegradable cardboard to replace plastic multipacks, be they shrink-wrap or hi-cone ring packs.

“McDonald’s also recently revealed it is getting rid of plastic packaging for its salads and McFlurry ice-cream products, replacing it with cartonboard, to reduce plastic waste by 485 metric tonnes annually. The changes are part of the company’s commitment to source all packaging from renewable or recycled sources by 2025.”

To be hugely critical of switching materials as a snap solution however, it has recently been claimed in widespread reports that McDonald’s new paper straws, which were introduced due to a petition from customers (nearly 500,000 people asked the company to stop using plastic straws) have resulted in a soggy mess rather than a winning result.

Following negative customer feedback, the fast food chain thickened the new paper straws as they were disintegrating in drinks. Its shortsighted approach to sustainability however didn’t factor in recycling infrastructure. The straw’s thickness makes it difficult for them to be processed by waste providers, according to McDonalds. Clearly,

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substituting one material with another should factor in all aspects of the supply chain, as well as functionality.

Ricardo De Genova, vice-president, strategic marketing and R&D – Paper, Solenis, a leading global specialty chemical supplier and provider of process and water solutions, suggests, “In this new paradigm, the pulp and paper industry has an opportunity to rise to the challenge of providing more environmentally friendly fibre-based solutions to replace all those plastic straws, bottles, disposable cups and food containers.

“But before that happens, it’s important to address the foundational aspects of packaging production that will enable these products to be replaced with environmentally friendly alternatives, especially in food applications… paper barrier formulations must still allow the same packaging functionality while meeting sustainability goals.”

Technological advancements There are ways the packaging industry is collaborating to take a more holistic approach to developing more sustainable solutions. It seems there is a huge focus within the marketplace for high-speed technology to marry with paper-based packaging.

Bosch Packaging Technology and BillerudKorsnäs have, for example, intensified their collaboration and are developing new paper-based packaging innovations.

The first concrete result of this enhanced collaboration is the development of a new packaging concept called Pearl. It aims to show how uniquely formed and right-sized small packages, called shaped paper pods, can contribute to a more sustainable future by utilising the unique formability of the FibreForm® material (3D-formable paper patented by BillerudKorsnäs). The material is processed on machinery from Bosch Packaging Technology, which not only contributes longstanding expertise in forming, filling and sealing of a wide variety of materials to the cooperation but also ensures the subsequent industrialisation of the newly developed technologies for commercial production.

Alex Peacop

Liz Wilks

In industries like beauty and personal care, bread spreads, savoury and confectionery, single-use plastic packaging is widespread. “The goal is to support these industries and replace plastic in product samples, inserts, refills, portion packs and disposable packaging,” says Simon Johansson, project manager at Packaging Solutions BillerudKorsnäs.

Conventionally, the majority of popular confectionery bars are packaged in polypropylene, a flexible choice that adheres to high hygiene standards.

Nestlé announced in July 2019 the launch of its YES! snack bars in a paper wrapper using a high-speed flow wrap technology.

Up until now, high-speed production of shelf-stable snacks was only achievable using plastic films and laminates. Now paper can be used at large scale while guaranteeing product quality and freshness over the entire shelf life.

This innovation surely widens the choice of materials for food products; however, it will be interesting to learn the impact this has on aspects such as shelf-appeal and overall efficiencies.

It remains to be seen whether this will be adopted further by Nestlé brands, or across the marketplace.

A holistic approach There is a strong focus on the end of life of plastic packaging, and less on discussing other key points such as material extraction, which of course, plays a vital part in the sustainability debate.

Liz Wilks comments, “Within the paper industry, there is a huge focus on minimising impact such as with forestry management. I find it interesting that the raw material derived for plastics is not discussed widely; the focus is currently on its end of life. There’s clearly a drive on this particular subject, but we need to take a step back and look at where plastic and other

Dai Sanders

materials are used with paper and work together to make a bigger impact from cradle to grave. This means working together as a supply chain to ensure that the finished product can be separated, reused, or recycled.

“We’ve learned from this process ourselves as a sector and I think we should stand together as a packaging industry. There may be alternatives to plastics that make sense, but we should scrutinise the sourcing of all materials used within the packaging industry. Not just the physical extraction, but also other major issues such as how land is managed and social conflict,” says Dr Wilks.

Tony Hutchins, Pro Carton, supports this viewpoint. “Sustainability rests on the idea that goods and services should be produced using resources that can be easily replaced, and that do not damage the environment. We believe that business leaders must look beyond the three Rs – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – to achieve sustainability in the truest meaning of the word.”

Dai Sanders, consumer sector manager, DCA Design comments: “There’s no quick win. Just take Haagen Dazs Loop reusable packaging initiative as an example. A huge change to its business model was needed to create effect, it’s not as simple as switching from one material to another.”

He adds, “We have reached the point whereby amongst these genuine and noble efforts to address sustainable approaches, there are also attention grabbing and ‘greenwashing’ switching of materials. This is going to confuse consumers and they may lose interest. Consumers act out of personal responsibility by making a conscious decision to purchase a sustainable alternative, but that is only going to last for a certain period of time, especially when we start seeing taxes penalising them. We need to incentivise consumers in alternate ways such as with returnable schemes.”

Liz Wilks reasons, “We must discuss all the packaging materials together as an industry, and across the supply chain.”

Case study AR Packaging found the opportunity for innovation to remove unnecessary materials and improve recycling in the newly launched salad boxes from Dominos Germany. The standard solution used was a cartonboard material with a barrier PE liner on top. By providing an alternative, plastic-free, barrier coating, the packaging could become repulpable and strong while still managing the required grease- and moisture-resistance.

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ONE STEP AHEAD

JOIN US AT THE PACKAGING MASTERCLASS Packaging Europe is delighted to support an innovative new education concept created by BOBST: a PACKAGING MASTERCLASS giving brand owners hands-on immersion in packaging technology trends and developments.

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he inaugural PACKAGING MASTERCLASS, taking place on 6 November in Lausanne, Switzerland, will be an intensive full-day experience with packaging experts spanning across printing and converting, digital and conventional technologies for labels, flexible packaging, folding carton and corrugated boxes. Open to brand owners, retailers and creative agencies from any region, the masterclass has been devised to cater to the needs of mid-level managers across procurement, marketing, brand management and R&D, and to new employees dealing with packaging.

Participants will get to know solutions to overcome today’s need for consistency, sustainability, time-to-market, and e-commerce.

“We will be giving participants a unique and high-level understanding of packaging production technology from design to the final product,” according to Paul Stoudmann (strategic business development director at BOBST). “The role of packaging is evolving in an accelerated manner and it is becoming increasingly important and urgent that brands understand what tools are available from the packaging toolbox and how these can solve their problems.”

BOBST believes it is in the perfect position to play this role thanks to both its industry status and its neutrality, stemming from the fact that it

spans a spectrum of packaging processes and technologies (printing and converting, digital and conventional, across different substrates). The masterclass will feature presentations on critical topics such as colour consistency, sustainability, time-to-market, e-commerce, as well as opportunities to see real machines running.

“Packaging Europe is partnering with the PACKAGING MASTERCLASS because we see a real need for packaging technicians working at brand owners to access ongoing information about emerging technology and evolving processes,” commented head of content Tim Sykes. “We’ll be there ourselves, and are looking forward to rolling our sleeves up and getting involved in what will be a very interactive event.”

The first PACKAGING MASTERCLASS takes place on 6 November 2019 in Lausanne.

Registration fee: €250.

Visit www.bobst.com/masterclass for details.

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TRANSIT PACKAGING JOURNEYS AHEAD Much of the packaging sustainability debate focuses on consumer-facing solutions, however what goes on behind the scenes? Libby White hears from DS Smith Plastics, Peli Biothermal, Taylor Packaging, Luxus and PFS to discover how the transit packaging sector is making changes to move the everevolving packaging landscape towards a more sustainable future.

Reflecting major trends There are a number of ways transit packaging is striving to address the main trends surrounding sustainability. Encouraged by environmental regulations, companies are looking for economic solutions that can be reused and recycled at the end of their useful life. Reducing the packaging that surrounds the product itself, and reducing packaging used to transport products through logistics supply chains, and packaging waste in general, are all obvious and clear-cut solutions.

There is an increasing demand and trend for packaging that is well-suited for closed-loop supply chain networks and reverse logistics.

Focuses such as load optimisation where packaging design is key to achieve objectives is also a key area, as well as improving efficiencies in material handling and reduction in logistics and transportation costs.

Louis Patruno, marketing manager, DS Smith Plastics, Extruded Products, says: “While manufacturers are designing supply chain infrastructures capable of collecting recovered and reused products; our designers are developing packaging solutions that facilitate efficiencies in material

handling (that is, loading and unloading components from packaging), reductions in single-use packaging waste, material damaged in transit, and logistics and transportation costs.”

Protection is paramount when it comes to transit packaging, however once the client’s main requirement is secure, environmental impact plays a close second in today’s climate as a main concern.

Paul Terry, sales director, EMEA, Peli BioThermal, global specialists in cold chain packaging, stresses that, “The principal requirement of all our clients is the secure protection of their payloads within the tight temperature limits at which they are committed to ship their products.

Once we are achieving that, and we can achieve that with the various solutions that we can offer, the question is how does the client achieve the thermal protection as cost effectively as possible with the least environmental impact? That’s the real challenge.

“This can be achieved through various methods and different systems that we deploy. These range from fairly standard water-based packaging systems, which have optimised performance, through to more sophisticated high performing products and ultimately, very much in vogue today, the deployment of reusable high-performance packaging systems.”

Considerations are even made down to the tape that is used on transit packaging. Adam Taylor, MD, Taylor Packaging – a UK based, independent distributor and manufacturer of packaging materials – states, “A key trend is that businesses are purchasing more paper-based products instead of polythene-based products in an effort to move to more sustainable products. For example, we have seen a boom in our customers ordering paper tapes rather than polybased tapes. This is due to the fact that the paper tape can be disposed of with the corrugated box, while polythene should be removed from the box and recycled.”

He also highlights that waste regulations are based on weight, and companies are taxed on the weight they declare.

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Adam Taylor

“We work closely with our customer base to provide advice and support on reducing waste from using high strength blended films to exploring the compostable route. We supply compostable materials that can be used for flexible films and bags as well as injection moulded products.

Returnable systems are also a positive way of reducing one trip packaging materials,” Adam Taylor shares.

Durability is key Whereas traditional one-way packaging is on a one-way ticket to the waste treatment stream, reusable packaging lasts five to seven years before it goes to waste. That makes it less of a disposable commodity, says Louis Patruno.

Because reusable plastics packaging is durable, the protection of products is not compromised but instead, improved.

Malcolm Odlin, purchasing manager, Luxus, a producer of prime and recycled polymers (commenting on food distribution networks in the UK), supports the view that transit packaging must be durable and high-quality, as this ensures the material can be recycled back into high value end products for sectors such as construction, automation, or back into transit packaging. He states that providing a prompt collection service for transit packaging once it has been used is a major driver for customer service.

Drive towards reuse Reusability is a viable strategy for supporting a company’s sustainability objectives.

