Packaging World February 2022 by PMMIMediaGroup

REPACKAGING THE FUTURE. ONE INNOVATION AT A TIME.

FEB2022 packworld.com

Chobani Yogurt, Naturipe Berries Share Cleverly Nested Cups 24

Report Card Grades Big Brands’ Sustainability 36

Filler Boosts Hand Sanitizer Capacity 38

CANNABIS FOCUS

Automation Precisely Weighs Buds

Show Preview

Custom X-Ray For Contract Pet Food Packager 58

New Products

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This multi-faceted pack consists of a 4-oz PP Chobani yogurt cup, nested in a transparent PET berry cup, and topped with a flow-wrapped granola pack and wooden spoon. All are sealed together, with a PET lid, to create a single-serve Naturipe berry parfait pack. 38

FEATURES 30 COVER STORY Multi-component Pack Checks All the Boxes for DIY Berry Yogurt Parfaits With an existing 4-oz Chobani yogurt pack format as a starting point, berry parfait product collaborator Naturipe worked backward and reverse-engineered an optimized PET cup and closure that nests components and seals them into a single package system—sometimes spoon and all.

36 New Filler Boosts Capacity

Installing a fifth filling line will help this leading manufacturer of commercial skin care products address the current demand for hand sanitizer and meet future customer needs.

38 CANNABIS FOCUS Cannabis Weighing System Accounts for Variable Container Weights This painted glass jar with sleek label communicates the premium quality of the cannabis it contains. But container weight variability made precision dosing of the expensive product difficult. Find out how a unique filling and weighing system overcame the issue.

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48 AUTOMATION -

CANNABIS FOCUS

Feeder Plays Integral Role in Automated Pre-Roll Cannabis Equipment Just as it is affecting many other verticals, a tight labor market is also impacting the emerging cannabis industry, especially in typically manual processes like pre-roll production. Lately, automation is becoming more sophisticated to fill the gap.

50 SHOW PREVIEW Previewing PACK EXPO East 2022 Carrying momentum from September 2021’s PACK EXPO Las Vegas, PMMI continues on its industry reunification tour, this time with the returning regional hit PACK EXPO East 2022.

52 CONTRACT MANUFACTURING & PACKAGING

Giant X-ray Machine Inspects Pet Food Bags up to 25 kg A new X-ray machine measuring nearly 22 ft in length—the largest ever of its kind from the machinery’s supplier—helps U.K. private-label pet food producer GA Pet Food Partners ensure the quality of its kibble.

1/27/22 5:34 PM

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26 L eaders in Packaging Product Directory 59 Advertiser Index

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EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Aladin Alkhawam Director, Packaging Operations, Par Pharmaceutical

Jan Brücklmeier Technical Application Group Packaging Technology Expert, Nestlé

M. Shawn French Director – Innovation & Packaging Engineering (Beverage), Danone North America Patrick Keenan R&D Packaging Engineer, General Mills/Annie’s Organic Snacks Mike Marcinkowski Global R&D Officer, GPA Global & Hub Folding Box Co.

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Paul Schaum Chief Operations Officer, Pretzels Inc. David Smith, PhD Principal, David S. Smith & Associates Brian Stepowany Packaging R&D, Senior Manager, B&G Foods, Inc. Jasmine Sutherland President, Texas Food Solutions; Vice President, Perfect Fit Meals

Connect with a Leaders in Packaging supplier and support packaging education!

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Packaging World® (ISSN # 1073-7367) is a registered trademark of PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies. Packaging World® is published monthly by PMMI with its publishing office, PMMI Media Group, located at 401 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 1700, Chicago, IL 60611; 312.222.1010; Fax: 312.222.1310. Periodicals postage paid at Chicago, IL, and additional mailing offices. Copyright 2022 by PMMI. All rights reserved. Materials in this publication must not be reproduced in any form without written permission of the publisher. Applications for a free subscription may be made online at www.packworld.com/subscribe. Paid subscription rates per year are $254 in the U.S., $363 Canada and Mexico by surface mail; $605 Europe and South America; $907 Far East, Australia, and other countries by air mail. Single copy price in U.S. is $20. To subscribe or manage your subscription to Packaging World, visit Packworld.com/subscribe. Free digital edition available to qualified individuals outside the United States. POSTMASTER; Send address changes to Packaging World®, 401 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 1700, Chicago, IL 60611. PRINTED IN USA by Quad. The opinions expressed in articles are those of the authors and not necessarily those of PMMI. Comments, questions and letters to the editor are welcome and can be sent to: editors@packworld.com. Mailing List: We make a portion of our mailing list available to reputable firms. If you would prefer that we don’t include your name, please write us at the Chicago, IL address.

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EDITORIAL

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Matt Reynolds Chief Editor Iris Zavala Managing Editor Anne Marie Mohan Senior Editor @PackagingTrends Natalie Craig Features Editor Jim Chrzan Vice President, Content and Brand Strategy Kim Overstreet Senior Content Strategist, Alignment Pat Reynolds, Sterling Anthony, Eric F. Greenberg, Ben Miyares Contributing Editors

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LEAD OFF

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Supply Chain’s Perfect Storm In April of 2020, during the first wave COVID-19 shutdowns, I spoke with Abe Eshkenazi, CEO, Association for Supply Chain Management, about what to expect from the supply chain. Nearly two years on, supply chain problems continue, but they’re not the same as they were then. I spoke with him again at the end of January 2022 to catch us up to now and see what the future holds. “The issues that we’re dealing with right now are unique, even compared to 2020,” Eshkenazi says. “We have a consumer base that has increased its demand for products and services like no other time in our history. It comes on the heels of a pandemic where everybody was locked down, and we saw a significant shift in the way that organizations and companies can deliver to the consumer. We’re now seeing that the consumer has higher expectations than before. And yet with e-commerce and all the challenges that we now have with warehousing, with trucking, with logistics, we’re not able to catch up to the spikes in demand that are now upon us.” CPGs are victims of their own success. They’re now held to a practically unmeetable combination of 1.) demand for a wide variety of nearly customized products, and 2.) high expectations for how (and how quickly) these products make their way to the consumer. “That’s the main reason we’re seeing shortages in a variety of different products and services, it’s a problem of heightened demand,” Eshkenazi says. The main reason, sure. But that’s not all. He also can’t discount the pandemic issue in China, saying they are still closing ports and cities for what we would consider to be low numbers of infected people. That has a big impact on the shipping containers coming to the U.S. We all know about the ports and the backlog there, but there’s also a related issue of getting the empty containers back to China. For CPGs, it’s the global nature of the supply chain that has teeth. We can’t account for all the inputs, much less the inputs to those inputs, that are out of our control. Add recent impacts from Omicron and labor shortages, and Eshkenazi describes it as “almost a perfect storm” for not being able to meet consumer expectations. He says, though, that the path through hinges on good data and the digital transformation. “The challenge that almost every organization has right now is data,” Eshkenazi says. “And it’s not a lack of data, rather it’s the quality of the data that they have to make the necessary changes. This is where predictive versus prescriptive information is starting to make a difference with organizations, especially on their advanced analytics and being able to use data to predict what consumer demand will be, and how they’re going to meet it. When we’re talking about an organization’s ability to shift their production, it challenges them because if they were effective before the pandemic, they probably had a very lean and efficient supply chain. That means fewer vendors. And that means your tier one suppliers are often your primary source of supplies. But what we didn’t account for was the tier two and tier three suppliers. In our design of Just in Time (JIT), low inventories, high availability in terms of the variety of products, reasonable cost, reasonable prices, rapid delivery, this is what consumers expected before, and still do. What we didn’t prepare for was the Just in Case.” Three factors Eshkenazi tells CPGs to watch for in supply chains for the near future, knowing what we know now. • Advanced automation and analytics. Organizations are investing in collection and employment of data for visibility into what’s really happening in the market, so they can have the agility to change to accommodate disruptions. “The watch word here is disruptions. We do not anticipate disruptions to reduce, but to increase, and we don’t know what form they’ll take, pandemic or otherwise,” he says. • Workforce development. As organizations are investing in technology and in their digital transformation, they need to ensure that they have the right individuals with the right capabilities. Consider the ongoing labor shift from operator to technician mentality. • Greater upstream and downstream visibility. This includes not only visibility into your suppliers, but also retailers and end consumers. Successful organizations will be characterized by being much closer to their suppliers so that you understand the challenges that they have, and also to their consumers due to data collection that used to only be possible at the retail level. PW

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NEWS

Kellogg’s Reveals Recyclable Paper Liners in Cereal Boxes Kellogg’s Corn Flakes cereal packaging is testing fully paper-based films with the trial of a paper liner in the U.K. that can be widely recycled. The pilot is happening in partnership with Tesco in a small number of stores, having started in January 2022, with the results helping to shape Kellogg’s future packaging plans. Even though the company’s cereal boxes’ outer recycled paperboard packaging is fully recyclable, and has been for many years, the plastic inner liner in cereal boxes is not currently widely accepted in curb recycling. “We know people want to do more to help the planet and that’s why we are working hard towards meeting our commitment of all Kellogg’s packaging being reusable, recyclable, or compostable by the end of 2025,” says Chris Silcock, Kellogg UK and Ireland Managing Director. “This important trial of fully paper cereal packaging ensures we have explored all our options. Ultimately, we would prefer plastic liners to be accepted in home recycling as our data tells us that they are better for the planet over the full life cycle of the packaging, but this trial ensures we have an alternative.” Kellogg’s packaging technologists worked to create paper-based inner packaging for its cereal that can survive the process of filling and sealing millions of bags in boxes of cereal produced in its factory and transporting them to retailers. It’s also important the cereal is kept fresh inside a paper liner as cereal has a 12-month shelf life. This project is part of Kellogg’s Wellbeing Manifesto, launched in May of 2021. The action plan is a decade-long commitment from the com-

pany to improve its food and packaging so that it’s better for people, the planet, and the community. The company says the results of this trial are crucial as it plans for fully recyclable cereal packaging, whether that’s plastic liners being recyclable at curbside, similar to countries like Ireland and Belgium, or the roll out of cereal packaging that is fully paper based. “We are committed to working with our suppliers to remove, reduce, reuse, and recycle packaging, particularly plastic. It’s great to see that Kellogg is trialling a paper cereal bag in our stores—our customers will be pleased that they can easily recycle the bag at home. We call on suppliers to test and roll out actions like this; using as little material as possible and making sure that necessary packaging is easy to recycle,” says David Beardmore, Grocery Director, Tesco. Kellogg and Tesco have been working closely on several initiatives to improve the recyclability of their packaging and previously trialled a fully recyclable Pringle’s paper can in 2020. —Matt Reynolds

