Over its 17 12 months historical past, The Packaging Conference has gained a fame as being the place to find out about new applied sciences and tendencies within the packaging business. While material-agnostic, the occasion historically leans towards plastic, the biggest and most dynamic packaging materials class. This 12 months’s occasion, working from Feb. 12-14 in Austin, Tex., has to this point been true to kind by way of content material.

Just because the business is continually altering, so too does the main target of The Packaging Conference with each new version. This 12 months is squarely targeted on sustainability, with a heavy emphasis on lowering a bundle’s carbon footprint and applied sciences that enable for extra environment friendly recycling. This is especially vital now, as materials suppliers and types grapple with the implications of impending prolonged producer accountability (EPR) laws.

Following is an summary of some of the packaging improvements—some rising and a few pretty effectively developed—mentioned on the occasion:

·     In her presentation, “Turning Plants into Plastics to Defossilize our Everyday Products,” Bineke Posthumus, director of enterprise improvement for Avantium, mentioned the corporate’s 100% plant-based PEF, or polyethylene furanoate, expertise. PEF is a biopolymer comprised of first-generation feedstocks, or agricultural crops, that can be utilized as a alternative for PET.

The materials is a drop-in biopolymer, that means it suits into present manufacturing methods and is recyclable. According to Posthumus, it additionally has some superior technical properties to PET, together with a superior barrier. She added, “When it’s produced at scale, it’s cost competitive with fossil-based materials.” An LCA of Avantium’s PEF product exhibits a lowered carbon footprint of 60% versus virgin PET. Avantium is at the moment ending development on a 5 kiloton/12 months plant with a long-term imaginative and prescient to assemble a 250-plus kiloton/12 months facility.

Daniel Abramowicz, govt vice chairman of Technology & Regulatory Affairs for Crown Holdings

·      On the aluminum can entrance, Daniel Abramowicz, (quickly to be retired) govt vice chairman of Technology & Regulatory Affairs for Crown Holdings, talked about Velox DTS (direct-to-shape) digital printing expertise, developed by Velox with help from Crown. Until just lately, the one possibility for can ornament for brief runs was shrink-sleeve labels, which create points within the recycling stream.

Velox DTS was developed to allow cost-effective, short-run digital printing of cans. With an oval form, the system is designed in order that the cans are transferring beneath the printheads always, leading to speeds as much as 500 cans/min. The Velox DTS can print all the can in six to eight colours, and might create matte or tactile surfaces. According to Abramowicz, the expertise goes business right this moment, with 12 methods being deployed in North America.

Bill Cooper, senior vice chairman, Corporate Strategy & Development for Cyclyx

·      In discussing “A Pathway Forward for Single Use Packaging,” Bill Cooper, senior vice chairman, Corporate Strategy & Development for Cyclyx, shared the corporate’s 10to90 imaginative and prescient, or transferring from 10% recycled plastics to 90%. Cyclyx is a feedstock administration firm comprising 45 consortium members throughout the plastic worth chain. Its purpose is to gather all plastics, by way of present companions reminiscent of MRFs, type these which are finest served by mechanical recycling, and course of the remaining primarily based on actual technical specs to allow them to be used for chemical recycling. Explained Cooper, this includes sorting the plastics by chemical composition moderately than by polymer, a way more complicated course of.

Once Cyclyx completes customized feedstock processing, it would provide the supplies to chemical recyclers to be used of their methods. According to Cooper, of the plastic supplies collected (each curbside and business/industrial), one-third will go to mechanical recycling, and two-thirds to superior recycling. Cyclyx is piloting the system in Houston and has secured funding for a $100 million facility, the Cyclyx Circularity Center, additionally in Houston. “This is materially bigger than anything that’s been built before,” stated Cooper. “Our key focus is single-use plastic packaging. We want to find a home for all plastic and increase the recycling rate for plastic from 10% to 90%.” 

Elvis Cudjoe, senior analysis and improvement engineer for Avient

·      To eradicate the yellowing of PET bottles from oxygen scavenging components which consequently impacts the standard of the PET recycling stream, Avient has developed ColorMatrix Capture Oxygen Scavenger expertise, which was introduced to The Packaging Conference attendees by Elvis Cudjoe, senior analysis and improvement engineer for the corporate. The absolutely recyclable oxygen scavenging resolution is situated totally within the bottle closure. As Cudjoe defined, the bottom layer of the closure comprises the activator, which slowly releases hydrogen and might be personalized to attain the specified shelf life. The management layer of the closure comprises the metallic oxidative catalyst and additional controls the speed at which the hydrogen is launched. When oxygen enters the bottle, hydrogen is launched, which transforms the oxygen into minute quantities of odorless and tasteless water.

Said Cudjoe, “Capture supports the use of 100% rPET, it supports brand owner’s sustainability commitments to reduce GHG emissions and food waste, and it allows for lightweighting, since a barrier layer is no longer required in the bottle.” ColorMatrix Capture Oxygen Scavenger expertise has FDA food-contact approval and has been acknowledged by the Association of Plastics Recyclers (APR) to fulfill Critical Guidance primarily based upon its recyclability with PET bottles. Applications embrace oxygen-sensitive drinks reminiscent of fruit and vegetable juice, dietary and vitamin-fortified drinks, ready-to-drink tea and low, milk and dairy drinks, and wine.  PW