News
27 JUNE 2018
Faerch Plast collaborates with retailers to recycle black plastic
Packaging manufacturer Faerch Plast has partnered with major British retailers, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s and Tesco, and waste management company Viridor to recycle black plastic.
The project aims to create a circular economy solution through which the partners intend to bring back recycled black plastic into new food grade packaging.
Beginning next month, the project will recycle black plastic, with an initial target of 120t per month, before gradually increasing the recycling capacity.
The partners will use Viridor’s specialist plastics recycling facility at Rochester in Kent as a centre of excellence for the initiative.
UK Environment Secretary Michael Gove said: “This global leading scheme has the potential to mean the UK exports less of its waste, could divert huge amounts of plastic away from landfill and prevent virgin plastic entering the market in the first place.”
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27 JUNE 2018
Ardagh manufactures new aerosol can for Nivea’s female range
Irish glass and metal products supplier Ardagh Group have manufactured a taller sleek-shaped aluminium aerosol can for Nivea’s female range, designed by brand’s owner Beiersdorf.
The can, which was developed under a three-year re-packaging process, was created to meet advanced technical requirements and customer specifications.
The design innovation was completed by the two multiple stage necking systems at Ardagh’s specialist aerosol plant in Veenendaal, the Netherlands, to produce the uniquely shaped long sleek can in the most efficient and precise way. The design was extensively market tested for consumer reaction and comment. The favourable response together with an improved shelf stand-out, contributed to its recent successful launch in Europe. The new can is 9mm taller than its predecessor.
Ardagh Metal division commercial director Bernhard Meier said: “With our long-standing customer, Beiersdorf, we investigated various technologies at the cutting edge of aerosol can production.”
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26 JUNE 2018
Shorr Packaging expands footprint in Los Angeles area
US packaging materials and equipment provider Shorr Packaging has expanded to a new facility within the Los Angeles area to meet growing demands in the region.
The expansion will allow the company to serve the needs of customers within the Inland Empire, Los Angeles County, Orange County and San Diego County areas.
The new location is situated 0.4 miles from the previous location and is close to highways, such as US Route 60, Interstate I-10 and Route 15.
The proximity of the facility is expected to contribute to the distribution for all Shorr customers, carriers and vendors.
Shorr Packaging CEO Craig Funkhouser said: “In order to improve our efficiencies and be able to provide our products and services to the growing customer base in the Los Angeles market, Shorr required a larger facility.
“The larger footprint will help us invest in the future of our company as we capitalise upon the opportunities we have in front of us.”
The relocation to 186,000ft² locale allows the company to expand both its office and warehouse space by more than 60% in total.
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26 JUNE 2018
Morrisons reintroduces paper bags to reduce plastic waste
British supermarket chain Morrisons has brought back brown paper bags in stores for loose fresh fruit and vegetables in an attempt to cut down on plastic waste.
The move is expected to eliminate the use of 150 million small plastic bags each year.
Made from 100% recycled paper, the brown bags have been introduced in some of the retailer’s stores and will be rolled out across all stores gradually.
The paper bags will have a thinner see-through strip to enable customers and staff to see the products inside.
Morrisons fruit and veg director Drew Kirk said: “We’ve listened to customers concerns about using plastic bags for fruit and vegetables and that is why we are bringing back paper bags.
“There’s more work to do, but this step will mean we prevent 150 million bags from being used in our stores every year.”
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25 JUNE 2018
United Caps opens extended R&D facility in France
Plastic caps and closures manufacturer United Caps has opened its extended R&D facility in Messia, France.
To mark the opening, the company conducted an open house, which was attended by representatives from Nestlé to celebrate the development of a new closure for the company.
The extension of the R&D facility, which involves addition of 200m² of floor space, is aimed at meeting customer demands and to maintain the 50/50 split between standard and bespoke product development.
Alongside the 30% increase in the floor space to 600m², the company increased the workforce by 30% and installed a 3D printer for fast prototyping.
United Caps has also undertaken a restructuring of the R&D organisation to be more responsive to market needs, resulting in an average reduction in development time of 10% to 20%.
United Caps CEO Benoit Henckes said: “It was truly a golden moment for our company and our customers.”
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25 JUNE 2018
Ball to form US packaging company under $600m deal
Metal packaging supplier Ball Corporation and a private equity firm Platinum Equity have announced that they have entered into a joint venture and definitive purchase agreements to form Ball Metalpack.
Ball Metalpack is a new packaging company that will manufacture steel containers for aerosol products, food, household consumables, pet food, nutritional and other products.
Ball Corporation will contribute its US steel food and aerosol packaging manufacturing assets to the joint venture. These include the following tinplate steel assets: Canton (Brookline and Warner Rd.) and Columbus, Ohio; Milwaukeeand Deforest, Wisconsin; Chestnut Hill, Tennessee; Horsham, Pennsylvania; Springdale, Arkansas, and Oakdale, California.
These U.S tinplate steel assets had sales of $746m in 2017, and a comparable operating earnings of $48m last year.
In return, Ball Corporation will receive more than $600m in pre-tax proceeds from the transaction and will retain 49% interest in Ball Metalpack, for a total value of approximately $675m.
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25 JUNE 2018
Countdown to use rPET packaging for bakery and delicatessen items
New Zealand-based supermarket chain Countdown is set to use locally sourced recycled PET (rPET) packaging for its bakery and delicatessen items.
This will allow the company to stop importing more than 177t of virgin plastic.
The retailer, which made the announcement at an event organised to discuss the challenges and opportunities associated with building a circular economy, has selected Flight Plastics to supply 19 rPET packaging products for its in-store bakeries and delicatessens.
Countdown corporate affairs general manager Kiri Hannifin said: “Countdown is looking for any, and all, opportunities to do our bit to protect New Zealand’s precious environment – using more recycled plastic products and introducing less virgin plastic into circulation is just one way we can do this.”
The development comes after the retailer made a pledge earlier this month to use 100% reusable, recyclable, and compostable packaging in their own brands by 2025.
The company also unveiled its plans to remove single-use plastic straws from its stores by October this year.
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22 JUNE 2018
Pilot study tackles curbside recycling of flexible plastic packaging
US solid waste and recycling services provider JP Mascaro & Sons has partnered with the Materials Recovery for the Future (MRFF) research programme to pilot single-stream curbside recycling of flexible plastic packaging (FPP).
The partners will undertake the first pilot to demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of recycling FPP from residential single-stream recycling programmes at Mascaro’s TotalRecycle material recovery facility (MRF) in Berks County, Pennsylvania.
MRFF, which is a research project of the American Chemistry Council’s (ACC) Foundation for Chemistry Research and Initiatives, comprises several members including The Procter & Gamble, Target, The Dow Chemical, PepsiCo, Nestlé USA, Nestlé Purina PetCare, Amcor, ACC, and Flexible Packaging Association.
Other members of the project include LyondellBasell Industries, The Plastics Industry Association, Sealed Air, SC Johnson, the Canadian Plastics Industry Association and the Association of Plastic Recyclers.
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