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The Future Leaders in Packaging Scholarship from Packaging World and the PMMI Foundation was established in 2011 in conjunction with Leaders in Packaging—a print and online marketing program that enables suppliers to promote their innovations and IN PACKAGING expertise to the packaging community. A portion of Leaders in Packaging revenue SC H O L A R S HIP funds the $5000 Scholarship—awarded each year to an educational institution that prepares students for careers in packaging. Each recipient institution then selects a student or students to receive the funds to defray tuition and other education-related expenses in the next academic year. The 2022 scholarship has been awarded to Alexandria Technical & Community College, a member of Minnesota State, specifically the Center for Applied Mechatronics. “Located in the epicenter of packaging machine manufacturing, the Mechatronics program here at Alexandria Tech College has graduated nearly 600 students over the past 20 years,” says Todd Zarbok, Instructor, Mechatronics, Alexandria Tech. “They are now employed as field service technicians, machine assemblers, electrical controls specialists, and CAD designer. This program ’S

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Future leaders

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has become a critical resource for growth and innovation for our local industries. The PMMI Educational membership has given this program access to numerous resources to grow our program and advance the skill sets of our graduates.” The scholarship money will be awarded in the form of an impact scholarship, in fact two $2500 scholarships that each represent the approximate cost of one semester tuition. The scholarship money will be awarded on a needs-basis to first year students currently enrolled in the Mechatronics program. The mechatronics curriculum at Alexandria Tech is defined and traceable to international standards, which include hydraulic, pneumatic, electrical, mechanical, PLC, and CAD design, with emphasis placed on installation and troubleshooting skills representing the critical knowledge needed for success in the workplace. —Matt Reynolds

1/26/22 9:58 AM

CANNABIS FOCUS

Evian’s New Sparkling Water in Aluminum, PET Consumers can choose which recyclable container format they prefer for Evian’s new sparkling variety. It is now available in both a 33-cL aluminum can and a 100% recycled 1-L PET plastic bottle.

“Evian Sparkling represents new possibilities for the brand, as we reimagine our uniquely sourced water into an exciting new product,” says Shweta Harit, VP of marketing at Evian. “This new product contains the perfect level of sparkles with its fine bubbles creating a subtle taste and gentle intensity. Available for the first time in recyclable aluminum cans, this latest innovation demonstrates our longstanding pioneering spirit that runs through everything we do at Evian.” Last year Evian launched a new in-home water ‘bubble’ solution, Evian re(new), with a significant reduction in plastic packaging. The company was certified carbon neutral globally in spring 2020 and achieved a B Corp status certification in 2021. PW

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Charlotte’s Web CBD Enlists Like-minded Sustainability Packaging Partner Since 2019, CBD industry pioneer Charlotte’s Web, which produces “The World’s Most Trusted Hemp Extract™,” has been partnering with Diamond Packaging—recently named winner of Cannabis & Tech Today’s 2021 Sustainable Leadership Award in the Packaging category—for its CBD packaging, selecting the converter based on its like-minded sustainability vision. Charlotte’s Web was founded in Colorado more than a decade ago, producing high-cannabidiol (CBD), low-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) whole-plant hemp health supplements in a variety of forms, such as tinctures, topicals, capsules, oils, creams, and gummies. Shares company Vice President of Marketing Reed Damon, Charlotte’s Web’s quality standards extend from field to final product. “This includes diligent soil testing, using Charlotte’s Web’s propriety seeds and cultivating certified organic plants on American family farms,” he explains. “By the time customers receive a Charlotte’s Web product, it’s been tested more than 20 times from cultivation through manufacturing.” Built upon the motto of “Do well by doing good,” the Charlotte’s Web brand is committed to pioneering a better future for the planet and all who live upon it. That’s why its goal is to build and retain trust in the company through fully transparent actions, from its organic and regenerative farming practices to its products and the packaging that holds them—which is what led them to Diamond. “Diamond packaging is an ideal partner for Charlotte’s Web because they offer not only sustainable packaging, but a fully sustainable mindset,” says Damon. “The company’s ability to incorporate a sustainability focus into their designs, materials, and methods allows Charlotte’s Web to innovate in multiple aspects of our packaging. Diamond Packaging is a true innovation partner for our company.” Diamond’s sustainable converting methods include the use of recyclable or recycled paperboard materials, many of which are Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified, converted in a Zero Waste to Landfill (ZWL) and Carbon Neutral (Scope 1 and 2) facility that uses 100% clean, renewable wind energy. Currently Diamond is producing paperboard cartons for several Charlotte’s Web product lines, including its Full Spectrum Hemp Extract (tinctures and capsules), CBD Oil, Hemp-Infused Balm Sticks, and Feist brand of CBD/botanical products. The cartons are made from Clearwater Candesce® SBS paperboard from Clearwater Paper. Damon says the material was chosen for its performance characteristics and because it’s 100% recyclable and made from a renewable resource. “Its smooth surface is tailored to faithfully reproduce the most sophisticated printed images and the high demands of flawless cold foiling and embossing,” he adds. The cartons are offset-printed with PMS and dense black inks, in-line with a UV matte coating, a UV spot gloss coating, and Diamond’s DiamondTouch™ soft-touch coating. Says Damon, the overall soft-touch coating adds an appealing, tactile quality that promotes consumer interaction. Several of the cartons feature embossing and hot foil stamping. “Embossed accents, which include the logo, add depth to the graphic design and provide an upscale appearance unique to hemp-derived CBD products,” he notes. “Hot foil-stamped accents—for example, the logo mark, product name, and copy on quantity and size—add distinction and reinforce Charlotte’s Web as a premium brand.” In 2020, Charlotte’s Web earned its B Corp Certification, which means that it is meeting high standards of verified performance, accountability, and transparency on factors from employee benefits and charitable giving to supply chain practices and input materials. Says Damon, “This further solidifies our company’s ongoing commitment to being a business that is also a force for good.” Charlotte’s Web products are available for sale on the company’s website, as well as in a number of retail locations, including pharmacies and health and wellness stores, in a range of price points. —Anne Marie Mohan

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NEWS

CANNABIS FOCUS

Paper Tube Differentiates a Very Different Brand of Cannabis Colorado cannabis brand äkta is committed to authenticity and sustainability, both in its production methods and its product packaging. The company’s solventless cannabis products, which include live rosin batter, vape cartridges, and gummies, are made from whole, fresh-frozen flower, grown by parent company Hava Gardens.

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Differentiating the brand is the fact that it is one of only two companies in the cannabis space that is single-source; all its products are made from plants grown by Hava. Also a differentiator, its supplier (Hava) employs a soil-focused growing technique, whereby all of its cannabis is planted in Living Soil, which contains a robust and complex collection of microbes. Äkta also stands out for its extraction method, which is based on the traditional artisanal hash-making process of using ice, water, heat, and pressure versus extraction with solvents, such as butane, ethanol, and carbon dioxide.

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According to äkta CEO Blair Kralick, while its use of this extraction method is not unique—it’s currently the fastest growing segment in the industry—the brand is trying to create unique ways of using the process and new systems with newer technology and equipment that will allow it to continually innovate within the process. Given the brand’s emphasis on clean and sustainable cultivation and extraction, when it came time to design packaging for its products, äkta was determined to follow suit. “We felt like the cannabis industry as a whole is extremely wasteful—a lot of plastic, a lot of things that get thrown away due to regulatory requirements within the market,” says Kralick. “So, we really wanted to be creative and look at packaging options that would meet these compliance requirements without being wasteful. We didn’t want to put a bunch of trash out there, a bunch of plastic filling landfills, just to sell products.” Kralick adds that the brand also wanted to bring a touch of professionalism into the CPG world of cannabis. “I’ve worked with a lot of brands in the past, and we’ve always followed the norm of what the industry was doing,” he says. “We really wanted to raise the bar and bring something new to the market.” The solution came from a Google search. It was there that Kralick came upon The Paper Tube Co., a supplier of eco-friendly paper-based packaging. Wanting to avoid plastic as much as possible and looking for a format that would align with the brand’s soft, approachable aesthetics, äkta selected a paper tube format. “When I came across the tube, I liked

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that it was made of paper and had rounded edges—it was everything I was looking for,” Kralick says. Äkta is using two different tube designs. One is for its Live Rosin Vape Cartridges in three varieties. The tube measures approximately 3.5 in. tall x 1.5 in. wide and holds a cartridge with 500 mg of full-spectrum, strain-specific, solventless live rosin hash oil. The consumer accesses the cartridge by pushing up on a paper insert on the bottom of the tube, which features a round hole to hold the product upright. Says Kralick, the insert “slides up and down like a push-pop,” propelling the product out of the tube. To meet regulatory compliance, the tube is topped with a plastic, child-resistant (CR) closure with a lineup feature that only allows the consumer to open the lid when it’s lined up on the ring of the tube. The second tube, measuring 1.25 in. tall x 1.5 in. wide, is used for its Live Rosin Concentrates and is made from paper only. The concentrates are packaged in a CR jar, with the tube acting as a marketing vehicle. For the tube graphics, äkta worked with a Brooklyn-based graphic artist, who designed the brand logo and the aesthetics for the entire line. Says Kralick, äkta was looking for a Scandinavian pop-art feel for the packaging to align with the brand’s name, which in Swedish means authentic, genuine, real, and true, as well as the inspiration for the brand, which the company says is “the untouched elements of the Scandinavian alpine.” Approachability was also at the top of the design brief. Says Kralick, “In the solventless world, we see a lot of dark colors, a lot of edginess, kind of almost a cool factor, per se, but very masculine. We wanted to lighten that up and give it more of a feminine feel with more colors and more brightness, so even if you didn’t know what product was inside, it wouldn’t be intimidating.”

you can really see the difference in the work that went into it.” Äkta launched its first vape cartridge SKU in October 2020, followed by two more in spring 2021. Its products are available in 120 retail cannabis locations in Colorado, primarily in the Boulder and Denver areas. —Anne Marie Mohan

