HEALTH & SAFETY
BALANCING PACKAGING SAFETY, SECURITY AND SUSTAINABILITY POST COVID-19
Demand for thin walling is increasing as manufacturers look for lighter, cheaper and more sustainable packaging
Nigel Flowers, managing director, Sumitomo (SHI) Demag UK A
round the world, health has taken priority over sustainability. As we begin to cautiously emerge from the pandemic, Nigel Flowers, managing director of Sumitomo (SHI) Demag examines how brands can move forward with their sustainable packaging initiatives and discusses the consumer behaviours and attitudes towards single use packaging that may stick around in the foreseeable future.
In the early days of the COVID-19, sentiments towards sustainability diminished. Although this was anticipated to be a short-term shift, concerns around hygiene, sanitation, cross-infection and the protection of health took priority. Initiatives like bring your own containers and resusable coffee cups were suspended. Substrate choices veered back to the ‘perceived’ enemy - plastic. The big question facing packaging producers now is how much consumers in the future will be prepared to trade off product safety, security and hygiene against sustainability and whether there is a middle ground.
For several decades now light-weighting and consumer convenience have given packaging manufacturers the strong commercial incentive to do more with less. No strangers to responding to demographic and lifestyle changes and
balancing a wide range of variables, including cost, increased strength, recycle rates and functional requirements, lightweight formats have become the industry norm. Especially in food and medical packaging. More recently, the market has been moving more towards novelty solutions that improve performance, functionality and shelf impact.
Most companies operating in this competitive arena produce millions of packaging containers, caps and closures every year. Volume, raw material waste and precision are fundamental to each packaging manufacturers’ financial viability, with many facilities operating 20+ machines to meet supplier demand.
To successfully succeed in the thin walling arena, injection moulders need to examine every potential application to ensure that the selection of materials, machine and tooling give the optimum blend of speed, quality and consistency.
NEW EXPECTATIONS Until March, eschewing plastic was the campaign of the day. The tide was turning. And I’m in no doubt that public rallying for circular packaging will resume in the next six months. Attitudes and actions will inevitably shift again.
22 OCTOBER 2020 | FACTORY&HANDLINGSOLUTIONS
What this pandemic has clearly illustrated however, is the context in which decisions about packaging need to be made. Exploiting people’s fears about reinfection and sanitation should not be used as an argument to revert or redefine legislation. Understandably, the UK’s ban on plastic straws, cotton buds and stirrers has been delayed for six months by DEFRA until late 2020. This is a temporary measure, but concurrently must not threaten progress towards more sustainable packaging.
MANUFACTURING CONSIDERATIONS
As a material, plastic is inextricably linked with energy and resource savings. Its low weight makes it both cost effective and flexible to use, adding to the sustainability score when measuring environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance. If anything, this pandemic has presented retailers, brand owners and packaging manufacturers with the opportunity to review, realign and reinforce the value of their packaging. From a machinery performance viewpoint, thinner wall sections bring changes in processing requirements. Among them, higher pressures and speeds, faster cooling times, and
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