Louis Patruno underlines that there is already a trend to replace single-use packaging with returnable packaging that can be recyclable at the end of their useful life. “Reusability and recyclability are a preferred alternative over single-use packaging and this trend is already being addressed as a positive alternative in various EU directives regarding sustainability.” He expects improvements in the availability of collection systems and end-user acceptance of post-consumer recycled goods.

There has been a growing trend over a number of years towards reusable packaging systems, however Paul Terry points out this has only been taken up where there is a provable logistics saving right from the start, so economics have driven most reuse.

“The changing environment now in terms of the political and social responsibility issues around the environment and in particular plastic waste is now to the point where it’s the sustainability and corporate image which is driving the desire to reuse as much as the economic benefits,” he observes.

“In the reality of today actually the two, in most cases, are still fairly compatible, it is just that more stakeholders now in the pharma sector are driving the desire for change. Change is never easy when switching

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Malcolm Odlin

from one qualified packaging system to another qualified packaging system, but there is now more desire to deliver it because of the urgency that the environmental impact has given the boardrooms of the pharmaceutical companies.”

Although there is clearly a huge drive towards ‘reuse’, this is not the only answer; there are a multiplicity of solutions, depending on the environment you are shipping to and the logistics services that are capable in the countries or regions you are operating in.

“So, what we do, when it comes to single-use packaging, is ensure that none of our products have any composite materials. This means that at end of life all products can be readily broken down into the specific waste stream channels that can either be recycled or responsibly put into landfill or incineration,” shares Paul Terry.

Efficiency equals environmental benefits Higher efficiency can reduce the payload of actually physically moving products from point A to point B. More efficient packaging equals less airplanes, less trucks and less vans.

DS Smith’s packaging solutions are lightweight, foldable, durable, reusable and recyclable. These properties allow for load optimisation of full and empty containers and reduction of CO2 when full and when empty with

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the highest ratio in return logistics. In other words, fewer trucks required to transport cargo.

Joe Farrell, vice-president of International Operations at PFS, whose core market is the health and beauty sector adds, “In our mind air is cost. Besides equating to a bad consumer experience there is no need for our clients to pay to ship air. We have systems which use all the dimensions of the product we are packing and, if combining multiple items in a box, it chooses the correct box size based on this to limit the amount of wasted space.”

Aside from reducing the shipment of air, lengthening the life of reusable packaging is also key to efficiently packing products. Paul Terry states there is no point deploying a reusable system when you are only going to get a couple of uses from it: “The systems we bring to market have shelf lives of over five years and expect to have many uses per year over their lifetime. This really reduces the material impact of shipping. The next stage is to look at how we make efficient return systems so that we move empty packaging as little as possible and are looking to build networks of shared interests in order to do that.”

The sector looks set to support accelerated deployment of reusable packaging systems, across a range of sizes from bulk shipments to smaller parcels.

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THE STORY OF THE RICE WINE AND THE COMPLEX BOTTLE

By Tim Sykes

Earlier this year I came across an intriguing packaging innovation from Japan: a black plastic saké bottle that made an excellent impersonation of a premium glass container. I wasn’t immediately able to determine how it had been manufactured. Following some curiosity-driven destruction, I found a PET bottle hidden under the opaque exterior. The black, outer layer looked to have been applied as a shrink film, but it was textured with an embossed effect. It was thicker than any shrink sleeve I’d seen, which suggested it was providing a barrier function on top of its aesthetics. I needed answers! – and eventually discovered that the story featured unexpected innovation in PET converting-filling technology and product processing, as well as in the primary package that first caught my attention.

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ith a bit of help from both Google image searches and Google Translate, I tracked down the bottle, which turned out to be the brainchild of Dai Nippon Printing (DNP) for the rice wine brand ‘Awanama’. For those needing an introduction, DNP is a business with over 140 years of history, still centred in Japan but today a global conglomerate with a $13 billion turnover and a diverse portfolio active across multiple industries, including printing, packaging, optics and

electronic communications. DNP kindly shared the inside story of the mysterious saké bottle.

Let’s start with the product. The variety of rice wine in question is ‘Nama-Zake’, which is a especially fresh tasting and fruity because it is conventionally unpasteurised. Lacking the usual pasteurisation, however, its taste can deteriorate quicker than other sakés, and this short selflife makes it hard to export – at a time when the export saké market is undergoing something of a global boom. An R&D project based in Niigata University of Pharmacy and Applied Life Sciences worked on this problem between 2016 and 2018, and came up with a new high-pressure pasteurisation method that doesn’t require heat. This project formed the basis of the consortium which launched the new Nama-Zake brand Awanama.

Complex demands; complex solution A key feature of the technology is that sterilisation is performed after the rice wine is filled into its bottle. This imposes certain demands on the bottle itself: it needs a certain elasticity to withstand the process. In other words, Awanama would require a plastic bottle rather than the traditional glass.

However, this created new challenges. First, Awanama was not created as a ‘utilitarian’ brand (as DNP put it), but as a premium product. A traditional PET bottle hardly conveys the right image. In addition, on the functional Packaging Europe | 49 |

level, rice wine has significant light and gas barrier requirements that a standard PET bottle cannot meet. Moreover, coloured PET is prohibited in Japan. This is where DNP’s original approach provides the solution.

“We had developed a complex bottle, whereby a transparent plastic bottle is moulded in an integral fashion with a coloured film,” explained DNP. “This protects the product from light because the functional film covers the PET bottle entirely, including the bottom.”

In developing this technology, DNP leveraged its existing R&D in the areas of shrink films and PET bottle forming and filling – in fact, the company developed and commercialised its own pioneering two-stage in-line blow moulding method in the late 1990s, and today one third of Japanese PET bottle manufacturing uses DNP’s aseptic filling system. It applied an original technique to wrap stretched barrier film into the pre-form in order to eliminate the air gap that would normally exist between a PET bottle and shrink sleeve. This added enhanced gas barrier properties that would otherwise be impossible.

“The polyolefin film we used is more flexible than PET film and DNP observed that the substrate follows the microscopic and convexo-concave shape of the bottle moulding in the course of high pressure bottle forming,” DNP commented.

The aesthetic results are highly impressive. DNP achieved highdefinition shaping which resembles traditional Japanese ‘Kiriko’ cut-glass design, accentuated by the matte black colouring of the film.

Sustainability requirements are yet another consideration that informed the technological choices. Awanama needed a coloured plastic bottle without using colouring agents in the PET, which would render it unacceptable to Japan’s recycling system. Instead DNP’s complex bottle enables the coloured, outer polyolefin film to be separated from the transparent PET bottle. Separation is possible either by having the consumer cut off the outer film or using the specific gravity separation method in a water tank after the bottle is crushed.

In July 2018 the bottle was launched by the Japanese saké brand ‘Jozen Mizuno Gotoshi’ by Shirataki. Meanwhile, the Pressure Nama-Zake consortium test marketed Awanama in the US, France and Hong Kong. Feedback indicated that consumers were impressed by its combination of lightweight unbreakability and luxuriousness. “When we cut off our functional film complex bottle and showed the transparent PET bottle in demonstrations, consumers were amazed by our technologies,” DNP remarked.

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What next?

DNP is expecting steady sales of the complex bottle, aiming for annual sales of one billion yen in 2020. In the meantime, its R&D teams will be busy working on technological extensions (along with a range of other areas of innovation centred on recyclability in laminates and other substrates).

“On a laboratory scale we observed that other materials besides PET are applicable for the two-stage bottle production process,” DNP revealed.

“Although we have not achieved prototype stage, it is conceivable to use our technologies in other PET bottle production processes.”

THE FACTORY OF THE FUTURE:

CONNECTED PACKAGING PLATFORM

Packaging and manufacturing have changed beyond recognition since 1951 when Ruben Rausing, the founder of Tetra Pak, launched his iconic carton in Lund, Sweden. What was once solely about product protection and functionality is now increasingly about connectivity — connectivity of consumers, producers and retailers.

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ver the next five years, food and beverage manufacturers will look to gain greater control of their supply chains to increase transparency and communicate provenance. These efforts will focus on the use of technology innovations so that data can be collated, analysed and incorporated to improve efficiency and reduce costs.

To bring about this shift, manufacturers will also see and experience more cross-industry collaboration than ever before. Such collaboration has already helped to improve communication across industries and leverage new skill sets to create more value for customers and stakeholders. For example, Tetra Pak and ABB recently launched a digital energy assessment programme that will combine ABB’s digital solutions with Tetra Pak’s unique expertise in food manufacturing — building on both companies’ respective expertise to bring about technological changes that are helping customers minimise their environmental impact and maximise profitability.

Inspired by Industry 4.0 technologies and the very innovations resulting from increased control of its supply chain, Tetra Pak’s connected packaging platform transforms milk and juice cartons into interactive information channels, full-scale data carriers and digital tools.

According to Mattias Johansson, Director of Integration Services, Tetra Pak, in today’s fast-moving, tech focused world, instant data sharing is becoming more valuable than ever. “‘Always on’ consumers, producers and retailers want more from brands,” he says, “meaning more information, more transparency and more choice.”

Tetra Pak’s connected packaging platform has been developed in response to these demands. With individual code generation, digital printing and data management at its core, Tetra Pak’s connected packaging platform allows food and beverage manufacturers to turn their packages into full-scale data carriers.

The connected packaging platform will bring new benefits to food producers, retailers and shoppers. For producers, the new packaging platform will offer end-to-end traceability to improve the production of the product, quality control and supply chain transparency. It will have the ability to track and trace the history or location of any product, making it possible to monitor for market performance and any potential issues.

As reported in Tetra Pak’s 2018 Index, nearly two-thirds of the most influential online consumers in both the US and UK are interested in package interactivity, rising to nine in every ten in China, where QR scanning is more commonplace and digital packages are already proving successful.

By scanning the code using their smartphone, consumers can open a web page which can relay a vast amount of information, from where the product was made to where the package can be recycled.

With a supply chain that’s interlinked from end to end, brands can make traceability more transparent, sharing information with consumers right down to the farm that a particular product ingredient comes from. At Tetra Pak, the first step is conducting a detailed audit of all the equipment and systems across the customer’s value chain. Known as Tetra Pak Plant Secure, this analysis, combined with benchmark data on food manufacturing, enables its specialists to identify opportunities and implement improvements across the customer’s entire operation.

Tetra Pak has successfully completed pilots with its customers to test the new connected package and its performance in retail in Spain, Russia, China, the Dominican Republic and India, working with beverage, juice and milk producers. In Spain a customer increased their sales by 16 per cent through the scan and win campaign.

Just one aspect of ‘the factory of the future’, the connected packaging platform builds on previous measures to bring the benefits of digitisation to the food and beverage industry, such as the launch of Tetra Pak Plant Secure and condition monitoring.

The future of packaging and manufacturing is undoubtedly digital. As discussed at Hannover Messe earlier this year, machines will soon be able to communicate with each other as well as with the digital systems of the entire operation, automatically taking on tasks such as diagnosing problems, ordering and delivering parts, and looking for an engineer who is most suitable for the service needed.

With the launch of Tetra Pak’s connected packaging platform, the industry is taking a major step towards the widespread use of a truly intelligent package and ultimately the realisation of The Factory of The Future.