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Read PW ’s Q&A with Blair Kralick on the need for sustainable packaging in the cannabis industry on p. 18. The resulting design uses a rainbow of colors— up to seven, according to Kralick. “It allowed us a lot of flexibility on which color we wanted to lean on for which variety, so there wasn’t necessarily a primary color,” he explains. “This also gives us a lot of flexibility as we expand the brand into the future.” Designs include stylized illustrations of marijuana leaves, water, and the sun, conveying nature and a breath of fresh air. The design of the packaging took eight months, but it was time well-spent, says Kralick. “I’m glad we took our time and went in that direction because it really sets us apart,” he shares. “Especially when you’re looking at a lot of packaging in some of these stores,

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PetPlate Personalizes the Unboxing Experience Direct-to-consumer pet food company PetPlate makes no bones about it: Its packaging is key to the overall PetPlate customer experience, its service, and the personalization it delivers. That’s according to company COO Jason Sussman who shares that in early 2021, PetPlate took the brand’s customization strategy and the consumer unboxing experience to new levels using personalized marketing technology from UnDigital. Founded in 2016, PetPlate sells ready-to-eat meals and organic treats and supplements for dogs through an online subscription service and the independent pet retail channel. When a consumer purchases a meal plan via PetPlate’s website, the plan is customized to support their pet’s individual health needs, and the food is shipped directly to their door on a recurring basis. PetPlate’s packaging comprises resealable containers, pouches, insulation, and the outer shipper. And now, through the UnDigital platform, a customer’s first order also includes a colorful, personalized insert welcoming their dog to “the PetPlate family” and providing customized feeding instructions for their pet, customer service contact information, and details on how they can receive a discount when they refer a friend. Explains UnDigital, “With the information they collect on their customers and their customers’ pets, PetPlate is able to personalize and customize each insert for every customer based on a variety of factors, including order number, pet’s name, sex, age, weight, breed, and dietary needs, and more.”

Adds Sussman, “This ensures that each and every pet receives the optimal nutrition so that they can live longer, happier, healthier lives.” An example of an insert for a new customer whose dog is named Daisy (see image, top right) includes a reference to “her” in the Feeding Guidelines, as well as instructions to feed her 1⁄2 of an 8-oz container of food two times per day, treats as needed, and two supplements per day. “These are all dynamic elements that populate for every customer based on their pet and their pet’s needs,” says UnDigital. “All sections of the insert contain these dynamic, personalized elements.” UnDigital’s automated platform comprises software and Epson ondemand printers that allow brands to personalize the inserts and then measure the results, directly at the fulfillment center. Explains Sussman of the process at PetPlate, “Order data is transmitted from our e-commerce platform to UnDigital via their API [Application Programming Interface]. We have nine locations around the country. Each one has Epson printers supplied and configured by UnDigital.” Shares UnDigital, the software’s dashboard provides real-time conversion information from campaigns. It adds, “Conversions are tracked back

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to the customer who received an insert, so there is no guessing or misattribution. Merchants can easily see which campaigns are driving more conversions and use that data to optimize performance.” According to Sussman, since PetPlate began using the UnDigital marketing solution, it has seen a 20% decrease in customer inquiries regarding feeding guidelines. There has also been an overall improvement in the customer experience and a clearer, easier transition in onboarding new customers. While PetPlate started the marketing program with inserts in customers’ first orders only, Sussman says the company’s vision is to have an insert with helpful, useful, or fun information in every order, “regardless of whether it’s the first or the hundredth.” —Anne Marie Mohan

Free Download: Pet Packaging Sustainability Two consumer trends that stemmed from the pandemic have been increased scrutiny on packaging’s sustainability, and a lot more time spent with—thus money spent on—pets. What kinds of packaging sustainability trends are affecting the pet food market? Find out in this report. Visit pwgo.to/7375 for the free download from Packaging World and PMMI Media Group. PW

1/26/22 10:04 AM

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14 PW FEB2022

NEWS

Pantone Color of the Year 2022 Unveiled Pantone, a provider of professional color language standards and digital solutions for the design community, has introduced a new blue shade, PANTONE® 17-3938 Very Peri, a dynamic periwinkle blue hue with a violet-red undertone as the Pantone Color of the Year selection for 2022. According to Pantone, blending the faithfulness and constancy of blue with the energy and excitement of red, this happiest and warmest of all the blue hues introduces an empowering mix of newness. “Displaying a carefree confidence and a daring curiosity that animates our creative spirit, inquisitive and intriguing PANTONE 17-3938 Very Peri helps us to embrace this altered landscape of possibilities, opening us up to a new vision as we rewrite our lives,” says the company. “Rekindling gratitude for some of the qualities that blue represents complemented by a new perspective that resonates today, PANTONE 17-3938 Very Peri places the future ahead in a new light.” It adds that we are living in transformative times. “PANTONE 17-3938 Very Peri is a symbol of the global zeitgeist of the moment and the transition we are going through,” the company explains. “As we emerge from an intense period of isolation, our notions and standards are changing, and our physical and digital lives have merged in new ways. Digital design helps us to stretch the limits of

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reality, opening the door to a dynamic virtual world where we can explore and create new color possibilities. With trends in gaming, the expanding popularity of the metaverse, and rising artistic community in the digital space, PANTONE 17-3938 Very Peri illustrates the fusion of modern life and how color trends in the digital world are being manifested in the physical world and vice versa.”

1/26/22 10:05 AM

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Remarks Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director of the Pantone Color Institute, “As we move into a world of unprecedented change, the selection of PANTONE 17-3938 Very Peri brings a novel perspective and vision of the trusted and beloved blue color family. Encompassing the qualities of the blues, yet at the same time possessing a violet-red undertone, PANTONE 17-3938 Very Peri displays a spritely, joyous attitude and dynamic presence that encourages courageous creativity and imaginative expression.” “The Pantone Color of the Year reflects what is taking place in our global culture, expressing what people are looking for that color can hope to answer,” adds Laurie Pressman, Vice President of the Pantone Color Institute. “Creating a new color for the first time in the history of our Pantone Color of the Year educational color program reflects the global innovation and transformation taking place. As society continues to recognize color as a critical form of communication and as a way to express and affect ideas and emotions and engage and connect, the complexity of this new red violet-infused blue hue highlights the expansive possibilities that lie before us.” Regarding the use of Pantone 17-3938 Very Peri in packaging and multimedia design, the company notes that by fusing together the constancy and continuity of blue with the energy and excitement

of red, the new color conveys a message of credibility as well as creativity. “Whether appearing in a fantasy digital realm or in physical materials, PANTONE 17-3938 Very Peri exudes a goodnatured warmth that quickly engages the eye, making it an ideal shade for many applications of graphic and multimedia design as well as packaging,” it adds. According to Pantone, the selection process for the Color of the Year requires thoughtful consideration and trend analysis. To arrive at the selection each year, Pantone’s color experts at the Pantone Color Institute comb the world looking for new color influences. This can include the entertainment industry and films in production, traveling art collections and new artists, fashion, all areas of design, popular travel destinations, as well as new lifestyles, playstyles, and socio-economic conditions. Influences may also stem from new technologies, materials, textures, and effects that impact color, relevant social media platforms, and even upcoming sporting events that capture worldwide attention. Says the company, “For 23 years, Pantone’s Color of the Year has influenced product development and purchasing decisions in multiple industries, including fashion, home furnishings, and industrial design, as well as product packaging and graphic design.” —Anne Marie Mohan

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16 PW FEB2022

BY THE NUMBERS

40%

The average price increase at which U.S. and U.K. consumers say they will stop buying a food, beverage, or nutrition item, with the exception of milk (52.4%), bread (51.8%), coffee (48.3%), bottled water (46.7%), fresh vegetables (47.2%), and fresh fruit (45.3%), according to a survey from Ingredient Communications

25x

The number of times unfinished or uncoated cartonboard can be recycled with “no negative effect on the mechanical properties,” according to research from Graz University, in Graz, Austria

The number of fruit and vegetable types weighing less than 1.5 kg that can no longer be sold in plastic bags in France; the ban is part of a multi-year program to phase out plastics

90%

The percentage of public sustainable packaging commitments, focusing on 100% of packaging being reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2025, that won’t be met, according to Gartner

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QUOTABLES

“Do we have a global plastic waste problem? Yes. I represent the plastics industry and I readily admit that fact. The emphasis, however, should be on ‘waste,’ not ‘plastic.’ What we really have is a recycling participation and recycling infrastructure problem. A recycling system is only as strong as its inputs and capacity to process those inputs. The plastics industry has invested and continues to invest billions of dollars into new recycling technologies and programs at home and abroad. Our industry is constantly innovating to increase the viability of recycling plastics and using recycled plastics in more and more products.” –Tony Radoszewski, President & CEO of the Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS), in a press release from the association, “Plastics Industry Association CEO: Bring on the competition”

“We found multiple lines of evidence supporting the fact that the global microbiome’s plastic-degrading potential correlates strongly with measurements of environmental plastic pollution. The work is a significant demonstration of how the environment is responding to the pressures we are placing on it.” –Aleksej Zelezniak, a biologist at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden and co-author of a study on new plastic-degrading enzymes, as quoted in an article from Smithsonian Magazine, titled “Plastic-Degrading Enzymes May Be Increasing in Response to Pollution”

“Congress can reduce food waste, support immediate relief for people experiencing food insecurity, and limit our emissions through legislation that clarifies our confusing food date labels. Congressional action is imperative as our country struggles with high rates of food insecurity and faces devastation dictated by climate change. We trust Congress to lead on these issues today and help deter them tomorrow.” –Emily Broad Leib, Clinical Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Food Law and Policy Clinic at Harvard Law School, in a release from FLPC, “Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic Calls on Congress to Standardize Food Date Labels”

“Advanced recycling is critical to realizing sustainability and recycling goals, including the EPA’s goal of recycling 50% of post-use materials by 2030 and America’s plastic makers’ goal of reusing, recycling, or recovering all U.S. plastic packaging by 2040. EPA’s National Recycling Strategy, released last month, recognizes the potential of advanced recycling technologies to transform plastic recycling rates in the U.S. Regulating these technologies as solid waste incineration would be a step backwards.” –Joshua Baca, Vice President of Plastics for the American Chemistry Council, in a press release from the organization, “EPA Should Encourage, Not Discourage, the Acceleration of Advanced Recycling”

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1/11/22 1/26/22 12:40 10:07 PM AM

18 PW FEB2022

FIRST PERSON

CANNABIS FOCUS

Sustainable Packaging for Cannabis Grows CEO Blair Kralick, whose cannabis company äkta recently launched its products in a recyclable, compostable paper tube, explains why it’s important for cannabis brands to reduce their packaging waste, as well as the challenges involved with selecting sustainable packaging that still meets the industry’s regulatory requirements. (See related story on the new packaging on p. 10.) Packaging World:

What are some of the challenges facing cannabis brands that want to use more sustainable packaging?

