Passionate Packaging Engineer

To understand how some of the largest companies based in the UK and internationally are tackling climate-related sustainability issues this detailed report by EcoAct plays an very crucial role.  The key areas of focus for this year’s report are: Net Zero: How companies will contribute to the Net Zero transition.  Climate Risk: How companies should be assessing and disclosing climate risks and opportunities. Target-Setting: Goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees centigrade or well below 2 degree celcius as advised by the IPCC. COVID-19: Global pandemic which has meant enormous and unparalleled challenges for many businesses.   The Top three Companies and FTSE leaderboard: Top 3 companies: Unilever BT Group Landsec   FTSE leaderboard: This year’s Top 20 performing companies have an average score of 76.8% compared to 75.4% last year. It is encouraging to see that companies appear to be increasing their actions in line with rising best practice, as this year our scoring ha

Guys, Have you heard of PepsiCo Recycling. An initiative by PepsiCo to recycles the bottles and all of their packaging. Their motto is Simple Act. Big Impact. It is so true. As mentioned on their website - PepsiCo Recycling believes that bigger change starts with one bottle, with one person, with one action. They have created multiple Programs and Partnerships to achieve the overall success, and to create an impact in the community. Their Programs include: Recycling Rally K-12 Recycling Roadster Community Programs Events, and  Campus Engagements And their Partnership model includes: Boosting Infrastructure Providing Access Working with Communities So in PepsiCo Recycling words - Lets Take Action, and Let's work together to increase the U.S. recycling rate for beverage containers. Every bottle. Every can. For further information, please visit their website at - https://www.pepsicorecycling.com/

 As mentioned on PackagingStrategies.com. With help of Tetrapak, a snapshot is developed which can help us understand - Demystifying the Circular Economy for Packaging. Some of the strategies include Do More with Less Collaborate for Real Solutions Make Smart Material Choices Extend the Life of your Product Communicate your Values Packaging, often regarded as what gets thrown out or recycled once a product is used, presents a particularly interesting opportunity for circular economy innovation. The opportunities for business are bountiful, and most brands are employing at least some of the principles of the circular economy in their operations today. These principles are actually sound business practices, including doing more with less. Credit  Elisabeth Comere

Mondi in collaboration with Ellen MacArthur has created a Project Proof. Its  a proof-of-concept prototype flexible plastic pouch incorporating a minimum of 20% post-consumer plastic waste originating from mixed household waste. The pouch is suitable for packaging household products such as detergent. Project Proof is part of Mondi’s commitment to the Ellen MacArthur New Plastics Economy Initiative. It is focused on designing products in line with circular economy principles and has shown that it is possible to use unclean and raw post-consumer recycled content to create new flexible packaging. Mondi will now develop the prototype further to ensure it can be rolled out as a commercially viable product for its multinational FMCG customers. This will support Mondi’s work as a signatory of the New Plastics Economy Commitment to ensure a minimum of 25% of post-consumer waste is incorporated across all its flexible plastic packaging where food contact regulations allow by 2025. To read full

Coca-Cola European Partners has today announced the introduction of CanCollar®, an innovative paperboard packaging solution, for multi pack cans in Spain.  The move supports its work, in partnership with Coca-Cola, to remove all unnecessary or hard to recycle plastic from its portfolio, avoiding the use of more than 11,000 tonnes of virgin plastic a year across Western Europe.  Innovative packaging design is a core principle of Coca-Cola’s World Without Waste strategy and through collaboration with WestRock, a global company that provides its customers with sustainable differentiated packaging solutions, Coca-Cola European Partners will start to use the CanCollar® paperboard can ring technology in the Balearic Islands, replacing the current Hi-cone solution and saving more than 18 tonnes of plastic annually.  Coca-Cola European Partners has invested 2.6 million euros in its Barcelona plant to support this initiative. The installation of WestRock’s CanCollar® Fortuna™ manufacturi

Screen printing  is a printing process in which we use a mesh for ink transfer  over substrate by using stencil. In Stencil, areas are made permeable so ink can pass and form an image, and areas made impermeable blocks the ink, hence forming a non-image area. A squeegee is is moved across (from top to bottom direction of stencil) screen to fill and open mesh apertures with ink, then a reverse stroke is made which causes screen to touch substrate momentarily along the line of contact. This makes ink to wet the substrate and is pulled out of mesh apertures as screen springs back after blade has passed. One color is printed at one time, so multiple screens can be used to produce a multicoloured image, graphic or design. There are many terms used, which is essentially same technique. Traditionally, this process was known as screen printing or  silk-screen printing,  because silk was used in process. It's also called as  serigraphy  and  serigraph printing .  At present, synthetic threa