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PRINT AND LABELLING:

FOCUS ON INDUSTRY 4.0 What impact has the coming of Industry 4.0 had on the print and labelling sector? As Labelexpo approaches, Victoria Hattersley puts the spotlight on this subject.

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t Packaging Europe, we’ve talked a lot about the implications of Industry 4.0 when it comes to packaging and filling lines; not so much about smart machinery in print and labelling. But as with every part of the supply chain, increased automation and digitisation are playing a major role in the development of this segment.

The possibility to collect and evaluate sensor data has, for example, allowed for improved process transparency and efficiency when it comes to printing lines. Some might also say the growth of digitised print production has also gone hand in hand with Industry 4.0.

‘Barriers to increased uptake’ That being said, the industry is by no means ‘there’, particularly when it comes to shorter runs of more complicated applications. “For example, if we talk about highly sophisticated inline applications with special coatings or cold foil applications – in those areas we need to improve the digital description of job applications with all relevant parameters,” says Rainer Wolf, head of Product Management Sheetfed, Heidelberg.

Cost can also be a barrier to increased uptake. Andreas Bauer, managing director of theurer.com C3, which develops ERP/MIS business management software for print and packaging, feels this could be partially down to a certain element of ‘short-termism’ when it comes to investment. “The two most important barriers are the awareness that automation and Industry 4.0 are the only things that are going to keep a company competitive and the price. Most companies choose to invest in a new production machine rather than investing in an automation or ERP/MIS software even though an

automation software could save them a lot of time and money during the production cycle. The saved time – and with that saved money – during the production and information cycle might even have a bigger impact on revenue than a new machine has.

“My example shows both ‘bottlenecks’: the lack of awareness for the investment in software as well as the problem that most companies only have the money/time to invest in either the software or a new machine.”

‘Intelligent end-to-end solutions’ For those converters who haven’t yet taken the plunge, how should they approach the task of integrating Industry 4.0-ready printing presses into a wider connected plant?

“Developing into a fully automated print shop

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requires intelligent end-to-end solutions on all levels,” says Christopher Berti, vice-president Prinect, Heidelberg. “It needs to cover the whole process starting with administration and production, to employees and managing processes. It’s not only a locally driven process; it can also be extended to more production sites and even to an international basis.

“In the future, more and more cloud solutions, e.g. a centralised colour database, will make data available within a global enterprise and additional machines and processes will learn from each other. For example, with Boxuni.com, Heidelberg has developed its first cloud-based web-to-pack platform that acts as a design portal, webshop and complete digital production chain for folding carton production.”

When it comes to maximising value from such solutions, this lies in the successful management of production data. According to Christopher Berti, integration is the watchword. “Transferring information from A to B and using already existing information in any device will boost efficiency in packaging tremendously.”

One challenge for manufacturers is the sheer amount of data they now have to process, analyse and react to – all while ensuring they keep up with customer demands. Increasingly automated production processes could offer insights into production data at the points where it originates, making it easier for users to find the information they are looking for.

Another possibility is to use software tools to collect, organise and analyse data. “For example, theurer.com C3 works not only with

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“In the future, more and more cloud solutions, e.g. a centralised colour database, will make data available within a global enterprise and additional machines and processes will learn from each other.”

machine counters to evaluate speed and output of production machines, but also with logged machine hours and used paint,” says Andreas Bauer.

“All of this is collected and saved in the database and can lead to various charts and graphs that give an actual overview of the production and everything it includes. This information can be communicated through the whole company with mobile dashboards and other tools which are included in the software.”

We can also look to the increased use of AI and robotics to push the printing and labelling segment forwards and extract even more value from production data. “Industry 4.0 doesn’t start or end with the printing press,” says Christopher Berti. “Our next step is heading towards self-learning digital data. AI (Artificial Intelligence) and the process itself is learning and adapting in order to automate further, reduce waste and increase efficiency. There is of course more automation potential with regards to plate and substrate handling before and after the printing process. Robotics for example may be the key to a complete automation.”

Digital printing – ‘The possibilities are endless’ We’re also interested in how the digitisation of manufacturing processes is related to the wider digitisation of our society and economy, including the emergence of e-commerce, personalisation of consumption and – of course – the continued rise of digital printing. Could digital printing actually be considered a kind of ‘Industry 4.0’ phenomenon?

“The emergence of e-commerce and personalisation of consumption leads to increasing demand for digital printing,” says Rainer Wolf. “Printers will need to print and deliver faster and job quantity sizes are decreasing.

The main topic will be to handle far more jobs with less impressions in the same or even less time.”

Today, companies of all sizes look to packaging to add value to the customer experience, differentiate their offer from the competition and streamline their processes to connect more closely to the end user. With the possibilities it offers for greater flexibility and customisation in shorter runs, digital printing can be a cost-effective way to address these requirements.

“The main advantage of digital print is that it allows completely new offerings with much higher value for brand owners as they can address the trend of individualisation and mass customisation and have new opportunities to run successful campaigns for their products,” continues Rainer Wolf. “Examples of those unique offerings are packs for special user groups up to really individualised boxes and labels. Security features, unique identifiers for track and tracing of goods or codes for connected packaging and personalisation for a specific individual are available applications and easy to apply. The possibilities seem endless and only limited by the imagination of product managers and sales teams.”

In terms of its implications for the future of the industry, it seems clear that the continued adoption of Industry 4.0 can only add momentum to the growth of digital print.

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WINE LABELS ON THE BRAIN A recent study rooted in neuromarketing shows that designers and consumers may have different ideas about ‘good’ design, writes Ralph Olthoff, global marketing director for wine and spirits at Avery Dennison.

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ew things excite marketing professionals more than a brand refresh: when best practices, consumer insights, and creativity are marshalled in the service of retaining loyal consumers, winning new ones, and better conveying a brand’s essence.

Recently, label designers at Chile’s Santa Rita Wine decided to bring an extra level of rigor to their process for updating the winery’s Wave Series

by Carmen brand. Partnering with Avery Dennison and Mind Insights, a neuromarketing scientific organisation, the winery used brain science to probe consumers’ unconscious responses to a proposed new label design.

What the designers learned was both counterintuitive and immensely useful in helping them better connect with people perusing the wine aisle.

Two designs, four facestocks, three countries To get beyond surface-level focus-group responses, researchers used a cutting-edge scientific approach, thanks to their ability to apply the most advanced scientific methods including neurological, physiological, non-conscious psychological, and behavioural research methods. Their study tested consumer responses in three target markets: the US, France, and China.

Each study sample consisted of 80 participants, male and female, aged 30 to 70 — people who liked wine, but didn’t have professional experience in the industry. Research sessions took place in a lab set up like a wine bar, where consumers could relax and handle the bottles and labels.

The study examined participants’ automatic reactions to both the Wave Series’ original label design and the proposed new design, including four possible label facestocks. The original label featured a lighter, more elegant design with handwritten typeface and a pointillist blue ocean wave reminiscent of a Japanese etching. The new design was bolder, with strong

sans serif fonts, a heavy dark blue bar beneath the new logo, and subtle, embossed whorls connoting ‘ocean’ in place of the crashing blue wave.

Researchers examined consumers’ perceptions with regards to three basic dimensions: What emotional impacts did the labels generate? To what extent did the labels convey fundamental values? And to what extent did the labels to attract consumers’ attention?

The results: five quick takeaways The most surprising outcome of the study? Participants’ perceptions were generally more positive towards elements of the original design. The original label aroused more positive emotions. It read as more ‘premium’ and ‘authentic’, and was slightly better at capturing consumers’ attention.

The study also yielded these insights: 1. Handwritten typefaces on wine labels might be more powerful in arousing positive feelings in consumers. That aligns with neuroscience-based marketing research, which has consistently shown that rounded typefaces elicit a more positive emotional response than angular patterns.

2. That said, handwritten fonts may be harder for the brain to process, and this less fluent processing might have negative impacts on consumers’ attitude towards the product 3. The most premium label material used triggered more feelings of authenticity, price value, and product quality, compared to standard label materials.

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4. What materials best say ‘premium’? Uncoated, tactile ones which also activate a stronger sense of authenticity and price value than coated, flat materials.

5. Green is good. All three sample groups reacted more positively to it and associated it with being environmentally-friendly.

The upshot: An evolution instead of a redesign Based on what they learned from the study, Santa Rita Estates’ designers decided to evolve the brand with a minor refresh instead of a complete overhaul, since many elements of their existing design label better triggered the desired consumer response. Designers did change

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the label’s facestock after noting they could better achieve their desired perception with an uncoated, tactile material rather than the glossy, non-tactile material they’d been using. And while the design team was a little surprised by the outcome, they were able to move forward with the confidence that their label design would be based on scientifically gleaned insight from actual wine drinkers.

This article draws on research conducted by Avery Dennison, Santa Rita Estates and Mind Insights neuromarketing organisation. The full report is available for download on my-muse.com, a digital platform intended to inspire innovative solutions for designers and converters.

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Amid the various functional and design considerations in print and labelling, brands have to ensure they achieve accuracy and consistency in colour.

Anne Komander, technical specialist at GMG GmbH, talks here about nuances of colour management.

THE CHALLENGE OF COLOUR

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he main value of effective colour management lies in a consistent colour appearance, no matter which substrate or printing process is used. The prediction of colours before going on press helps brand owners and customers in the decision-making process regarding design and appearance. Moreover, an effective colour management and a consistent colour communication decreases the amount of approving cycles between customer and prepress, which leads finally to reduced set up times at press and saves money.

The variety of substrates, printing process and conditions involves a wide field of possibilities to make mistakes in colour management. Choosing the wrong printing standard to convert the files can lead to a wrong result in colour at press or exclude the influence of the paper tint or OBAs may result in a colour appearance the customer didn’t expect. The main risk in getting colour management wrong is delivering the wrong colour expectations to the customer and handling complaints afterwards.

Challenges The main challenge in getting it right isn’t technical, so much as organisational. Normally you would have to do a full fingerprint of every press and printing process you use, on every substrate involved with all colours and ink sequences you would like to print and all of this at every site you are producing around the world. That’s indeed very complex and takes a lot of

time. To simplify this process, the specific technical challenge is to have a solution that can predict the behaviour of each scenario with a very small amount of information.

A powerful colour management system, like GMG OpenColour, is able to accurately predict the outcome of each printing process and substrate combination, even without a fingerprint or a test chart. By knowing the paper tint of the substrate, the printing process and the ink sequence, it is possible to calculate reliable proof and even separation profiles with the spectral measurement of single colour patches, no matter if it’s CMYK or spot colours, and store all of this information in one place. If you want to switch from an analogue technology like flexographic printing to digital printing, the challenge is to consider all specific differences between the process and adapt your files correctly. Having a smart system, which stores all information about each printing process in one central database, makes it easy to transfer and calculate the colour outcome from one process to another.

Driving innovation Trends such as faster changing designs, seasonal adaptations and personalisation support the rise of digital print. Beneath all the benefits of digital printing, there are a few challenges as well. Since you cannot change the colour behaviour of a digital press while printing, your data needs to Packaging Europe | 61 |

be 100 per cent correct from the beginning and if a global brand owner counts on hybrid print production, i.e. combining analogue and digital, you have to ensure the same colour appearance whether a design is printed in one or another. Moreover, we see market demand to print more jobs with more variations in less time. To manage these expectations you need a reliable colour management system that allows dynamic and individual profiling, especially in packaging printing.