Blair Kralick: One of the biggest challenges is the requirement for child-resistant (CR) packaging. That’s followed by requirements such as having opaque packaging—so not allowing your products to be seen through the outside of the package. In the beginning stages of the industry, we were very limited on what was child-resistant and what we could use to meet these requirements. A lot of the options were plastic and sometimes glass, things like that, but they always came with some type of plastic lid that was CR certified. It was difficult to find sustainable packaging that met state and local compliance regulations. That became such a big problem; I noticed even in the beginning stages that this was going to be a big deal—how wasteful this industry was going to end up being.

I wasn’t aware of the opaque requirement. Can you expand on that? Some states, Colorado especially, have jumped on that. A few years ago, we could sell concentrates in a see-through glass jar. That recently changed. Now, it’s got to be opaque. When the industry first had to go opaque, a lot of packaging companies weren’t set up for it. So they were putting paint on the packaging. However, they were having problems where the paint would chip off and would get into the products. Since we got into this market in 2014, there have been packaging requirement changes easily at least once a year, so we’re always having to change things on our packaging. We can’t order things in large quantities because you just never know when the state is going to come in and change the rules on you again. It’s been an uphill battle, but I think we’re finally starting to level off and get to a place where it works with the state, it works for us, it works for packaging companies, and everyone’s kind of on the same page.

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Why do you think cannabis companies should explore the use of sustainable packaging? Well, I think for us, we’re seeing the long-term impact with all this packaging being created in all these markets, due to the regulatory requirements that cannabis has been put under. When we’re having to sell a bunch of products in a bunch of different packaging, it’s all got some type of marketing layer. Because most consumers are going to buy these products, open the package up, and throw the packaging away, we’re creating all this waste. We’re putting out thousands and thousands of units every month—that’s a lot of trash. So for any company, not just cannabis, that’s creating a lot of products, and they’re creating a layer to those products that ultimately is going to be thrown away, they really need to think about what’s being thrown away and how it’s being handled. If a company has the option to make less of an impact when it comes to waste, I think it’s something everyone should look at and invest in. I understand that refillable packaging for cannabis isn’t really viable today. However, have you heard from the consumers who are buying your products in paper tubes whether they are reusing them? I know a lot of our consumers don’t necessarily throw our packaging away. They like to collect it because they like the aesthetics of the tube. And so, if they can find a way to reuse it, they will. A lot of cannabis consumers are like that—especially some of the more experienced and heavier users. They have that mindset because they understand that cannabis packaging in general is very wasteful. I’m currently exploring packaging options for cannabis flower, where all of the packaging can be used for storage long term—so packaging the consumer would buy from us but be able to keep and reuse for any brand’s product. I think reusability is going to be key in cannabis, but it’s going to take a while to get there, because with regulatory requirements, we can’t take any packaging back. Something I’ve been trying to do is work with the state to allow us to take our packaging back if it’s in good working condition and reuse it for new products.

1/26/22 9:41 AM

JOIN A GREAT TEAM

From a business standpoint, if we can reuse packaging, that’s great. We not only can save money, but we can also set up recycling programs where we’re constantly reusing the material, and it’s not going into the trash. But it requires working with regulators to find a middle ground.

Many startups in the cannabis industry have little to no experience with packaging—either materials or equipment. What can packaging suppliers do to help them? I think packaging companies are definitely starting to catch up. Over the past probably year and a half, I’ve really started to see them begin to pay attention to cannabis. They’re starting to take notice that we are a big market for the CPG world, and it’s a world that I think for them and for their businesses is smart to get into. I also believe that more and more packaging companies are investing in innovative sustainable packaging options—and not just for the cannabis industry. This has been helpful because it enables cannabis businesses to explore options. The disconnect at the beginning is that we just didn’t have a lot of options to work with. Most companies had very similar packaging because there were probably only five or six packaging vendors in total that could meet the cannabis industry’s regulatory requirements. So everybody was using the same type of packaging, just different designs and things like that.

I think packaging companies are definitely starting to catch up. Over the past probably year and a half, I’ve really started to see them begin to pay attention to cannabis. But now you’re starting to see new and improved packaging that can help not only make brands unique, but also sustainable, because packaging companies are starting to play ball with cannabis and look at it as a real industry. They’re investing time and money into creating sustainable options that we can choose from. Because at the end of the day, we’re at the mercy of what packaging suppliers are providing us.

You chose paper for your product packaging. What other options have you seen that have the potential to bring greater sustainability to cannabis packaging? We’re seeing a lot more hemp-based plastic options in cannabis, which has been great. Using a cousin of the cannabis plant [hemp] to create sustainable packaging that’s compostable is huge. It also provides a bit of a story. We’re also seeing recycled ocean plastic work its way into the market. But the big thing I’m seeing a lot of is virgin plastic being eliminated, and plantbased or recycled-content plastic being used as a replacement, which is great because we’re not creating more plastic, we’re reusing it, or we’re using a plant-based compostable plastic that is a lot more sustainable. Paper has always been a little bit more sustainable. It’s easier to recycle, and it’s a lot more compostable, even though it takes longer to compost. From what other markets can cannabis brands find inspiration for new packaging? It’s weird, the cannabis industry is one of the only industries that overlaps with the pharmaceutical market. We’re one of the only CPG industries that has to have CR certification on its packaging. So it’s tough, because when you look at the pharmaceutical world, the packaging in that industry is not shiny and unique, and it doesn’t pop off the shelf because there isn’t a shelf for it. It’s in a pharmacy. So we’re trying to hybridize something that doesn’t have sustainability and it doesn’t have creative design work and consumer-focused branding on the packaging. It’s just this weird hybrid that resulted from regulation. As a result, I try find to inspiration from industries such as food, beverage, wine, and alcohol and then try to find options I can mimic with a CR certification. For example, with the paper tube, this was a product where I thought, “This is finally something different, finally something I feel like I could truly hybridize.” Packaging companies need to realize it’s what they’re going to have to do until regulations change; they’re going to have to give people more options.” —Anne Marie Mohan

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1/26/22 9:41 AM

20 PW FEB2022

THE LEGAL SIDE

CANNABIS FOCUS

By Eric F. Greenberg, Attorney-at-law

Cannabis and CBD: Still. Holding. Breath. As an attorney, my job is easy. I advise clients that they should follow the law. As we say in Latin, “Duh.” If the client needs help figuring out what the law requires, we help with that. If it’s not completely clear and predictable, well then, there’s more work to do. The recent history of the regulation of cannabis and CBD products has been one of those “more work to do” scenarios, filled with uncertainty and unpredictability for packagers, and lots of frustration. Perhaps most frustrating of all is that most of us expected there to be more certainty by now. The crux of the problem is the conflict between the federal laws that outlaw cannabis and CBD in many forms and in foods and dietary supplements, and the many states who have legalized many forms of cannabis and CBD-containing products. Visit pwgo.to/7465 to read my last examination of all this. What’s the holdup? After all, the tough part appears to be behind us: So many of the historical taboos about cannabis have already fallen away, with 18 individual states legalizing it for recreational use, another 13 decriminalizing it, and 36 legalizing it for medical purposes. CBD-containing products, too, are proliferating in most states, powered by state laws permitting sales and a range of perceived health benefits. But until the feds finish the thought by removing the federal prohibitions, the policy transformation won’t be complete. Eliminate those federal requirements and packaging companies, processors, and contract manufacturers would see a world of new opportunities. Thus, the federal prohibitions of cannabis and CBD in foods (including supplements), stand as an anachronistic symbol of a bygone era. Cannabis is a federal controlled substance along with heroin and LSD, and among the awkward results of that are that businesses are not permitted to use federal banking systems, and have to restrict themselves to sales and marketing within one state. Various bills proposing to change federal law are already before Congress, and it can be treacherous to attempt to predict either their fate or final form. It’s a popular topic, though. It’s even possible to find reports on bills that aren’t proposed yet. However, several bills have been proposed and have made it through varying levels of consideration by legislative committees. For example, the bill proposed by South Carolina Republican Nancy Mace would take cannabis off the list of “controlled substances” and let states make their own rules about cannabis, including keeping it outlawed if they want, but would allow interstate commerce in cannabis and allow cannabis businesses to use banks, and even get loans and issue stock. She describes it as regulating cannabis like alcohol. The bill even provides for some excise taxes (Look, Ma! A Republican suggested a tax!)

CBD-containing products would be regulated differently under other proposed federal laws, such as one that would specifically make CBD from hemp lawful as an ingredient in foods and dietary supplements (which the law now says it isn’t), but would allow FDA to impose labeling and packaging requirements on such products. I checked back with consultant Dr. Sanford Wolgel, (former Chief Science Officer for Cannabistry Labs), whom I quoted last March on this topic. He spent the first few minutes teasing me for having predicted that something would get done during 2021. After that hilarious interlude, he offered a useful summary of the overall scene, which he phrased in terms of the varying interests of four groups of stakeholders. First, he says, are consumers, many of whom want their cannabis and CBD and really don’t care much about what any regulators say. Second is industry—including growers, manufacturers, packagers, and their suppliers—champing at the bit to expand their activities or dive into the business, some of whom are legitimate companies marketing consistently made products and adhering to scientific best practices, while others are, well, less so. Third are the federal government players, both the Congress which has the power to change the law and the FDA whose job it is to implement the law (and whose ability to accommodate consumers and industry is ultimately limited by the laws Congress hands them), all while juggling assorted political pressures from everywhere. Finally, there are the states, many of which have already demonstrated their willingness to get out ahead of the feds. The states might want to see the feds change some things and clarify some things, but in the meantime aren’t waiting, and are happy to keep allowing sales and marketing of cannabis and/or CBD in their states. Usually, businesses don’t want the federal government to impose any requirements on them, but other times the certainty and consistency that comes from having a single national standard are helpful to businesses. Recognition of that advantage helps explain the level of bipartisan support for proposals in Congress. And yet, it ain’t happened yet. And not to be a buzz-kill, but once it does, it’s not clear that smooth sailing for cannabis and CBD will result. For example, FDA has been saying for some years that it’s not convinced that CBD is safe. What happens if Congress orders FDA to set standards for the safe use of CBD in foods and supplements, and FDA does so, only to conclude that levels of CBD that consumers commonly consume now are unsafe and should be unlawful? If, like a lot of folks, you are inclined to predict that Congress won’t pass anything because they seem too often to be unable to get anything done, that’s not irrational. But happy surprises do occur—if you have a minute, let me tell you about the Chicago Bulls’ season so far. PW

Eric Greenberg can be reached at greenberg@efg-law.com. Or visit his firm’s Web site at www.ericfgreenbergpc.com. INFORMATIONAL ONLY, NOT LEGAL ADVICE.