Overview: Flexography uses Relief printing process, in which there is a raised surface to hold the ink. Ink roller takes the ink from the ink pan and applies it over the raised surface, or by pressing the plate against the inking pad. The first plates produced by relief method were made by hand from wood. And later, the presses were engraved into metal and used movable metal type. Plate-making: The printing plates are made using rubber, photopolymer or sometimes by metal, as it depends on type of application. The oldest form of flexographic plate were made by rubber, and it is now declining as science and technology have progressed. Most of the modern flexographic plates are now made up of photopolymer, a material that cures/hardens when exposed with ultraviolet light (UV light). Unexposed areas are soluble and can be washed away. This exposure and non-exposure helps forms the image and non-image area over the photopolymeric printing plate. Nowadays, an evolving  ablation technology us

A form of printing technology using an intermediate carrier to transfer image from original carrier (such as a plate) to the  substrate . Offset Lithography In this process the image + non image area coexist on same plane. Types of lithograpgu  - di-litho and waterless lithography. Types of offset lithography - sheetfed and web-offset lithography. Offset printing is widely used in modern printing presses. It is described as when 'positive image' on plate is inked and transferred (offset) from plate to a rubber blanket. Blanket captures mirror image of plate.  The blanket moves the image to substrate making the image. In Offset printing, it is based on fact that oil and water do not mix. The offset process employs a planographic plate mounted over press cylinder.  Offset presses makes use of 3 cylinders: Plate, blanket and impression cylinder. Courtesy: http://printwiki.org/Offset_Printing http://printwiki.org/Offset_Lithography https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing#Offset

||      “If you don't know history, then you don't know anything. You are a leaf that doesn't know it is part of a tree. ”  ― Michael Crichto     || History is a source of constant motivation for today's innovations and most of the current developments in packaging are based on important lessons from history of packaging. The last century packaging designs primarily revolved around solving the containment and preservation problems but today's packaging is one of the most important tools of branding and promotion. With the rise in E-commerce the packaging has to be simple yet sturdy to withstand the transit hazards. The circular economy concept forces corporations to move towards a greener packaging. The frontiers of packaging education were laid by the Michigan State University, School of Packaging becoming the first institution of its kind to start a Packaging course in 1952 to proliferate the packaging knowledge in the entire world. The last couple

||       The packaging is a silent salesman. The packaging is responsible for creating the first impression to the customers. This packaging we see today has evolved from being only as a intended use to a tool for communicating and branding.     || The packaging we see today revolves around branding, communication and consumer promotion and goes beyond above normal functions such as contain, caring and preservation. Today's packaging also plays a major role in ease of consumers use mechanisms such as simple dispensing systems like bottle opener in beer bottles, child resistant closures etc. Let’s take a look at "The Innovations that shaped packaging over past 200 years"                              Video Source:

As we know the packaging as a tool has reached pinnacle and with constant innovations. Today the packaging plays a major role in branding, communicating the products apart from the conventional method of containing and protecting the products. The basic five functions of packaging like Contain, Protect and Preserve, Transport, Communication,  End-of-Life Function that we see today are a result of thousands of years of evolution with time. These functions and innovations have been developed as a direct need of customers and indirectly by the influence of culture. Where we stand today we must look what were the changes took place in the evolution of packaging materials and how these inventions have shaped the world. Source:

The packaging is an ancient industry dating back to around 5000 B.C. when the humans were merely hunters and gatherers. The very first need for packaging was felt for the transportation of left over food form one place to another.  The movement of tribes and own survival forced them to invent some sort of containers to contain and carry the food, water and tools with them and hence the hard shelled fruits were prized as their first containers. When the earlier cities were domesticated a plethora of packaging materials were used for storage, transportation and protect the essential items. Early protective packaging designs were made of plant leaves and animal skin as they were easily available in the proximity. Bottle Gourds Nuts and bottle gourds were used by these prehistoric people and radiocarbon dating indicates their presence in the Americas by 10,000 years ago.                                                            The ancient Egyptians were the first to industrialize glass

The history of packaging begin in medieval time when the early human started exploring options to carry its left over food and water from one place to another. In order to preserve and transport the food he needed some devices. He began to use plant leaves, animal skin, hollow woods to contain and carry his items for survival. 7000 B.C. - glass making began as an of shoot to pottery  1500 B.C - glass making was industrialized in Egypt enabling them to contain food and water 1200 B.C. - glass was pressed into molds to make cups and bowls. 200 B.C.-  the Chinese began using treated mulberry bark to transport food which further developed into the art of paper making. 1200 A.D. - the process of tin plating was discovered in Bohemia ;cans of iron, coated with tin, were known in Bavaria as early as the 14th century. 1310 A.D. - the unique skills of Chinese paper making reached in England 1809 - General Napoleon Bonaparte promised to offer 12,000 francs to

Packaging is ubiquitous, it's everywhere. From dusk to dawn we come across lots of packaging surrounding us, but the packaging we know today has been the result of long evolution process. If you ever wondered where it all began and what is the history of packaging, then stay tuned. We will give insights on the history of packaging.