Another driver we see is extended colour gamut printing. To enlarge the colour gamut of the press by adding two to three spot colours to the standard ink set, like CMYK + OG or CMYK + OGB, gives printing houses the opportunity to print more jobs in the same time. The standardisation of a process like this increases the ink savings, reduces wash-ups and leads to a faster make ready time, but using more than four colours needs a

good colour management solution for multicolour separation. Registrations problems, instability on the press through too many colours or unintended colour shifts are reasons why there is a need for good separations to achieve the best visual results.

The biggest driver across the industry is of course sustainability – and a good colour management system can support printing companies and converters with that as well. The key theme here is ‘first time right’. A reliable and consistent colour management solution takes into account the behaviour of the printing presses and substrates, predicts the colour correctly and delivers colour accurate proofs plus individually converted printing files. Printers will reduce their set-up time and waste, get faster into colour and customers will receive a result matching to their expectations – without any complaints afterwards, and reduced waste.

Cutting edge There are a few areas of technology that are a focus of continuing innovation.

For us on of these is profiling for proof and conversion. Using the same data to convert the files and prepare the proofs based on the same data saves time and money. Convert your files, proof them for a check, maybe adjust them and go to print without bad surprises.

Another area at the cutting edge is automatic conversion and the direct connection between the single colour management tools. Full flexibility is what the market is expecting and colour management solutions should deliver this. But perhaps the most significant advance we’re seeing is the move toward using extended colour gamut printing already in daily production. Multicolour solutions and a reliable colour management system, especially for global productions, represent the state of the art for this technology. | 62 | Packaging Europe

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OUT OF THE COMFORT ZONE Last autumn Smurfit Kappa launched its bold and open-ended Better Planet Packaging initiative.

Tim Sykes met Arco Berkenbosch (VP Innovation and Development) at Smurfit Kappa’s Global Experience Centre at Schiphol to find out how the sustainability brief looks one year on – and how the initiative has challenged thinking, externally and internally.

TS:

It seems to me that the societal discussion around packaging waste may have grown slightly more complex since last year, at least in respect of the climate crisis coming back on the agenda after being almost obscured by the focus on ocean plastics.

From a corrugated point of view, how do you view the evolving debate?

AB: We had a period of hype which maybe went a bit extreme. But in our public discourse there’s often a dynamic that we have a big, emotional reaction to an issue and then step back into a more realistic discussion.

When you start assessing the practical implications of eliminating all plastic, then you have to ask yourself questions about what that would mean for carbon emissions, climate change, etc. In fact, questions about carbon emissions are always in the brief from clients when asking about replacing plastic.

Having said all that, the frequency of requests we receive from brand owners to look at replacing plastics with corrugated is still accelerating. The pressure to eliminate plastic waste isn’t going to go away. It’s very visible, tangible and actionable. What I love about it is that it offers us an opportunity to apply creativity and make a big impact. For instance, when a big brand switches to our fibre-based multi-packs or with Tide’s EcoBox you can eliminate a lot of plastic in one go. By comparison, with carbon footprint it’s much more difficult to make a big difference, and the answers are rarely black and white. Make small adjustments to the underlying assumptions and an LCA can be used to justify either one of two opposing claims.

TS: Another feature of today’s sustainability debate is that increasing voices and organisations are promoting reuse as inherently superior to recycling…

“We like partnerships that make our life a little bit difficult” | 64 | Packaging Europe

AB: I don’t think there’s any disagreement that the first of the four Rs – reduction (or optimisation) of packaging – is vital. Nor is there any doubt that recovery of materials is better than landfill or incineration. When you talk about reuse versus recycling, it can be quite an academic question.

For instance, if you take a plastic crate, dismantle the walls, wash them

and reassemble them, is that recycling or reuse? Or with corrugated, after collection and processing you recycle the box, but you reuse the fibres.

The fundamental thing is that in both instances you avoid extracting new resources from the planet.

The complexities around sorting and recycling plastics in a closed loop maybe make the reuse model more relevant to plastic packaging. With paper we do have a closed loop of paper to paper (due to our very high rate of collection and recycling). However, it took us years to build a viable system that accounted for many different grades and qualities, and we still lose 10 per cent of the material with every cycle. Plastic faces similar challenges and I think it will take some years to solve them.

TS: Last year you introduced to us Smurfit Kappa’s big new Better Planet Packaging idea. Since then you’ve run two Design Challenges.

What was the thinking behind the briefs you came up with, and what were the outcomes?

AB: The idea, as I described to Packaging Europe, was to reach out to the wider design community in search of original thinking. In setting out our first practical challenges, we wanted to address hot topics for the market, but lacked an obvious solution that our own designers would find.

The first topic we selected was isolation for temperature control – a big problem for the e-commerce market – and we chose chocolate for the particular challenge. We also wanted to set a challenge that was B2B rather than consumer-facing and touched our own core business more directly, so we decided to ask designers to find a sustainable alternative to stretch wrap.

The winner of the e-commerce chocolate challenge, Kerstin Fischbacher, put forward a thermal insulation product made from paper pulp which is formed in a similar fashion to expanded polystyrene. The winner of the stretch wrap alternative challenge, Eric Haas, came up with an idea for a net-like structure, made from paper, that would secure pallet loads of different shapes and sizes. We plan to cooperate with both innovators to develop their winning ideas further. We’re excited about taking each of them to the next level and have assigned two project teams to explore their full potential.

TS: What happens next with Better Planet Packaging: will the Design Challenges become a regular mechanism to add solutions to your product portfolio?

AB: This year’s challenges attracted a lot of engagement and lots of interest from brand owners. However, at Smurfit Kappa our approach tends to be very serious. We like to really analyse the evidence before we commit to something. If we have a future winner that has a great marketing impact but we can’t commercialise, we aren’t going to pursue it. This isn’t a marketing initiative, but about developing more sustainable packaging solutions. At heart Smurfit Kappa is an engineering company: ideas have to be tested and quantified and work practically if they are going to be taken forward.

We have a similarly realistic approach to evolving Better Planet Packaging itself: scrutinising the results at every stage before deciding where to take it next.

TS: From our conversation last year, it was clear that Better Planet Packaging has a broader agenda than simply setting challenges for the global design community.

AB: That’s correct. Externally, we’re very happy about the impact of the initiative and the energy it has created. Senior stakeholders at big brands who never used to pay a lot of attention to packaging have been strongly engaged. At our latest innovation event a number of leading brand owners started a dialogue with us on how to make sustainable packaging real.

At the same time there’s an internal focus.. There’s also a ‘BPP starts with me’ initiative encouraging employees to take individual responsibility for sustainability, which is scalable across the business.

More fundamentally, I’d say Better Planet Packaging has challenged us to think about how we design and innovate, and acted as a bridge between our short-term design activities and the big questions that tend to be the focus of our longer term R&D agendas.

TS: What sorts of challenges fall under the focus of design and R&D, respectively?

AB: In design we look at how we can leverage existing materials and technologies, for instance to eliminate shrink wrap from multi-packs. We’ve been developing new machine and packaging concepts for this topic.

As for our R&D agenda, one of the key long-term challenges we’re addressing is the tension between barriers and recyclability. Recycling for us means dissolving in water at 70 or 80 degrees, so there’s an inherent conflict there if you want to add a water barrier. This means developing new materials (like our AgroPaper™) but also working with the waste management sector on how to sort fibres from barrier materials after collection.

TS: This brings us back to the topic we started with. How active a role does Smurfit Kappa intend to play in responding to the packaging waste problem?

AB: It would be easy for Smurfit Kappa to sit back and continue to grow on the back of the expanding e-commerce market. In principle we perhaps shouldn’t be stepping into the barriers problem. Bringing aseptic cartons and coffee cups into the paper recycling stream comes with the risk of introducing impurities.

On the other hand, it’s good to step out of our comfort zone and take more responsibility. In the past we’ve brought a lot of business innovation toward creating a closed loop in paper. We now have an opportunity to share our experience and knowledge in how to deal with multiple sorting streams. We’re working with organisations such as the Plastic Soup Foundation. We like partnerships that make our life a bit difficult. This is also something I love about the Better Planet Packaging initiative: it generates a lot of creative tension in Smurfit Kappa.

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FMD DEADLINE HAS IT BEEN MET? The Delegated Regulation EU2016/161 to the Falsified Medicines Directive came into force in February this year, creating a huge task for pharma companies and CMOs to update their systems to meet the deadline.

As the dust settles, Victoria Hattersley looks at the wider impact of the Directive, and how companies have been working to achieve compliance and improve their approaches to security and traceability.

F

or pharma companies and CMOs alike, the FMD deadline has presented both a challenge and an opportunity. For many, achieving compliance has taken up a considerable amount of time and resources thanks to the various software, hardware and data management demands required. But this also means they are better equipped than ever before to deal with the ever-more complex security issues in today’s pharmaceutical market.

Most of our readers will already be familiar with the two-fold requirements of the FMD, which calls on pharmaceutical companies to send serialisation data from each individual item to a European Hub through the use of unique barcodes, and to place a tamper-proof seal on every pack.

Have the majority of companies got their systems up-to-date in time? “We find a wide range of different cases and reactions in the

field,” says Florian Koffler, marketing manager of serialisation solution provider Traxeed.

“Some companies work with the most basic serialisation features, and you can quickly see that their process has suffered from this change. Others have full aggregation in place, even though this is not yet mandated in the EU. They have continuously reviewed and adjusted their business processes to make the most out of their newly available data, and here the change is significantly less noticeable.”

Why such a challenge?

The regulation required pharma companies to introduce many new capabilities within a strict deadline, involving a range of disciplines both

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Florian Koffler

organisational and economic, including IT, manufacturing, quality, regulatory and legal, to name just a few.

From the manufacturer’s perspective, it also comes down to something more basic: limited capacity and time. “As production rooms are usually aligned according to the size of the machines, lack of space is a serious issue with the obligatory new equipment,” explains Nicola Orsini, product sales manager at Romaco Promatic, a brand of the Romaco Group and manufacturer of secondary and end-of-line packaging technology.

“Also, all batches have to be balanced after every quality control, which is time-consuming. Thus, manufacturers are in need of hardware that is not only efficient and reliable, but also space-saving and easy to operate.”

And when it comes to track & trace in particular, there is an added layer of complexity if companies are really going to gain leverage. “The EU FMD is really about package protection and identification, not truly a track & trace system,” says Steve Tallant, senior director, Solution Marketing Group, Systech – a provider of supply chain security solutions. “At its core is a serialised data integration platform which can be leveraged for track & trace but is focused on the end-of-game dispense verification.”

So how can real-world track & trace improvements be made from all of this? In one word: aggregation. Following serialisation, this is generally considered to be the next phase in the pharma supply chain.

Many companies offer aggregation solutions but for this to work to reach its full potential, it may also need to be built into regulatory requirements in future. The regulation mandates individual packages be serialised but has no provisions for case and pallet aggregation. The data uploaded to the EU Data Hub cannot be aggregated.

