Packaging Innovations Weekly Wrap

The UK is considering setting higher targets for packaging recycling and reusability by businesses, as excess packaging concerns continue to dominate the public arena.

Cereplast has launched a new resin, partially made from bio-materials, to reduce reliance on petroleum-based products.

Keeping with the environmental theme, Avery Dennison has launched a thin-gauge label stock it says will reduce the environmental impact of companies' activities by reducing associated carbon emissions.

ENVIRONMENT

The UK Environment Minister Joan Ruddock has proposed higher than minimum recycling and recovery targets for UK businesses to help the country meet its obligation under the European Commission Packaging Directive.

The directive sets minimum standards for recycling and recovery at 55 percent and 60 percent respectively.

Ruddock has proposed UK recycling targets be set at 55.7 percent in 2008, rising to 58.4 percent by 2010.

Recovery targets will be 60.6 percent in 2008, rising to 63.4 percent by 2010, Ruddock says.

The target system applies to businesses handling more than 50t of packaging per year with an annual turnover of more than £2m.

Bio-based sustainable plastics manufacturer Cereplast has launched a new range of sustainable resins.

Cereplast Hybrid Resins, also known as Biopolyolefins, replace 50 percent or more of the petroleum content used in traditional plastic resins with bio-based materials such as starches from corn, tapioca, wheat and potatoes.

Cereplast says the new resin has the same physical characteristic and price point as traditional polyolefin, reducing companies' reliance on oil-based products.

MATERIALS INNOVATION

Avery Dennison has released a thinner-gauge self-adhesive film label stock, which it says will challenge current conceptions of the cost of quality self-adhesive film labelling for bulk products in the personal and home care markets.

Fasson Lean Film is extremely thin allowing a greater number of printed labels per converted reel.

This translates to fewer stops on the printing press and dispensing line, with lower weight and bulk for transportation and its associated energy costs, Avery Dennison senior product manager Jan’t Hart says.

"With 'cheeses' nearly 30 percent longer, converters can benefit from fewer reel changes on the press," Hart says.

"Based on customer trials, we see estimated average savings of around 22 percent less downtime – which creates real improvements in production efficiency".

Gas permeability testing equipment supplier Versaperm has launched a new machine that simplifies the "difficult and long-winded" task of measuring oxygen and carbon dioxide permeability of packaging films.

The multi-chamber WMTV Mk VI measures water vapour permeability of modified atmosphere packaging films down to one part per million.

The highly automated machine can be configured for up to three standard-sized chamber modules, either for flat samples, such as films, or for containers, Versaperm says.

Versaperm says the machine will be invaluable to frozen food manufacturers as water vapour escaping from the product and migrating through packaging can cause freezer burn.

RFID

UK-made cigarette products will now contain RFID chips in their packaging, as HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the tobacco industry crack down on counterfeit cigarettes.

Beginning in 12 months when unmarked packets will have left the supply chain, HMRC officials will use hand-held RFID readers to determine the authenticity of individual cigarette packets and whether or not duty has been paid.

The HMRC says an estimated £4.6bn in revenue was lost in 2004-05 due to illegal cigarettes imported from China and Eastern Europe.

RFID tags will be added to packs of loose tobacco in October next year.

Details of the RFID tag and its supplier have not been released, but the cost will be met by the UK's four main cigarette manufacturers – British American Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco, JT International and Phillip Morris International.
Source: packaging-technology