INNOVATION | CAPS AND CLOSURES
feeding the world, but it must do so sustainably, so that food availability does not come at the cost of the planet.” Tetra Pak calls the Châteaubriant plant a “key manufacturing facility” as it has annual production capacity of approximately 5bn caps and it supplies food and beverage manufacturers globally. Before expansion, the site covers an area of more than 30,000 m² and has 19 machines that produce six types of caps. The facility is equipped to produce additional materials that have recycled plastic content. The first phase of the €100m investment project
Above: Tetra Pak is investing €100m at its Châteaubriant plant in France for the transition to tethered caps
scoring of the closure with a heated blade, after moulding. The advantages of the moulded-in bridge approach include greater design flexibility, no need for a secondary manufacturing step good part-to-part consistency and quality. White says: “We expect that SUP legislation, similar to what was passed in Europe, will be adopted in other jurisdictions. Adoption of the tethered closure legislation is highly likely in other local, regional, and national jurisdictions.” Husky also expects neck light weighting developments to continue as the industry further emphasises sustainability efforts. This trend will require new complementary closure designs, it says. Other caps trends it expects to see are increased closure barrier properties to improve shelf life and new material types to enhance specific material recycling efforts. Major packaging companies and caps produc- ers have been gearing themselves up in response to the drive for greater sustainability. Carton packaging giant Tetra Pak announced in 2021 a €100m project to expand its Châteaubriant plant in France, which will increase its production capacity to enable the transition to tethered caps by 2024. The group said this will ensure Tetra Pak’s custom- ers in Europe will be ready to comply with the SUP Directive’s deadline to switch to tethered caps. Charles Brand, President of Tetra Pak Europe &
Right: Tetra Pak’s HeliCap 26 tethered cap
Central Asia, says: “We are particularly proud of this investment project, which demonstrates how we consistently strive to provide customers with sustainable innovations and meet the rapidly changing demands of regulators and society. High-per- formance food packaging plays a critical role in
20 INJECTION WORLD | April 2022
started in late 2021. Tetra Pak is expanding the Châteaubriant site to allow a 30% increase in manufacturing capacity through the installation of ten new machines dedicated to the production of tethered caps. In the second phase between 2022 and 2023, approximately 50% of the existing machines will be replaced, to expand the quantity of tethered caps it produces. Tetra Pak has made a commitment to invest
approximately €100m per year over the next five to ten years to develop more sustainable packaging solutions. “This includes alternatives to replace fossil-based plastics and avoid littering, as well as maximising the use of renewable, responsibly sourced materials in our packages,” says Lars Holmquist, Executive Vice President Packaging Solutions and Commercial Operations at Tetra Pak. “Addressing people’s needs for recycling is a critical component for not only becoming more sustainable but making food more available and safer for all consumers.” He described the scale of the transformation
that is necessary to move to tethered caps. “The significant challenge of deploying tethered caps is the scale of the change that this brings across the value chain. If we look at Europe alone, more than 1,000 packaging lines supplied by us will be potentially transformed, translating into over 20bn packages which are expected to be converted. All of that in three years, while minimising impact on our customers’ operations, optimising the consum- er experience and contributing to both minimising litter and creating a carton package with increased plant-based and recycled content.” Tetra Pak says it is working across various project streams, which include approximately 40 different packages with tethered caps. These caps are all planned to become available as a plant-
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