“Manufacturers have a conundrum of needing to serialise, and upload the data for individual items, but may then want to leverage aggregation of those serialised products,” says Mr Tallant. “Aggregation being completely outside the regulation adds significant complexity to gain improvements in track & trace.”

Nicola Orsini confirms that aggregation will be implemented into the tertiary manufacturing process by more and more manufacturers in the coming years. (Indeed, in some countries, such as Turkey, it is already mandatory, and Russia and Brazil are expected to follow suit.)

‘A catalyst for innovation’ The EU FMD requires data integration on a scale never dealt with by the industry before. Massive amounts of newly commissioned serial numbers will need to be uploaded to the EU central hub on a daily basis, then filtered to country-specific repositories. “Some packaging lines barely had digital connectivity to in-house systems, let alone an external agency,” says Steve Tallant.

This accumulation of data certainly presents a challenge, both now and for the future. “As more products become serialised, we foresee a growing expansion of the universe of metadata attributes individually assigned to each product,” says Christine C. Akselsen, CEO of serialisation technology provider Kezzler. “The challenge then becomes ensuring a low level of latency and high record retrievability within a global system that is continuously updating supply chain and consumer transactions. While data storage becomes cheaper by the second, bad data management does not.”

But of course, improved data capture also has immense value for individual companies, quite apart from the traceability benefits for the pharma sector as a whole, leading to increased efficiencies and cost savings. For manufacturers, the new requirements can enable greater inventory control through automation, and prevent inventory leakage – the latter of which can be caused by a number of factors including labelling issues, quality sampling, human error and employee theft.

“The process of creating product identity through serialisation offers manufacturers a means of tracing a product’s journey through each stage of the packaging process and internal movement,” says Mr Tallant. “In

“As production rooms are usually aligned according to the size of the machines, lack of space is a serious issue with the obligatory new equipment” Nicola Orsini | 68 | Packaging Europe

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capturing this information, manufacturers can gain the requisite insight to quantify the root causes of product leakage.”

When it comes to inventory control, the automated inspection and verification that is part of the serialisation process can enable manufacturers to reduce the need for manual counting and data entry, bringing greater accuracy when it comes to inventory reporting. Meanwhile, improved print and template management as part of the serialisation process can allow them to avoid the problem of mislabelling.

Then there is the ability to manage packaging assets. “Data collected through serialisation can be utilised to accurately capture and manage the economy, efficiency and capacity of different packaging lines’ internal and outsourced assets.”

The deadline has also been a catalyst for innovation in other areas.

“Today, lawful pharmaceutical manufacturers benefit from a wide range of innovative track & trace technologies that enable cartons to be printed with unique identifiers for authentication,” says Nicola Orsini.

“For example, anti-counterfeit labels provide first-opening protection by clearly showing package manipulations. Also, there are specialised pharmaceutical inks which cannot be used with standard copiers and offer significant individual (e.g. luminous) effects. A further option is chemical watermarks which are printed on the carton.”

other associated item and movement details. Having every event and transaction securely logged and managed for an item provides exactly what the supply chain needs for comprehensive safety. Nothing gets removed or edited from the ledger, any new information is added to the blockchain.”

However, while this technology shows undeniable promise, some pharma companies may be concerned about the wide availability of production information to anyone along the supply chain with access to the blockchain network.

It remains to be seen whether advancements to the technology can alleviate these concerns enough to bring about its widespread use in the industry in the coming years.

What next?

Looking ahead, there will also be other new questions to address – chief of which, according to Mr Tallant, is supply chain diversion in pharma and elsewhere. “Different markets having radically different price-points combined with burgeoning e-commerce outlets create the perfect conditions.” This will require brands to be more agile and able to rapidly detect when and where products are being diverted from the legitimate supply chain and into the grey market.

This agility will also be important if companies are to react quickly to the ongoing regulatory changes they will face, whether these are countryspecific, EU-wide or global. “We support our clients by providing them with a highly flexible solution that is scalable and can be adapted according to their specific business needs, regulatory or otherwise,” says Christine C. Akselsen.

“For example, some of our clients in the industry use us to support varying compliance requirements for the same products: from supporting mandated patient-centric SMS authentication in Nigeria, regulatory product aggregation in India, or even point-of-sales at the pharmacy level in Greater China.”

Nicola Orsini adds that, as we see the further standardisation of serialisation regulations across the world, the industry may also have to explore methods for serialisation and traceability of primary packaging such as blisters, bottles, vials, strips, tubes, etc. If this comes to pass, it will surely propel further innovaBlockchain potential tion in approaches to serialisation and track & trace.

All of this is generally good news for the industry, but let’s not forget that But given all the above, we have to ask the question: is 100 per cent counterfeiters are becoming ever-more sophisticated, and an increasingly traceability really possible, or will there always be a certain number of globalised marketplace means that companies need to ensure security at a products that go missing or are tampered with? much larger number of touchpoints. We’re also, therefore, interested not just in For Steve Tallant, it is not so black-and-white: it is not a question of whether the current real-world improvements the FMD directive has brought about, but 100 per cent traceability is possible, but whether it is practical or cost-effective. in looking more generally at which technologies are particularly promising for “The intent of regulations like the EU FMD is to ensure rigor in the supply chain, improving the security of pharmaceutical goods along the global supply chain. and that everybody involved is doing their best for safety. It wasn’t designed One technology with which we are all becoming familiar is blockchain as a traceability solution, so it does not work as a traceability solution – it is a which, among many other things, could have potential for improving traceverification measure.” ability in the sector. The appeal of this approach is that it is a cloud-based The introduction of the FMD Directive has obliged pharmaceutical network that is, ostensibly, nearly impossible companies to bring their systems up to to hack as it consists of a series of highly date, which can only be a good thing “Today, lawful pharmaceutical encrypted data chains. long-term. But it does not stop here: “Blockchain is the foundation for cryptocurrency just as the sector has worked to meet manufacturers benefit from a like Bitcoin,” says Steve Tallant, who believes there the deadline, the counterfeit goods wide range of innovative track is considerable potential for this technology when it industry will of course have been aware & trace technologies that enable comes to track & trace. “It provides an immutable of this. Manufacturers will need to concartons to be printed with unique ledger which can manage and record the state, tinue embracing the latest technologies ownership, transfer, location, time stamping and in order to keep one step ahead. identifiers for authentication” | 70 | Packaging Europe

REPURPOSING PLASTIC ONE PACK AT A TIME

Since 1991 PakTech has sought to create packaging solutions manufacturers can get behind packaging handles that are both aesthetically pleasing and have minimal impact on the environment, as well as automated application equipment that is efficient, reliable and easy to use.

A

fter extensive testing, PakTech has opted for a product made entirely from rHDPE (or #2) plastic, a material that is universally recyclable and that is itself comprised of 100 per cent recycled plastic. rHDPE is the company’s material of choice because it is strong, flexible and easy to use with automated handle application equipment and is the right choice for the environment.

As a result of PakTech’s commitment, in 2018 alone, more than 103 million milk jugs were kept out of landfills and repurposed into PakTech handles.

The PCR production process is designed to minimise natural resource depletion using 100 per cent less petroleum, 90 per cent less energy, and emitting 78 per cent less greenhouse gas in comparison to the production of virgin plastic. Since 2012, it has repurposed over 399 million recycled milk jugs.

This has kept over 55 million lbs of plastic out of the landfills and oceans and saved 21 acres of land from being used as landfills waste.

Second life PakTech handles are also 100 per cent recyclable. When PakTech handles are recycled, they often see a third life as composite lumber, flower pots, park benches, new PakTech handles and more. In addition, PakTech offers application solutions. PakTech applicators are highly efficient, cost effective, and proven to run 24-7.

PakTech handles are designed to put the spotlight on the product. With 31 standard colours and custom colour match, you’ll find a match that will

perfectly complement your product. PakTech handles eliminate the need for secondary packaging and print.

From design to final handle application, PakTech’s responsiveness, rapid turn-around time and product offerings add value and efficiency.

In a world in which waste is increasing, the PakTech handle solution is one that matters.

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SHRINK SLEEVES: Q&A WITH SIEGWERK John Kilbo, OFC regional technical manager Narrow Web at Siegwerk, tells us about the latest in shrink sleeve technology, the challenges involved in this process and how innovation is being driven, among other things, by the pressing need for improved recyclability.

PE: What is the market outlook for shrink sleeves, and what are the key trends shaping its growth?

JK: According to the AWA Global Sleeve Label Market Study 2018 sleeves are currently estimated at around 19 per cent of the total world label market with a growth forecast of 6 per cent per year. Shrink sleeves have been mainly used in the US and Japan for a long time but this form of labeling is now also a growing business in EMEA. Several brand owners and global companies have already changed from self-adhesive labeling to shrink sleeves. In the US for example the craft beer can market is moving away from pre-printed cans to shrink sleeves. Furthermore, you see an increasing number of shrink sleeve converters using narrow web presses and moving to UV/LED technology.

UV flexo inks are increasingly replacing gravure solvent-based inks in shrink sleeve production.

Since the packaging market is asking for more single-serve items and more personalisation opportunities, shorter print run capabilities are one of the trending key market drivers today, opening the potential for digital print technology for sleeve production. Another market trend is optimising the recyclability of packaging in line with the circular economy approach. This also includes the recyclability of labels. Even though there are still some challenges to overcome, the use of shrink sleeves for PET bottles already offers potential for recycling.

PE: Can you tell us about technical challenges around sleeves?

JK: Converting shrink sleeves is a complex process that differs a lot from traditional label printing. Setting up the artwork for a shrink sleeve is not that easy as distortion needs to be calculated according to the unusual and irregular contours of the container shape and the bending properties of the used film. Besides, heat management is critical for printing sleeves on press as the drying temperature should not damage the substrate and thus LED is preferable to UV as there is no real heat produced. Another common challenge is the matching of the right ink system to an essential

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part. Inks for shrink sleeves need to be more robust as they have to be able to expand but also to shrink.

One of the biggest challenges is to understand the impacts of the COF (coefficient of friction) on the sleeve production and how this relates to curing, film weight, used additives etc. The theory is if the COF is too low it is hard to correctly position the sleeves on the container as they will be pushed down too hard and bunch at the bottom. If the COF is too high the labels cling on the bullets and jam the machines. Therefore, the COF is usually specified for a given process and adjusted by the printer with inks or varnishes as needed. If shrink sleeves are being applied via high speed equipment, then a low COF typically performs best. It’s also critical to have a stable and correct COF – not too low and not too high – on the seamer surface which is generally embedded in the sealant white or slip coating in order to ensure high speed quality seaming. If too much seaming solution is applied it could block, and if too little is applied the sleeve could open during the shrinking process.

In narrow web flexo, more and more sleeves are being produced in UV flexo printing because these inks cure quickly and allow for higher printing speeds. The main challenge here is that the UV ink film needs to be flexible, allowing a shrinkage up to 70 per cent without cracking. In addition, adequate inks must be heat-resistant and scratch-proof to endure the disposal process without any damage. They also need to contain pigments which do not bleed out in the steam shrink tunnel. For example, the use of a true magenta as an alternative to a standard pigment is recommended.