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1/26/22 10:11 AM

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1/26/22 9:50 AM

22 PW FEB2022

THE BIG PICTURE

By Sterling Anthony, CPP, Contributing Editor

Pallet Management for CPGs: Part One of a Series The two have similar business models, but there are differences in In the U.S., the workhorse of CPG supply pricing. CHEP charges a variety of fees. PECO charges a flat fee. And chains is the GMA (Grocery Manufacturers always important is a comparison of customer service. Association) pallet. The standardized footprint is 48 in. x 40 in., but Renting is not a viable option if the prospective renter cannot pallet styles differ. Pallets enable efficiencies in material handling, meet threshold quantities. Another quantity-related consideration is transportation, and storage. how the CPG company delivers to retailers that are willing to accept For most of their history, pallets were regarded as commodities— stringer pallets. Will the company ship to all its retailers on rented so much so that pallet management was a contradiction in terms. pallets or ship to non-mandating retailers on purchased pallets? Back then, the wood stringer pallet ruled. The name derives from the If the latter, problems might await—if not immediately, then base boards (stringers) that run the length of the pallet. The stringers down the road. That’s because of a chain reaction. It starts with are notched for fork insertion, resulting in a four-way pallet. (Stringer stringer pallets losing usage to block pallet rentals. Decreased demand pallets also are called white pallets, not because they are painted but for stringer pallets results in decreased supply, including supply of because they are not painted.) new ones. With fewer new stringer pallets, the average age of the In a bygone era, CPG companies purchased pallets, loaded them, inventory increases. Older pallets are more prone to damage and and sent them on one-way trips. The cost of a pallet was allocated failure. The non-mandating retailers’ customer satisfaction decreases. across the load and made a part of the unit price of the product. There is little incentive for a CPG There was a built-in incentive to purchase company to purchase new stringer pallets pallets at the cheapest price, often at the For decades now, pallet that will be used for a single shipment. expense of quality. Pallet failures were management has been evolving A more practical policy is: first to deal common, engendering dissatisfaction from supply chain members, especially retailers. into a more complex function. with suppliers that have reputations for delivering good used pallets, and second For decades now, pallet management The evolution coincides with a to have reliable incoming inspection has been evolving into a more complex function. The evolution coincides with shift in supply chain leadership, procedures. On a related note, CPG companies receive supplies (used in a shift in supply chain leadership, from from major CPG companies production, maintenance, etc.) on stringer major CPG companies to major retailers. to major retailers. pallets. There’s nothing wrong with Circa mid-90s, major retailers were retaining the better pallets for later use. demanding better-performing pallets. When shipping loads on stringer pallets and block pallets together Those retailers decided that the answer to their demand was the in the same trailer (to a distribution center, for example), additional block pallet. Over the ensuing years, some of the giants mandated attention should be paid to blocking and bracing. Block pallets are that shipments be received on block pallets. A seminal event was taller than stringer pallets. When the two are abutted, the height Costco’s Block Pallet Initiative of 2011. difference can allow load contact and subsequent load sliding. It’s Block pallets are constructed of wood. Named for the blocks best to section block pallets together and stringer pallets together. in the base, they are four-way platforms. Block pallets are sturdier Rental block pallets are assembled with a greater degree of than stringer pallets and hold up better against the physical rigors mechanization than is done with stringer pallets. The tighter encountered throughout supply chains. dimensional tolerances of the former benefit a CPG company’s Retailer preference for block pallets has proven to be a boon to automated palletizing and automated storage rack systems. the pallet rental industry. Supply chain specialist company CHEP, with None of this discussion is meant to suggest that stringer pallets its blue-painted pallets, controls close to a monopoly. PECO, CHEP’s will become obsolete. There is no denying, however, that their use for competitor, supplies red-painted pallets. Both manage a pool within CPG will continue to decrease. Yes, it will be due to retailer mandates. a closed-loop system in which pallets are delivered to user facilities, It also will be due to the increasing diversity of categories and SKUs collected when empty, and finally taken to depots where they are carried by retailers and subject to those mandates. inspected, cleaned, and repaired. The time is now to acknowledge pallet management as an Pallet rental allows CPG companies to gain business while important component of supply chain management. Check back next sidestepping the upfront outlay required with purchasing. Such month for part two on this topic, with more tips and best practices on benefits notwithstanding, there are a host of considerations pallet management. Specifically, I’ll discuss pallet recycling. PW associated with the decision. There’s the choice of rental company.

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1/26/22 9:47 AM

Filling & Packaging Line Solutions

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1/26/22 9:49 AM

24 PW FEB2022

SUSTAINABLE PACKAGING

By Anne Marie Mohan, Senior Editor

The Risks for Brands of Not Doing Enough reporting this information; in 2021, that number rose to 24. Although, In a recent article in The Financial, Gartner, she adds, a drastic increase in the number of companies disclosing Inc. estimated that 90% of those companies this information is vital. “This is an important indicator for investors that have made commitments to sustainable packaging—in particular, to track how companies can simultaneously balance growth while 100% of their packaging being reusable, recyclable, or compostable decoupling that growth from plastic, especially disposable plastic,” by 2025—will not meet their goals. That begs the question, what she explains. “Are these companies growing while exploring reuse, for happens then? Is it merely about consumer perception? Are consumers instance, or are they growing while continuing to rely on disposable even aware of these commitments? Who’s keeping track? packaging? Without having data on the tonnage of plastic and overall One organization that’s keeping very close track is As You units sold, this is an evaluation that can’t be made.” Sow. As You Sow is a non-profit foundation chartered to promote And this is where companies begin to see the consequences of corporate social responsibility through shareholder advocacy, coalition not making progress toward or meeting their published sustainable building, and legal strategies. Last year, the foundation released packaging goals. According to Bruno Monteyne, Senior Analyst at a comprehensive report, the “2021 Corporate Plastic Pollution investment research house Bernstein Autonomous, who spoke Scorecard” (see pwgo.to/7458) that evaluated 50 of the largest during a webinar on the As You Sow scorecard, “Whether you call it consumer-facing companies in North America against 44 metrics a fad or not, there’s a massive obsession in the asset management divided among six pillars of corporate responsibility on plastic industry with ESG [environmental, social, and governance issues]. The packaging: Packaging Design, Reusable Packaging, Recycled Content, big institutional investors want to make Public Data Transparency, Supporting sure that how they invest their money Recycling, and Extended Producer This transition to more sustainable is in line with these ESG goals. And Responsibility (EPR). packaging or no packaging is obviously plastic is a very big part of the To compile the scorecard, As You extremely expensive. If you don’t do environmental issue. It’s such a big trend, Sow gathered metrics information for each company from sources such as the it quickly enough with the right R&D, if a company doesn’t do enough in this area, it will struggle to attract investors.” Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Global you risk being at a cost disadvantage. A second risk, he shared, is to the Commitment 2021 Progress Report and company’s brand. “Big companies live by from companies’ sustainability reporting. the grace of their consumers,” Monteyne said. “They have a right to From that information, As You Sow gave each company a grade in charge $10 for something that only costs $2 to manufacture, but they each pillar and an overall grade, from A to F. Spoiler alert: None of can only earn that right through an emotional connection with their the companies in the report received an A, and only one received a B. consumers. Therefore, as this topic shoots up on consumers’ priority The rest of the 49 companies received a C, D, or F. Who got the B, you list, failing to act poses a massive risk.” ask? The Coca-Cola Company. Another risk, he shared, is around legislation. Although all of the Among the more notable findings in the report, As You Sow companies in As You Sow’s report have North American operations, a reported a ninefold increase in the number of companies having a majority also have operations in Europe, where packaging legislation, plastic reduction goal, compared to the number of those that reported especially around the reduced use of virgin plastic, is progressing having one in the foundation’s “2020 Waste & Opportunity” report; quickly. “If a company is not ready for this transition, they risk legal a majority of the 50 companies have committed to 100% recyclable, consequences,” he said. compostable, or reusable packaging; and although the reusable pillar And finally there is the cost risk. “This transition to more was one of the lowest-scoring pillars, the majority of companies sustainable packaging or no packaging is extremely expensive,” evaluated are beginning to explore reuse, with some conducting pilots. Monteyne explained. “If you don’t do it quickly enough with the right Also uncovered, an increased number of companies—now nearly R&D, you risk being at a cost disadvantage. half—have established goals around the use of recycled plastic In conclusion, Monteyne explained that “there are plenty of content. “However, the availability of supply is lacking, and in order for risks—sales risks, legal risks, cost risks, and profitability risks” to not companies to meet their goals, they need to support policies that will meeting company sustainability commitments. And companies can increase the availability of recycled material,” shares Kelly McBee, Waste bet firms such as his will be closely monitoring reports, including Program Coordinator for As You Sow and the author of the report. as You Sow’s scorecard, to point investors in the right direction. Be One positive trend, McBee notes, was the increase in companies advised, as in the classroom, an F isn’t going to cut it. PW reporting the amount of plastic they use. In 2020, only 11 were

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Produced by:

YOUR EAST COAST CONNECTION FOR PACKAGING AND PROCESSING FIND THE RIGHT SOLUTIONS TO MOVE YOUR BUSINESS FORWARD At PACK EXPO East 2022, you can: Explore state-of-the-art packaging and processing technologies from 400+ exhibitors Discover innovative applications from other industries Expand your network and have 1:1 conversations with experts Gain new perspectives with engaging educational sessions Learn more about the PACK Ready plan and Philadelphia’s recent vaccination mandate at packexpoeast.com/packready

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Conveying, Feeding & Handling The following companies are leading suppliers of conveying & accumulation, feeding/inserting/unscrambling, and material handling equipment. To see all product categories, please visit Packworld.com/leaders. Conveying & aCCumulation

Conveying & aCCumulation

The right Spiral Conveyor for your packaging layout!