Generally, high crosslink density impedes shrinkage forces whereby the ink won’t compress as cleanly with the stock and eventually microcracks cause matting and a loss of brilliance to the outer finish. That’s why UV coatings may create micro wrinkles in the film and build a haze on the outside of the sleeve, making special treatment necessary to prevent this effect. When talking about low migration ink systems for shrink sleeves the challenge is that they generally have a lower adhesion and higher crosslinking than standard inks, so they need to be formulated flexibly enough to meet the requirements of the shrinking process.

John Kilbo, OFC Regional Technical Manager Narrow Web at Siegwerk

PE: As we all know, there is a huge focus on sustainability in packaging. What are the implications for shrink sleeves and is there anything that producers can do to meet this demand better?

JK: There are various techniques to address recycling and the circular economy approach with sleeves. Adding a perforation to the sleeve so that it can be removed from the bottle could be effective in some countries. In line with a ‘deseaming’ process the seam of the sleeve comes apart, enabling the release of the label from the PET bottle in the washing process at the recycler. Due to the use of a floatable film the ink stays with the film and can be recycled without discolouration. In a newly developed deinking process, the ink will be removed from the film during the washing process but without discolouring the PET bottle or the shrink film. This method may offer the potential to recycle even more PET than the previous procedure.

In addition to the recycling aspect of sustainability, LED curing and LED inks also offer a sustainable approach to sleeve production. LED reduces the energy to cure the inks and thus is more efficient. LED also removes IR heat, mercury and ozone from the process which is safer and environmentally sound.

PE: What are the latest trends in decoration / printing of sleeves?

JK: Today, you already see sleeves with gloss, matte, tactile and soft touch coatings for attention-grabbing effects. Besides this, cold foiling and metallics can be used on sleeves as well as any number of glitters, colour shift, fluorescent or other eye-catching technologies known from other packaging areas. In the US you can see that highend decoration that used to be reserved for high-end beverage labeling is also used today on low value items like water or beer.

Wrap-around labelling of products offers unique packaging design opportunities due to its 360-degree printing.

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High flexibility, very good scratch and heat resistance are just a few examples of the demanding ink requirements for shrink sleeve production.

Since sleeves are used on many non-barrier packages for food applications, low migration inks are playing an increasing role, especially in Europe. The best combination for low migration inks is to be cured with LED lamps as this process doesn’t change over time. In Europe sleeve printers increasingly combine UV and solvent-based systems like whites and metallic inks. In Asia more and more narrow web converters buy mid-web UV/LED flexo machines for shrink sleeve printing requiring lower odour UV flexo inks. There is also a trend towards digital printing of sleeves for even more personalisation possibilities.

PE: What are the main areas of technological innovation in shrink sleeves?

JK: New recycling options are gaining a lot of attention, especially the new ‘deinking’ process. It will be crucial to develop further solutions and make every effort to keep ink development up to speed to offer adequate inks for shrink sleeves meeting the requirements of the recycling processes.

Film suppliers are already providing films at lower gauges to reduce costs as well as creating films that won’t ‘clump’ in the recycling process.

Besides this, light-blocking opaque shrink films are available for dairy packaging. In addition, the first converters have started to produce shrink sleeves with LED-UV. Now it is about supporting their trouble-free transition to unlock LED’s benefits in terms of speed and energy consumption.

As LED shrink sleeve printers could typically reach 200fpm faster press speeds than conventional printers they are able to compete in longer runs with e.g. solvent gravure presses.

Yet another area of technological innovation is to make the high-end aesthetic aspects of foiling, tactile or metallic ink effects from traditional PS labeling available for shrink sleeves while maintaining the proven PS labeling qualities. Other areas of development include the prevention of unintended effects during the production process, such as the ‘wet t-shirt look’ that occurs when water or steam gets trapped between sleeve and container. Siegwerk has developed a UV OPV and opaque whites that help to remove this effect by wicking and draining the embedded moisture. | 78 | Packaging Europe

MEETING YOUR REQUIREMENTS

— MOBILE MARKING SOLUTIONS FROM REINER With its pioneering developments in the field of marking technology, REINER’s marking devices can print on almost any surface without difficulty: packaging, wood or cardboard.

‘Countless marking possibilities’ In some cases, the legislator prescribes the marking to be applied. REINER offers the appropriate devices for these special applications.

Sequential barcodes or QR codes are used whenever information is to be applied in a compact manner. This is no problem for the mobile marking device jetStamp 1025. REINER says the two handy marking devices jetStamp 790/792 MP are ideal for the simple and fast printing of SLED or LOT numbers. However, the colour of the surface is not decisive, since the print image is also easy to read on dark surfaces, such as brown plastic bottles. The REINER 940 and jetStamp graphic 970 devices are specially designed for UV printing within the scope of counterfeit protection or imprints that interfere with the existing label.

Not choosy, but choosable REINER says its marking devices are not choosy when it comes to the surfaces to be printed: cardboard, paperboard, wood, pallets or paper. Marking

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on almost any surface is possible, with specially developed MP inks allowing printing on complex surfaces such as films, packaging and glass.

‘Successful connection in every respect’ The supplied PCset graphic software simplifies data transfer from the PC to the marking device. The extended software settings have been designed for the REINER marking devices and enable output on Microsoft® Office products such as Excel or Word.

Special solutions for data transfer from ERP systems or label software are also available for the models jetStamp 1025, jetStamp graphic 970 and REINER 940.

REINER’s devices are particularly suited to the reliable marking of small to medium-sized batches. Also, its mobile marking devices mean that mobile and smear resistant marking can be achieved even without expensive label or marking systems.

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INDUSTRIAL SCALE SUSTAINABILITY Trade in bulk and industrial products tends to be invisible and intangible to wider society, and this perhaps explains the lack of media attention to its environmental impacts relative to those of consumer packaged goods. Nevertheless, sections of the industrial packaging industry are increasingly aware of the potentially huge sustainability savings they can contribute to their value chains.

Tim Sykes speaks with Aysu Katun, director of sustainability at Greif – a global leader in industrial packaging, whose portfolio spans steel, plastic and fibre drums, Intermediate Bulk Containers, flexibles and paper-based packaging.

TS

: Greif’s Sustainability Programme and 2025 Goals is a comprehensive document, detailing strategies to address the various aspects of your environmental footprint across the business and supply chain, encompassing climate, water, waste and the circular economy. Within Greif’s various objectives, could you comment on the relative scale of the challenges – where is the low hanging fruit, and which are the more complex goals?

AK: With regard to climate strategy, we have been tracking and reporting our progress on our energy and emissions goals since 2007. Most of the low hanging fruit projects such as using LED lights, installing motion sensors and replacing old equipment with more energy efficient equipment have been implemented already at the Greif legacy facilities. In order to set and achieve more ambitious targets, we need to find more creative solutions, make larger investments and continue to embed sustainability throughout our organisation, which is where the complexity lies. We recently launched an employee engagement programme at our Rigid Industrial Packaging & Services (RIPS) facilities in North America (NA) focused on energy consumption and waste reduction to help us further integrate sustainability into our operations. We believe that with the aid of this programme, we will be able to generate new ideas and

identify new projects that will help us reduce our energy consumption and waste further while we continue to create value for our businesses. Based on the results of the programme, we hope to expand it to all of our business units and regions.

In 2019 we acquired a recycled materials and paper products company, Caraustar Industries. With our experience from the legacy Greif facilities, we see opportunities to make quick progress.

Waste management focused on waste minimisation and increasing recycling and reuse rates is a challenge but a key priority for Greif around the world. Our waste programme in EMEA is very advanced with 31 facilities that have achieved a ‘Zero Waste to Landfill’ status. This is partly due to the regulations that are already in place. In other regions, such as NA, it is more challenging. One of the challenges is the identification of companies who can recycle or reuse our different waste streams. The second big challenge is cost: in NA, sending waste to landfill can be cheap, which makes it hard to make the business case to find alternative uses for our waste. The third challenge is data verification in regions like Latin America (LATAM) and Asia Pacific (APAC). We have found that working with regional waste management companies can help alleviate some of these issues.

The overriding objective is to deepen the integration of sustainability into our corporate strategy and operations which is an ever ongoing process.

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TS: Often in packaging there can be trade-offs between different sustainability objectives – for instance, the most circular solutions aren’t always the most carbon-efficient. Do you identify any such tensions, and how do you work towards the best compromises, or resolving both issues?

AK: Yes, for example, there are clear trade-offs between down-gauging and reconditioning. Both of these reduce carbon emissions. However, the CO2 emissions reduction impact is greater with reconditioning. In addition, downgauging (depending on the extent) can limit or prohibit steel drums from being reconditioned. We offer both alternatives to our customers and we try to raise awareness about the CO2 impacts of both options.

Ultimately, it is the customer’s choice.

TS: How is Greif’s R&D structured in relation to sustainability? What areas of in-house product innovation are you working on?

AK: In 2018 we combined our Global Innovation and Sustainable Innovation teams into a single Global Innovation Committee. The newly formed committee is comprised of representatives from each of Greif’s business units and is responsible for driving collaboration and idea sharing across business units. In our RIPS North America business, innovation priorities are evaluated and prioritised based on potential financial return, sustainability impacts and overall value to Greif and our customers. The committee provides quarterly updates to our executive leadership team on progress on innovation priorities and industry megatrends that may influence innovation and overall company strategy in the future.

We have conducted Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) studies through a third party on all of our major product lines starting in 2009–10. The results of these LCA studies showed us that the majority of our environmental impact comes from two main sources – raw materials and end of life. This shaped our innovation strategy for the next ten years where we focused on finding ways to reduce the raw materials used in our products. For example, lighter plastic drums (NexDRUM® and Valerex®), lighter jerry cans, lighter steel drums and the development of our Post-consumer resin (PCR) product lines in Europe and North America.

We have developed an environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria list which helps us to determine which of our current products can be categorised as sustainable, which projects in our innovation funnel have | 84 | Packaging Europe

sustainability components and use sustainability criteria as an input for product, process and service development.

Our innovation efforts focus on transforming our product portfolio by developing sustainable packaging solutions based on a set of eight environmental, social and financial sustainability criteria. Through internally-initiated solutions and collaboration with customers, our innovation efforts focus on dematerialisation, producing products that are lighter weight, utilise less virgin raw materials and more recycled content; and green material substitution, identifying safer materials to produce our products, including bio-based materials, while continuing to meet performance requirements.

For example, we are adding two more lines in North America to expand our PCR product line, EcoBalance™, and we have operationalised two lines dedicated to producing lighter weight IBC bottles and anticipate adding more. Furthermore, we have developed a new IBC plastic pallet design. Compared to the old pallet design, the new pallet is now made of 100 percent recycled high-density polyethylene (HDPE), is fully recyclable and can be easily disassembled.

TS: How has the acquisition of recycling capacity played a part in your strategic moves on sustainability?

AK: An important finding from our LCA study was a significant portion of our environmental impact comes from the end-of-life use of our products.