Customized Conveyor Solutions

Because AmbaFlex spiral conveyors are known for the level of quality they deliver and their versatile functionality, they are widely used in primary packing. From vertical transport, portal passages, as well as dynamic accumulating of products.

We can design a system solution for any type of material handling requirement, providing the engineering to develop an efficient, productive layout, as well as the necessary equipment and line controls.

Conveying & aCCumulation

Transforming Conveyor Automation

WLX – Modular, Stainless Steel Conveyor for Food Dorner’s customized packaging solutions offer increased flexibility for efficient production with decreased waste. These solutions can keep your business’ production flowing quickly and seamlessly, at maximum efficiency.

Conveying & aCCumulation

A simplified, hygienic wide belt solution WLX is safe, clean and reduces the total cost of ownership. It adheres to EHEDG and 3A design guidelines and addresses the higher hygienic requirements associated with primary and secondary packaging.

Conveying & aCCumulation

Maximize your line efficiency. Minimize your downtime.

Innovative Packer to Palletizer Belt Technology

If you’re looking for ways to improve your throughput and increase efficiency, Garvey’s patented accumulation and conveyor solutions can help. No matter your industry, Garvey has solutions to help you boost your throughput by up to 30%.

Launch products in new package formats, upgrade your existing plants, handle new and existing products on the same line, and maintain high-quality product conveyance with Intralox’s innovative belting solutions.

Conveying & aCCumulation

mk North America, Inc. Offers Better Products and Better Solutions

10 Business Day Delivery Advantage – Rotary Accumulation Table

When you’re in the market for a conveyor look no further than mk North America - the conveyor solutions provider. We offer more types of conveyors than any other manufacturer and all our units are assembled and tested before shipping.

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Configured for new or integrated with existing production lines, rotary accumulation tables are ideal for product accumulation or surge backup. A small footprint accumulation solution designed for efficiency in balancing production rates.

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Future leaders IN PACKAGING SC

H O L A R S HIP

These market-leading companies participating in Packaging World’s 2022 Leaders in Packaging Program are named sponsors of PW’s Future Leaders in Packaging scholarship. This year’s recipient is Alexandria Technical & Community College, Mechatronics program. We appreciate the support of all participants on behalf of packaging education.

Conveying & aCCumulation

We may still be a CPG’s best kept secret ... not anymore.

Re-Flow Accumulation Conveyor for Optimum Product Throughput

From a napkin drawing to fully engineered, operational equipment. We’ll maximize productivity, minimize floor space & provide electrical OEM communications. Immediate solutions designed for future expansion. Learn more. Call today: 1-800-236-7960

Accumulation of products during downstream equipment shutdown is critical to overall production efficiency. Nercon’s Re-Flow Accumulation Table utilizes a small footprint and is adaptable to meet accumulation needs and minimize downtime.

Conveying & aCCumulation

Increase Automation/Safety And Reduce Energy/Labor Costs

Vertical Conveying - Save Space AND Increase Throughput.

The ModSort® Trident mobile three-way sorter system has a four-zone infeed that gaps, reads, then diverts left, right or straight to one of three sorting locations. To learn more about the ModSort suite of products, visit modsort.com.

Conveying & aCCumulation

Ryson Spiral Conveyors need less floor space than conventional incline conveyors and are faster and more reliable than any elevator or lift. They are especially well suited for Consumer Packaged Goods companies and any Warehousing operations.

Conveying & aCCumulation

EZGUIDE Improves Product Changeover Times Span Tech has developed a NEW guide rail system which can be used for many product guidance situations. The new EZGUIDE system eliminates bulkiness, change over time, and safety hazards that are present with standard guide rail systems out in the field today.

Super Stainless™ Chain: Stainless Steel with Carbon Strength The toughest applications require the toughest chain possible. That used to mean choosing between the corrosion resistance of stainless steel or the strength of carbon steel. Now Tsubaki offers both—in a single chain called Tsubaki Super Stainless™.

Feeding/inserting/unscrambling

High Performing Unscramblers that Won’t Let You Down

Flexible Feeders Offer In-Line and Recirculating Robotic Solutions

NEM offers a full line of Unscramblers built to sort, rinse, orient & deliver containers into a single, upright, orderly fashion right onto your production line. No matter your container size, line speed or industry, our Unscramblers can maximize efficiency.

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Shibuya Hoppmann has reconstructed its line of flexible feeders to accommodate modern demands for robotic pickup. Both in-line and recirculating models run pouches at random, including those slightly overlapped, ranging from 2-7 inches in size.

1/26/22 10:52 AM

Conveying, Feeding & Handling Feeding/inserting/unscrambling

Material handling

Kliklok product handling for cartoning lines

Custom Bulk Material Handling Systems

Kliklok product handling machines provide seamless transitions from upstream equipment into our cartoners. They can rotate, reorient, collate, stack, and time product for precise placement in a cartoner’s PIC. Learn more at www.syntegon.com/handling.

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Y ON NVIRONM N

CALL FOR ENTRIES

b l y Ex elle

Each year, ProFood World recognizes outstanding food and beverage processing and packaging innovation projects via the Sustainability Excellence in Manufacturing Awards competition.

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Multiple awards will be named in the program and project categories including: ● ● ● ●

Awards to be presented at

Reduction in water and energy Waste conservation Pollution prevention Packaging reductions

N R R C N LY ADD D PROC SSOR/ SUPPLI R PAR N RS IP CA GORY!

Join past winners such as Campbell Soup, Land O’Lakes, McCormick, Smithﬁeld, Conagra Brands, Hormel, Hiland Dairy, Big Heart Pet Brands, Liffey Meats, and Graphic Packaging International. Learn more at pfwgo.to/sema

Entries are due March 1, 2022.

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Multi-component Pack Checks All the Boxes for DIY Berry Yogurt Parfaits With an existing 4-oz Chobani yogurt pack format as a starting point, berry parfait product collaborator Naturipe worked backward and reverse-engineered an optimized PET cup and closure that nests components and seals them into a single package system— sometimes spoon and all. WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

Nested, multi-material pack

This exploded view of the Naturipe berry parfait pack illustrates all of the constituent packaging elements and how they nest together.

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Why berry producers prefer PET Naturipe is a farmer-owned grower and marketer of premium berries that, for more than 100 years, has been producing fresh, frozen, and value-added berry products. Because Naturipe’s growers share with each other valuable resources, skills, labor, and knowledge, they improve themselves as farmers and, in turn, strengthen the local farming community. The partnership’s focus on innovation and its large North and South American footprint ensures year-round availability of both conventional and organic fruit. This past summer, the company launched its new Berry Parfait line of on-the-go snack packs, featuring Chobani® Yogurt, Naturipe® fresh berries, and film-wrapped granola, all within two nested cups that are sealed by a PET film closure. Each of the constituent ingredients is kept separate and uncompromised in-pack until the consumer decides to combine them into a crunchy, fresh, whole-fruit and yogurt snack. “We’ve been trying to do something like this; it has been on our wish list for a long time. But we really wanted to offer something that set itself apart from the products that are currently out there,” says Janis McIntosh, Director, Marketing Innovation & Sustainability at Naturipe. “One thing that slowed us down was that we were initially trying to utilize packaging formats that we already had. We kept asking ourselves, ‘rather than reinventing the wheel, is there something already in our packaging landscape that we’re already using that we could repurpose for a parfait?’ Finally, we realized that this was going to have to be a whole new design. We couldn’t make this work with [the packaging formats] we already had. We really had to think outside the box on this one,” McIntosh recalls. The decision to break from existing packaging ecosystem freed decision-makers to seek exactly what they wanted rather than make do with leftovers. They wanted something nice and clean that would clearly demonstrate that Naturipe had partnered with Chobani—a brand that people recognize, trust, and really like. They wanted a pack that would broadcast to consumers that there would be high-quality yogurt, as well as fresh berries, in each parfait.

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Having trouble keeping up with the latest packaging and processing trends?

A social media campaign during the summer of 2021 helped to launch the berry parfait product.

“We knew that we had a win-win with our partners at Chobani,” McIntosh says. “They’d never done anything like this either; a fresh produce project like this was unique for them.” But just because Naturipe had determined to start fresh with a new pack design didn’t mean that Chobani had to. “We wanted to do something unique and different, but we didn’t want them to have to start from scratch on their side. So, the easiest thing was to ask them, ‘What do you have that we can take advantage of for this important project?’” Sure enough, Chobani was already producing a 4-oz traditional format polypropylene yogurt cup with a sealed foil closure that, notably, had originally been designed for airline foodservice situations. The 4-oz size would be workable as a starting point to build around. The Chobani pack was also in a prime position for important factors like calorie content and price point. “Both Chobani and Naturipe are all about health, and we’re always innovating around healthy snacks that hit a certain level of calories and nutrients,” McIntosh says. “This 4-oz Chobani cup was perfect for us because we knew we were going to be pairing it with granola and berries, both of which are bringing some calories of their own to the table.” The Chobani cup’s closure circumference is the same as its more familiar and larger 5.3-oz cups, allowing them to be heat sealed on existing packaging equipment. The only change for the targeted cups is their depth—the 4-oz pack is simply a shallower version. That got the Naturipe innovation team thinking. If the short Chobani cup were nested in a larger, deeper thermoformed cup, the enclosed yogurt pack would occupy the head space of the outer cup. But there would also be an open cavity underneath the cup that could contain berries. This then-theoretical outer cup, in which the finished Chobani cup would nest, would need to be molded with a shelf or flange around its upper

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PET and rPET sustainability profile “We’re a strong believer in PET for berries,” says Naturipe’s McIntosh. “I believe most retailers at this point understand that that is the best substrate for fresh berries, particularly because, when it comes to berries, visibility is really important. Plus, the infrastructure for PET is there in terms of recyclability, so we’re really sticking with this as an industry and working closely with the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) to improve it. One of the improvements which

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I mentioned is adding the BOPP label with the wash-away adhesive on it, which we’re rolling out to all of our packaging. “Considering all variables, this material is the best for packaging berries. People are still trying cardboard, but that’s not going to work in this space,” she says. “There’s just not too many poly-type materials out there—even bio[-based polymers] that you can compost (at-home or industrially) or are biodegrade. It’s just not practical, and the infrastructure is not there to collect it. PET remains the most earth-friendly option. We have worked with our recyclers and our suppliers to boost our postconsumer content in our input materials. On some of them, we’re up to 50% to 60% PCR. And now, we’re even looking at ocean bound plastic, which is another source that’s coming. We are doing everything that we possibly can to improve the sustainability profile of our plastic content.” McIntosh says that just about all packaging utilized by Naturipe contains a high level of recycled content with some of it even being 100% rPET. But she’s careful to differentiate industrial rPET from PCR. “The big determination is how much is postconsumer, and how much is industrial rPET. And right now, for the entire berry industry, I would say we average 40% and more postconsumer rPET,” McIntosh says. “That’s because we have been taking everything for years. We’ve been taking water bottles that nobody else was using. Now, new water bottles are starting to use PCR. They want their own content back, so we may be short on content. “The big thing that’s happening in the thermoform world is that thermoforms are getting recycled more, and so now, rather than just saying use post-consumer content, now we can say we have 10% thermoformed content in our packaging. It means we are getting our own content back. That is one of the key initiatives as a berry industry—we’re trying to work towards getting more thermoformed content. We want our rPET input to be coming from thermoformed material, which is a more rigid material than blown water bottles, for example. It will never be 100% thermoformed material, we need some more pliability than that would afford. But we still don’t want just water bottles as our PCR source. When we say postconsumer, berry producers want to make sure that the clamshells are being recycled and then becoming our own packages again. We are not just getting random material, we’re getting our own material back. Our goal is at least 10%, and hopefully up to 30% by 2030, of the content in all of our packing should be coming from our own recycled packages. We are bringing it full circle for a circular economy.” PW

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Building the perfect cup

A clear, lidded PET cup lets the two stars of the show shine through on a shelf: fresh berries and Chobani brand yogurt. circumference on which the inner cup’s closure neck could rest. When nested, it would rest above the empty cavity beneath it. “We looked at what’s currently on the shelf in terms of height and realized, ‘Well, why don’t we just put our berries at the bottom of a slightly larger cup, and nest the Chobani cup above?’ Our biggest challenge was determining how much head space we would need in that cavity to accommodate berries that sometimes come in different sizes throughout the year.”

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The R&D process was an iterative one; nine different size and shape tests into the project, McIntosh and her team narrowed in on one that they felt would accommodate all the various growing regions’ berry sizes. “We just didn’t know how the berries were going to sit,” McIntosh says. “The biggest consideration was to make sure the berries sit well and comfortably, so that was the driving force behind all those iterations. It was all about protecting the berries.” But the space beneath the yogurt cup wasn’t the only consideration. There also needed to be space above the yogurt that would carry a flowwrapped pack of granola. After all, what’s a berry parfait without the crunch? Not every granola supplier had the equipment to produce the minisized film packs Naturipe was looking for. The flow-wrapped granola pack needed for this project was a challenge. A high-barrier BOPP film material protects crunchy granola from moisture that could come from the berries in the pack or could result from temperature-based condensation in transit or retail display. Yet another challenge that would affect the final pack format was a unique need shared by two specialty channels into which Naturipe intended to sell. Beyond traditional retail requirements, both convenience store and airline customers—key target markets for these berry parfaits—required these packs to include a spoon to make them self-contained and on-the-go friendly. Luckily, the wooden spoon form factor was thin enough that it would fit into the cup’s headspace, above the yogurt and below the granola pouch, before sealing. “The varieties that have a

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berries. Also, the transparent PET allows for the immediately recognizable Chobani brand name—as printed on the existing Chobani pack’s label—to clearly show through on a retail shelf. Geometrically, the inner Chobani cup is cylindrical, but the outer PET cup uses squarer panels around its cylindrical yogurt cup contents. The closure shape on top of the PET cup is also more square-shaped than the circular yogurt closure within. To take this idea from drawing board to reality, Naturipe worked closely with a thermoforming partner. The company was able to threedimensionally model and validate how the cups and components would nest together, long before any expensive metal molds needed to be cut, and potentially, scrapped. Naturipe chose not to reveal any of its packaging material or equipment suppliers.

Beyond traditional retail requirements, both convenience store and airline customers—key target markets for these berry parfaits—required these packs to include a wooden spoon in the overhead space, which rests alongside the flow-wrapped granola. spoon included actually depict a spoon on the front label,” McIntosh says. With dimensions sorted, Naturipe opted for clear PET instead of the typical PP yogurt style cup. It’s a favorite material for the berry industry [more on that on page 32], plus its transparent nature allows consumers to get a good look at the farm fresh berries, which Naturipe would say are the star of the show. The visible berries are a big distinguishing factor in the parfait system compared to pre-mixed fresh yogurt and

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Automation on the packaging line Finished Chobani packs and granola flow-wrapped packs are received from supply partners as inputs to the Naturipe facility and Berry Parfait packaging line. Those packs already have date codes on them as they enter the facility, but the shelf-life bottleneck will almost always be the fresh berry-containing finished pack system. The more standard packaging operations around the Berry Parfait lines are as automated as you’d expect. Berry filling of the transparent PET cup with a linear scale filler starts the process. Again, no equipment manufacturers were named. While some upstream and downstream processes are automated,

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the assembly of the individual components together before the top seal remains a manual process. Since the package system was invented basically from whole cloth, there isn’t any standard, off-the-shelf equipment that could handle the task. But that may not always be the case. Downstream case packing is also manual. Future equipment added to this area of the packing line, to automate the step marrying yogurt cup to outer PET cup, will need to be able to handle cold-room temperatures around 32°F to accommodate yogurt.

ing sure consumers have the best snacking experience possible is a top priority. Additionally, we are proud to keep working towards reducing our plastic waste and becoming more sustainable throughout our supply chains. Keep your eyes out for more exciting and healthy snacking news from us,” adds CarrieAnn Arias, Vice President of Marketing for Naturipe. Berry Parfaits are available now in select retailers and specialty channels, with or without a spoon, for less than $4. —Matt Reynolds

Labeling evolution and secondary packaging Speaking of cold-room needs, temperature will have an impact on labeling. Currently, labeling on the pack consists of two traditional pressure-sensitive labels—an outward-facing branded label on the front, and a Nutrition Facts label on the back. Labels are flexographically printed in nine colors for plenty of color variety. However, with sustainability in mind, the berry industry as a whole is changing its approach to labeling. “All of the berry industry is moving into wash-away BOPP labels with sustainable adhesive,” McIntosh says. “The adhesives we use must be approved by the The Association of Plastics Recyclers (APR).”

Watch a consumer-facing commercial for the Naturipe line of berry parfaits at pwgo.to/7457. Secondary packaging currently is six Berry Parfait packs to a corrugated case, which is a standard, onecolor RSC case with white print. McIntosh says that six packs per case is a format that meets the requirements of both large retailers and smaller specialty channels, like C-store or smaller format retailers. With packs designed to stand up within a printed paperboard carton, these Berry Parfait packs are fairly robust and self-contained, and with a mostly square profile, are substantial by themselves on the shelf. “This case format is the sweet spot for now,” McIntosh says. “If we ever do something like a variety pack, or maybe a larger pack for club stores in the future, then I could see us exploring different formats.”

Product rollout and more new products ahead The 6-oz Berry Parfaits are available in two flavors: Doubleberry Crunch™ featuring fresh Naturipe Blueberries, Chobani’s non-fat strawberry Greek yogurt, and granola; or Vanilla Crunch™ containing fresh Naturipe Blueberries, Chobani’s non-fat vanilla Greek yogurt, and granola. Each Berry Parfait provides 10 g of protein and is 170 calories or less. “This Berry Parfait is just one of the new products Naturipe has coming down the pipeline. We are eager to bring this innovative product to the market. Mak-

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New Filler Boosts Capacity Installing a fifth filling line will help this leading manufacturer of commercial skin care products address the current demand for hand sanitizer and meet future customer needs. WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

Meeting a spike in demand

How to plan for growth

The global hand sanitizer market is expected to reach $3.47 billion by 2028, up from $2.98 billion in 2020. Kutol Products, a maker of hand soaps, hair and body washes, industrial hand cleaners, and foam and gel hand sanitizers, plans to be a major player as this growth unfolds. The Cincinnati-based company was founded in 1912, and it now produces under its own Health Guard® and Kutol® Pro brands as well as for private label brands. It’s no stranger to pandemics either, having operated through the 2009 swine flu pandemic. With the arrival of COVID-19, says Vice President of Operations John Rhodenbaugh, “Our business exploded, just as it did during swine flu. With the previous experience gained by the entire Kutol team, we were able to apply lessons learned and make some good decisions this time The new line at Kutol handles plastic bottles ranging from 1-oz to half-gallon sizes. around. We knew we had an idea of what was coming decision-making as it became very clear what product we would be fillso we could plan, but we didn’t expect the demand to last so long.” ing with that new line,” says Rhodenbaugh. “During swine flu, we grew One key decision was to dedicate all of Kutol’s filling lines to handling as well and we sustained that business long term. We expected the same only hand sanitizer for a while. All of the tanks and fill lines were conto happen this time with COVID. We realized if we wanted to sustain verted to produce sanitizer throughout the pandemic. Such products are three to five times our usual volume into the future, whether that be typically manufactured in an explosion-proof room, but when production two or 10 years from now, we would need another line.” expanded to the entire facility, safeguards were put in place to keep safety All four of the filling lines already operating at Kutol were anchored by as a top priority. The second decision was to install a fifth filling line. machines made and installed by DTM Packaging, one of the Massman “We always planned on adding a fifth line, but COVID expedited our Companies. The newest of the four became operational in late 2018. “That line helped us out significantly through the pandemic,” explains Rhodenbaugh. “We made the decision to turn to DTM again for a high-speed fill line that would fill smaller sizes than our previous line and accommodate not just the hand sanitizer, but any of the products we produce.”