We saw this as an opportunity to reduce both our own and our customers’ carbon emissions impact and waste. These results, along with customer requests on the need for recycling/reconditioning services, resulted in Greif developing the EarthMinded™ Life Cycle Services (LCS) programme and acquiring two reconditioning companies to establish Container Life Cycle Management (CLCM) in 2010 to support those operations. The acquisition of Caraustar Industries in 2019 is also an extension of this strategy.

The EarthMinded LCS programme leverages a network of Greif jointventure owned (CLCM) and third-party owned service providers in EMEA and North America. Participant reconditioners in the network collect used, empty, plastic, steel and IBC containers. FIBC containers are collected in EMEA through our wholly-owned subsidiary, Rebu. The collected containers are reconditioned so they are suitable for reuse and then reintroduced into trade or prepared for safe recycling. In 2018 the EarthMinded LCS network reconditioned close to 3.3 million containers and recycled another 849,498 containers.

As the global waste crisis continues to grow and regulations around waste and circular economy increase, reconditioning and recycling services will be increasingly important. Our reconditioning business plays a key role in our circular economy programme and helps us and our customers achieve waste reduction targets, keep packaging products from going to landfills and reduce the demand on natural resources.

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Most of our global key customers have carbon emissions and waste targets. However, sometimes there can be a disconnect between sustainability and procurement departments. We continue to work on alternative business models and develop solutions that will work for both our customers and us.

TS: How do you engage with your suppliers and customers and the broader value chain to further your sustainability goals?

AK: We look at our entire value chain to identify ways to reduce our combined environmental footprint, improve working conditions and create value. In relation to customers, in 2010 we developed the Greif Green Tool to enable our customers to evaluate the greenhouse gas GHG emissions associated with different packaging options and shipping scenarios and calculate their scope 3 GHG emissions. Since it was introduced, the majority of our global key customers have used the tool. This past year, we updated the Greif Green Tool by enhancing its analytical capability to allow detailed modelling, allowing plant/process specific analysis, updating the tool’s underlying data sets and improving the classification of our sustainable products and processes portfolio. Based on the results of the analysis conducted, we are able to make recommendations to our customers on how they can best reduce their carbon impact from packaging.

We also look at megatrends and ESG risks that have and will have an impact on our own and our customers’ businesses to develop solutions for our customers. These are global shared problems that can only be solved through collaboration so we work with our customers to identify solutions such as developing products that use fewer raw materials to help our customers meet their sustainability targets and mitigate ESG risks.

In addition, we focus on product and customer safety. For example, one of our RIPS facilities in France implemented an automatic steel drum unloading system. This unique system unloads nearly 400 drums per hour. It was designed specifically for a customer and is able to interact with a variety of standard transport equipment. Installation of this system has improved safety, quality, the working environment and efficiency. In its first year of operation, this automatic system has led to cost savings not only for Greif, but for our customer. We unloaded more than 1.5 million drums using this system.

As for suppliers, we outline our expectations in our Supplier Code of Conduct. We evaluate each of our top 20 suppliers on a scorecard that considers quality, delivery, cost, value-added services, environmental and | 86 | Packaging Europe

technical support. Sustainability criteria, such as material reduction, use of lower environmental impact materials and supplier sustainability initiatives, are part of this supplier scorecard.

We have also assessed the ESG performance of our top 25 suppliers by revenue through EcoVadis. We intend to repeat this procedure every three years and track progress.

Our Sustainable Procurement Team evaluates opportunities to minimise material use and finds more sustainable raw material alternatives. The team, made up of colleagues from each region, evaluates opportunities across the globe and works to share best practices in sustainable sourcing with the Global Procurement Team.

We also work to identify and implement chemical substitutions in our products and operations to remove and reduce hazardous waste. Since 2015, we have replaced 10 per cent of steel coil material volume and high volatile organic compound (VOC) exterior paints with water-based paints within our operations. We use safer alternatives in many of our products, including our Tri-Sure Vreeland linings and our water-based acrylic paints.

TS: Are there any big sustainability bottlenecks (beyond Greif’s unilateral control) that you’d like to see eliminated through innovation or changes in systems or governance?

AK: Limited waste and carbon emissions regulations and incentives can slow down the progress that can be made on sustainability by corporations. We are seeing that in regions where there are more governmental regulations and/or incentives, we are able to make significant progress in waste reduction, recycling and reuse, and emissions reductions. Collaboration between corporations, NGOs and governments can accelerate the progress that is much needed.

While the topics of circular economy and plastic waste are gaining momentum, companies are still moving slowly when it comes time for commitment and action. For example, in NA we are seeing an oversupply of PCR which signals that companies are not yet developing products with PCR. We are seeing a similar slow momentum when it comes to reconditioning.

Companies are challenged with balancing their commercial targets with sustainability goals, which can make progress slow. However, this also signals that there are opportunities to further embed sustainability into our organisations and a need to think about creating value not only in the short term but also in the long term.

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ENTIRELY LINERLESS SHIPPING LABELS The Parcel Shipping Index has predicted that 13 of the most active parcel shipping nations alone, including Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, the USA, China and Japan, will be generating an annual volume of 100 billion parcels in 2020.

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ractically all of these parcels will be carrying a fairly large shipping label. Eliminating the siliconised liner associated with these labels would yield an enormous environmental benefit. The waste produced by the thousands of tonnes of single-use material is currently either disposed of, which is a costly exercise, or recycled.

Against this backdrop, HERMA is premiering a new linerless labelling system at both Fachpack (Hall 3A, Booth 236) and Labelexpo (Hall 5, Booth C14).

“Among the products known to us, the HERMA InNo-Liner system is the first practical solution of its kind worldwide that satisfies the cycle speeds and other requirements imposed by logistics and distribution centres.

On top of that, the label stock is compatible with multi-colour preprinting,” says HERMA managing director Dr Thomas Baumgärtner, who also oversees the Self-adhesive Materials division.

The system is based on a special, patented adhesive variant and a microatomiser, which is the subject of another patent application that was developed specifically for the adhesive. “This special unit precisely and fully activates the self-adhesive material. Activation is an essential prerequisite of the material’s extremely high adhesion. The interaction of the atomiser and adhesive is crucial to process reliability during the dispensing operation,” explains Dr Baumgärtner.

As economical as a conventional label Although linerless applications already exist, including in the form of selfadhesive receipts or vouchers and sealing labels, their serious shortcomings have condemned them to a niche existence.

Because these types are sticky from the outset and wound on rolls, their surface is often siliconised and therefore incompatible with printing inks – and thermal printers can produce only black or single-colour lettering and images. Other systems, such as those that are activated by heat, suffer from inherent speed limitations.

“The HERMA InNo-Liner system, in contrast, easily achieves the generally required cycle speed of around 40 A5 or A6 labels a minute, and the labels can be preprinted in colour if necessary. As regards affordability, moreover, the cost is much the same as that of a conventional self-adhesive label,” comments Dr Baumgärtner.

The cost of disposing of liner, however, is completely eliminated.

With the restriction to siliconised thermal paper lifted, another major advantage lies in the diverse range of label materials that are available to users and label printers.

Excellent adhesion thanks to multi-layer technology Although the paper materials are likewise wound on rolls, they are not sticky because the adhesive is not activated until later. Not until the label is dispensed does the micro-atomiser activate the adhesive by applying a precise dose of water. The strength of the immediate, uniform and tenacious adhesion enables the label to hold so fast that any attempt to detach it from the parcel inevitably tears fibres from the packaging material as well.

As the managing director points out, “In order to achieve this adhesive force and effect within a fraction of a second, the use of multi-layer technology for the adhesive is absolutely essential.”

Users, label printers and environmental campaigners have other reasons to be pleased as well – in the absence of a liner, each roll can accommodate more labels, so that both the shipping weight and the necessary warehousing space are reduced.

“This material offers absolute process reliability,” insists Dr Baumgärtner. “Its stability has been verified both in the climate lab and in practical printing and processing tests. And it’s worth remembering that the overall climate-relevant CO2 footprint of a linerless label such as this is drastically reduced. For print & apply applications, the immediate adoption of the HERMA InNo-Liner system therefore makes perfect sense.”

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ONE STEP AHEAD OF THE GAME WITH FLINT GROUP’S NYLOFLEX® XPRESS THERMAL SYSTEM

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lint Group develops, manufactures and markets a comprehensive portfolio of consumables and accessories for the flexographic printing and packaging printing industries. These include photopolymer flexo printing plates and flexo sleeves, equipment for imaging and processing printing plates and printing forms, sleeve and adapter systems as well as printing inks and coatings for flexo printing and digital printing. Flint Group’s nyloflex® Xpress Thermal Processing System is a simple, quick process for the production of flexo printing plates. This technology eliminates the need for solvent, as the system does not require any hazardous substances, and the space requirement is minimal.

The nyloflex® Xpress System uses flexo printing plates specifically developed for thermal processing. In the processor, the thermal printing plate is first heated to a defined temperature inside the processor, and then the unexposed polymer is pulled out of the plate by a developer roll.

After that, the plate only needs to be light finished. This eliminates the time-consuming washing out and drying of the plate which is needed in solvent plate processing. In addition, flexo printing plates and developer rolls can be fed into a single recycling stream, because they share the same waste code. The total processing time for a thermal flexo printing plate, including all process steps, is about 45 minutes which is considerably faster than the solvent process of plate making.

The innovation of the zone-controlled heating system in the processor is based on a highly efficient infrared module that monitors and guarantees precise heat distribution over the entire width of the drum and in the plate. The heat regulation of the system does not require any cooling. Consequently, this technology can achieve an overall energy saving of up to 88 per cent. | 90 | Packaging Europe

The global packaging industry with its major market segments in labels, flexible packaging and cardboard as well as corrugated board packaging, is growing at an average annual rate of three percent. Flexographic printing is a world leader in terms of printing processes used for packaging production. Emotions also run high in the discussion about the ecological effects of flexible plastic packaging.

Moreover, much less waste is generated compared to other system solutions. Specifically, the nyloflex® Xpress Thermal System consumes about 30 per cent less nonwoven material per square metre, which means the fabric is 30 per cent less dense, resulting in a better plate quality. Furthermore, the waste balance is improved even more, as there is no need for any PET carrier film in the processor. This all leads to reduced operating costs and improved productivity.

VOC restrictions and the ongoing trend towards more sustainability in the printing industry are currently providing a thrust for the thermal plate processing market and boosting interest in the nyloflex® Xpress Thermal System outside of the label industry, particularly in the flexible packaging and corrugated board markets.

“We are currently looking at two fields of innovation. The first of these is the further development of the nyloflex® Xpress Thermal System. Later this year, Flint Group will introduce a thermal processor for processing larger plate formats; this is specially designed for printing flexible packaging and expands or completes our portfolio of small-format processors, which primarily serve the label sector,” said Friedrich von Rechteren, Global Commercial VP Flexographic at Flint Group.

“Also, we will continue to adapt and optimise our range of flat top dot plates for thermal processing. The same goes for our solvent-processable flat top dot plates. In this area, we will continue to advance plate development for the printing of flexible packaging. In 2019, we will also release several flexo printing plates whose special features have been further optimised for the various market segments.”

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PACKAGING

FOR PETS

Bernard Meunier

Mirroring trends in many other CPG market segments, the pet food market has undergone growth and stratification in recent years, giving rise to new opportunities for packaging to add value. Bernard Meunier, CEO of Nestlé Purina PetCare EMENA, shared his story of sustainability, premiumisation and digitisation in the market with (cat owner) Tim Sykes.

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he Purina brand offers pet food and care products for cats and dogs, including a range of specialised veterinary pet food, and several subbrands sold within individual countries. The portfolio comprises dry food, packaged in paper-based boxes and paper or plastic bags, wet food in plastic/aluminium pouches and cans, and snacks, which are packaged in plastics.

Given the importance of cats and dogs to their owners, should we really think of pet food packaging as a subset of food packaging, with all the functional demands and quality standards this implies?

“At Purina, having the right packaging is crucial for delivering safe, high quality pet food to our consumers and their pets, as well as reducing food waste,” Bernard remarks. “Most of our packaging formats are designed to store the product after it’s been cooked, e.g. flow wraps, bags, stand up bags and boxes. However, pet food that is supplied in plastic/aluminium composite pouches is sealed and cooked when it is already in the pouch – making the role of the pouch different to most other packaging.”

Metamorphosing market The segment has been disrupted in recent years by a number of new trends that would be largely familiar to those following the market for (human) food.

“We have seen new evolving food philosophies such as natural ingredients and alternative proteins, and generally a greatly increased expectation that industry should be a force for good,” says Bernard. “Meanwhile, new data powered business models are emerging, along with new sources of trusted advocacy and influence, digitally connected pet health services are flourishing, and there’s an acceleration of direct-to-consumer personalised models.

Through disruption, new opportunities appear: unlimited opportunities to create new value streams, by delivering outstanding experiences for tomorrow’s pet owners.”

A perhaps more visible trend in pet-care is premiumisation – which is itself driven by factors such as customisation through e-commerce and | 92 | Packaging Europe

the new dietary philosophies referenced by Bernard. He cites the examples of Terra Canis and tails.com. Terra Canis is an ultra-natural pet food company with unique expertise in the premium natural pet food market.

Meanwhile, tails.com is Europe’s most advanced player in the direct-toconsumer, tailor-made pet food category and is growing very strongly.

“They have a unique and winning business model that successfully combines individually customised recipes with a best in class pet owner experience at competitive prices,” Bernard comments. “Consumer demand continues to grow for personalised products and services. Purina has invested in both brands as part of our steps in building an ecosystem with partners and experts who help promote pet health and pet wellbeing.”

Taking responsibility While these trends are typically reflected in value-added packaging, the number one issue on the packaging agenda is inevitably environmental impact. Purina’s latest analysis of the most important issues for EMENA stakeholders emphasises sustainability in two of its four pillars (namely, promoting loving and responsible pet ownership; working with others to address scarcity of resources; demonstrating radical transparency; and reducing environmental inputs and outputs). These filter through

“New data powered business models open up unlimited opportunities to create new value streams, by delivering outstanding experiences for tomorrow’s pet owners”

to specific commitments to improve the environmental performance of Purina’s packaging. These include aiming to avoid the use of 3000 tonnes of packaging material by 2019 compared to 2015 levels – a goal which has been surpassed by 18 per cent. Of the packaging material saved, 52 per cent was plastic.

“Plastics offer a unique combination of durability, availability, hygiene and safety, making it an ideal packaging material,” Bernard remarks. “The properties of plastic also provide a lot of flexibility and freedom in design, whilst being lightweight but strong, enabling packaging to be tailored to the product. There has been considerable progress in ensuring the use of only a minimum adequate amount of plastic packaging to pack products safely, and the recovery of plastic at the end of its useful life.”

Indeed, circularity is a central focus of Purina’s strategy, in line with its parent company’s commitments. In April 2018 Nestlé made a global commitment that by 2025 100 per cent of its packaging (including all Purina products) will be reusable or recyclable. Furthermore, in January 2019 Nestlé announced a series of specific actions towards meeting this commitment, with a particular focus on avoiding plastic waste.

“At Purina, we share the Nestlé vision that no packaging ends up as waste and are ready to play our part to help achieve the 2025 commitment,” Bernard continues. “For most packaging applications, recycling is likely to be the preferable end of life pathway as it keeps materials

circulating within the economy and currently 67 per cent of our packaging is widely recyclable. However, for some applications we are also exploring possibilities to have our packaging made from compostable materials.”

Low-hanging fruit and beyond Some of the environmental savings have been achieved by optimising multi-packs and traditional downgauging. For instance, in 2018 Purina made adjustments to the aggregation of its PURINA® GOURMET™ 50 g pouches and 85 g cans. Changes in cardboard specification facilitated savings of 140 tonnes of packaging in can multi-packs. As for for pouch multi-packs, Purina installed a new packaging line and changed the outer structure, enabling a reduction in the material used from 30.5 g to 26.1 g – contributing savings of 99 tonnes overall.

Meanwhile, reduction in use of plastics has been achieved thanks to downgauging the PE layer: on the Duplex dry laminates (FRSK) Purina has downgauged the PE layer from 100 to 75 microns and on the triplex laminates (ONE) from 75 to 60 microns.

As for recyclability, if 67 per cent of Purina packaging is currently widely recycled, of the remainder 27 per cent is deemed ‘hard to recycle’, and the final six per cent has ‘limited recyclability’. Inevitably, the aluminium/ plastic composite wet food pouches represent one of the most difficult challenges. “It’s difficult to separate the individual layers for recycling and Packaging Europe | 93 |

there are very few recycling facilities who can currently do this,” says Bernard. “At the same time, each country differs in their ability to collect sort, re-use, recycle and recover packaging.

“We are working on reducing both the complexity of materials and number of different layers in our packaging. This will make the packaging easier to recycle. In relation to this, we are working hard to find an alternative material for pet food pouches. It is not easy because pouch packaging needs to be robust enough both to withstand our cooking processes and to keep the product fresh on shelf. Nevertheless, and since one of our priorities is to make Purina wet food pouches fully recyclable, our teams are testing new design and technologies, which would ensure circularity of the pouch.”

The pouch predicament Purina believes that with the right materials, collection and recycling in place, the continued use of pouch packaging for pet food is possible without causing a detrimental effect on the environment. “The durable properties of plastics mean that when treated and processed properly, plastics can be reused or recycled, in a closed loop,” Bernard suggests. “But to achieve this, in addition to working on design for recycling on our part, collaboration and collective action is vital for transforming how packaging is managed today. We recognise that the 2025 commitment is a difficult journey. Recognising this, we are working with value chain partners and industry associations to identify solutions as quickly as possible.” | 94 | Packaging Europe

Purina is for instance participating in CEFLEX, on whose work toward an infrastructure to collect, sort and recycle all types of used flexible plastics across Europe by 2025 we have reported extensively.

“There is also a partnership between Nestlé and Veolia, the world’s leading resource management company, to work on waste collection, sorting and recycling of plastic material, with a particular emphasis on flexible plastic packaging,” says Bernard. “This partnership with Veolia follows a series of specific initiatives and steps to accelerate action to tackle plastic waste, in line with Nestlé’s commitment to make 100 per cent of its packaging (including Purina products) recyclable or reusable by 2025.”

Progress on its recyclability and resource efficiency responsibilities will be essential for basic brand hygiene in the pet care market. But in a rapidly changing world with fast changing consumer expectations, competitive edge is likely to rely on more than sustainability. The direction of pet food packaging will also be determined by trends emerging today whose end-points we probably still cannot see. How will pet ownership change as ownership models are being radically rethought? As humans take an interest in vegetarian and vegan diets and unprocessed foods, will they explore similar options for their carnivorous pets? What degree of personalisation and how much supply chain transparency will the digital consumer expect of food that passes through their beloved pet’s lips? The answers to these questions, and how industry answers the sustainability question, will shape the cat and dog food packaging of tomorrow.

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ON SECOND THOUGHTS...

Dana Mosora

WASTE AND RESPONSIBILITY: A RITE OF PASSAGE FOR GLOBAL LEADERSHIP Dana Mosora is a passionate circular economy advocate, currently working as a workstream consultant for CEFLEX, and also a social entrepreneur who has co-founded the ASASE Foundation, an NGO based in Ghana which offers seed money and technical and business training to aspiring entrepreneurs to build their own plastic waste reprocessing plant. In this column Dana draws on her experience in Africa to argue that industry should play a key role in empowering local communities to recycle and create value from their own plastic waste – generating unexpected additional social benefits.

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hen children go to school in Accra, Ghana they need daily money to buy sachets of water (0.22 US dollar cents per day).

The food is cooked on school premises and is paid for by the government. So, the deal is quite good!

But this might change… because those sachets, which today make clean water accessible to all children of Ghana, might not be available if the sachets are banned by the government.

Why would they be banned? Because they are single-use packaging and the call from environmentalists to ban single-use packaging in a country like Ghana started from a lack of a formal or efficient system in place to get those sachets, or the PET bottles, back from the streets of Accra and to recycle them, returning the polymers back into the economy.

What this has taught me, in such a simple way, is that you can have only mono-material packaging, like almost all of the packaging in Ghana, and still be at the root cause of this terrible plastic litter problem.

What I see, as a common problem all over the world, is not what type of packaging we, the industry, put on the market but how we take our share of the responsibility to manage plastic packaging when it becomes waste. The common problem, in all geographies and types of markets, is when packaging after its first use is not disposed of for recycling.

So how can we take our share of responsibility to manage this plastic packaging waste?

Let me share how Francisca, a middle-woman for water sachets in Katamanso, Accra inspired me to answer this question: she learned that we, the ASASE Foundation (www.asasegh.com), were starting a plastic recycling plant in her community. She thought: if she wants to get the biggest share in our business then she needs to collect as much as she can and provide us with clean material, of reliable quality, each time.

On her own initiative, she bought plastic bags and placed them at people’s homes all over her neighbourhood. Once a week, she tours

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her area and picks up only the plastic which was put into the bags, segregated from the other waste. She knows that, in this way, she will get the quality of waste we need for our plastic reprocessing plant, and we will prefer to buy from her, giving her our biggest share of spending.

She created her own model of collection of segregated plastic waste, winning our trust and support to scale it up.

Who lost? All those waste pickers who sell water sachets picked from the streets, full of dirt and water, which make the bags weigh more but which make the quality very poor. In fact, many times they pick up the sachets and can’t sell the bags. Recyclers like us lose money by having to dispose of the dirt brought together with contaminated water sachets so we can’t buy the bags from them.

Segregation at the source and collection with recycling in mind made Francisca the preferred supplier and the proof of one key principle of the circular economy in action: all plastics have a value in use and after use, so consumers need access to ways of disposing of plastic packaging after use, so that it will be collected for recycling!

Who should support the Franciscas of this world to drive segregation at the source and to create more collection for recycling in the way our Francisca is doing in her community in Katamaso, Accra?

Well… I think it is the industry putting that plastic on the market in the form of packaging. We need to help create, in these regions from where the ocean litter is generated, the infrastructure which is necessary to make collection happen. By using the know-how we already have we can develop the financing system for the segregated collection and sorting for recycling.

If we aim to be leaders in innovation and continue to grow our respective businesses then this is a rite of passage for taking responsibility and showing our leadership in the plastic packaging industry.

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