P F

‘FillZilla’

The walking-beam format of the filler means it operates on a continuous-motion basis.

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Kutol ultimately purchased a DTM fully integrated bottling line with a DTM Packaging Purefil 2500 In-Line Walking Beam Flow Meter Filler, affectionally named “FillZilla” by Kutol. The simple-to-operate machine features a clean hygienic design and a sanitary product path. An onboard pressure supply tank is equipped with dual-spray ball cleaning. Other design features include top-fill anti-foam nozzles or bottom-up fill capability for filling foamy or high-viscosity products and quick changeover for a range of products and container sizes. Kutol runs PET, HDPE, PVC, or PETG containers in sizes from as small as 1 oz to as large as a half gallon on the new line. The filler can be used as a standalone machine or as part of a complete bottling line as was supplied to Kutol.

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Another significant design feature is that the filler is explosion proof, making it ideal for handling the alcohol present in hand sanitizer. According to Rhodenbaugh, if product were to spill on the line from the containers near an open spark or flame, there could be a fire. So at Kutol, the DTM filler is electrically closed, intrinsically safe, and in a classified area. The bulk of business at Kutol is hand soap, so it’s not necessary for the four other DTM lines at Kutol to be explosion proof. But Rhodenbaugh says that as the sanitizer portion of the company’s business has grown, it was important to have a safe fill line for those products. During operation, empty bottles are poured into a bottle unscrambler from Pace, a ProMach company. A photo eye detects any down bottles and kicks them out. Next is the eight-head filler, whose walking beam format results in continuous-motion filling at speeds to 300 bottles/min. Immediately downstream is a capper, which is also supplied by DTM. A Cognex inspection system kicks off any bottle with a missing or cocked cap, and then each bottle is checked by a Wipotec checkweigher. “We purchased it through DTM, but we worked pretty closely with Wipotec to make sure the side belts, for example, would be capable of properly handling such a wide range of bottle sizes,” notes Rhodenbaugh. Pressure-sensitive film labels are applied by a Nita labeler that does front and back or full-wrap labels. Then a vision inspection system from Cognex makes sure each bottle’s lot and date code—printed on each bottle by an ink-jet system from Videojet—is good before bottles proceed to a pack-off table for manual case packing. Cases are taped on a machine from Intertape Polymer Group. While the DTM Purefil is capable of handling up to 300 bottles/min, Rhodenbaugh says Kutol will likely average about 80 to 120 bottles/min based on the bottle sizes and configurations. “There is definitely room for expansion on the line in the future,” he says. “But already we see an increase in capacity somewhere in the range of 200 to 400 percent compared to where we were. This boost in capacity will allow us to meet our growing needs, while keeping Kutol’s TeamMate headcount the same.” In addition to increased productivity, Rhodenbaugh says Kutol will benefit from using all DTM filling lines because the software and hard-

Shown here, though not to scale, are a 16-oz (left) and a 32-oz bottle (right) filled on the versatile new line. ware is the same, making it easier to train operators across all the lines. “All of the equipment behaves the same way,” notes Rhodenbaugh, “and all the buttons mean the same so the operators have a familiarity with the machinery and can easily move from one line to the other and keep product running throughout the plant.” Rhodenbaugh says Kutol also benefits from a long-term relationship with DTM. “DTM offers flexibility during the machine design-and-build process to cater to our filling needs,” he explains. In fact, DTM fully integrated and tested the Purefill before shipping it to Kutol. “They offer ongoing support after installation,” adds Rhodenbaugh. “That’s why we’ve had them build filling lines for us since 2005.” In turn, Kutol will count on the new Purefil line to offer ongoing support to its client base, which includes schools, business offices, medical facilities, and courtrooms that rely on these hand cleaning products. “We will address our customers’ needs with our equipment throughout the pandemic and beyond,” says Rhodenbaugh. “We have a five- to 10-year vision for this new line to support our customers well into the future.” —Pat Reynolds

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CANNABIS FOCUS

Cannabis Weighing System Accounts for Variable Container Weights This painted glass jar with sleek label communicates the premium quality of the cannabis it contains. But container weight variability made precision dosing of the expensive product difficult. Find out how a unique filling and weighing system overcame the issue. WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

Innovative weighing system

Cannabis packaging’s unique challenges

By Matt Reynolds, Chief Editor Maybe it’s stating the obvious, but as the cannabis industry rapidly matures, manufacturers in the space are becoming more sophisticated. Packaging World has several times reported on the progress of Green Thumb Industries, a Chicago-based cannabis brand owner that’s taken a decidedly CPG-oriented approach to the marketplace. Other than having to jump through an industry-specific set of regulatory hoops surrounding the cannabis it produces, Green Thumb operates very much like any other CPG or brand owner, say in food, beverage, or personal care. As such, packaging gets it rightful seat at the table as a fundamental consideration when going to market.

While pouches or HDPE jars are more common for cannabis flower, RYTHM uses a black-painted glass jar and matte-finish p-s label printed with prismic text to convey the premium quality of the product inside (above). The tare gross weighing system (left) accounts for variable-weight glass jars by weighing the empty jar, filling the jar with cannabis flower, weighing the filled jar, and finally validating the contents’ weight by comparing the feeding scale weight with the post-fill scale weight.

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Read more packaging stories about Green Thumb’s Incredibles brand at pwgo.to/7463, or its Dogwalkers brand at pwgo.to/7464.

Even within Green Thumb’s own stable of brands, multiple brand players are strategically differentiating themselves. For example, there’s not just one cannabis flower offering, or just one vape or tincture offering. Within each category, several different Green Thumb brands are carving out individual niches for themselves on the quality and price continuum. Packaging plays a role in this spectrum, too, as one brand plants a flag on premium quality, another on value, and others on attributes like sleep, wellness, or euphoric effect. And it’s not just the consumer-facing elements of packaging that are becoming so sophisticated. With volumes increasing and workforce reliability strained, Green Thumb’s many brands are increasing their use of automation at production facilities in ways that would be unrecognizable to the highly manual first wave of cannabis manufacturers. The latest Green Thumb facility bears closer resemblance to a current Mondele-z or PepsiCo plant than it does an early 2000s-era California or Washington cannabis production facility. Toby Strickland, Fusion Support Services LLC, an automation acquisition consultant who works closely with Green Thumb, explains the shift: “When I first came to Green Thumb to start working on packaging automation, what I discovered about the industry—not just Green Thumb, but the industry itself—is the emphasis had always been on cultivation, harvesting, extraction, and similar operations. These companies spared no expense to do these things and have done them very well. But packaging was always an afterthought. It was typically just people sitting around a table and manually packaging product. Well, two factors started to create the need for some level of automation. One was scarcity of labor, though that was probably secondary. More important was the upstream volume they were trying to process. They were upsizing all of their grow rooms, and they were getting so much more output from the grow side that they needed more speed of ‘out the door’ for packaging. You had the need to get more product packaged, and quicker.” This is generally true of any industry, but there’s a quirk to cannabis that only exacerbates the situation. When you have the large amount

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A starwheel carries cleaned, empty jars from an initial scale, then underneath a filler, and finally to a second scale that weighs the filled jar.

of biomass upstream from the packaging operations, there’s no way of stopping it from streaming down. “Cannabis is not like in traditional CPG, where you can just turn off the production. You can’t just close the valve in this industry,” says Bryce Watters, Regional Continuous Improvement/Lean Manufacturing Manager, Green Thumb. “The flowers are always growing, and there is a timeline involving drying, curing, and post-harvest steps. It’s a schedule that you really need to stick to. That translates to needing a packaging department that’s able to outpace the grow operation. That means automation.”

Case in point: RYTHM Cannabis Flower RYTHM is a Green Thumb brand that resides at the crosshairs of this growing sophistication in both packaging automation and brand positioning. RYTHM operates squarely at the premium, top-quality end of the cannabis flower (also called bud or nug[get]) totem pole. “There’s several different categories for flower in the market,” says Watters. “You’ve got your first cut, if you will, which is your big premium nugs. And then you have your second cut, which is a lower tieredmarketed nug. But the RYTHM brand is for the premium flower, which means it’s those really big, nice, juicy-looking nugs. When you open the jar, you’re taken aback by the appearance, flavor, and smokability of it.” Most flower is either sold in flexible pouches or lightweight HDPE jars, but RYTHM brand managers opted for a heavier, premium painted glass jar so the package experience would match the premium-quality product and price point. Until recently, these were hand-filled by workers. But increasing volume and worker shortages made this packaging operation ripe for automation. But first, the existing format would need a few tweaks. Though the jar’s contents were and would continue to be 3.5 oz of product, the jar would need to be larger than the legacy pack to accommodate automation. While human labor is slow, it’s adept at manually placing differently sized and shaped buds into a tight space, like puzzle pieces. Most equipment can’t match that capability.

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“Basically, our first task was bud-sizing,” Strickland says. Automating the line would require the buds to free-fall into the jar rather than be carefully, purposefully placed in the jar. “We worked together to create a ‘bud spec’ that specifies that our buds are at least this large, but then no larger than that, because they have to free-fall into the jar. The bud spec drove the jar size, and then at some level, the jar size drove the bud spec. There was some work around bud sizing and jar sizing for automated equipment.” Meanwhile, research on equipment took a threepronged approach, with Strickland assessing entrylevel machinery, what they called value systems in the intermediate category, and premium machinery. Another unique wrinkle in the cannabis industry exerted some influence in how equipment was chosen. “I came from the CPG industry where I would design and install multi-million dollar systems to supply two-thirds of the country,” Strickland says. “Well, in this world, you can only distribute in the state you’re in, so there’s a unique challenge to try to find the level of automation that you need, at the price point that you need, while being able to justify it. So, I did an options analysis of several entry-level systems, several value systems, and several premium systems.” After some trial and error with some of the entrylevel and value systems, Strickland came to the predictable conclusion that you get what you pay for. Meanwhile, Green Thumb’s latest grow and production facility was coming online soon. “What we had learned at the other facilities with the entry-level and the value systems led us to the decision to go with Spee-Dee, which is considered a premium, A-level vendor,” Strickland says. “Spee-Dee’s contract provided for integration of a full packaging line [more on that on page 44], but the centerpiece of the equipment is what’s called a tare gross weighing system.”

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Cannabis is an expensive product, more in line with cosmetics, nutraceuticals, or high-end spirits than more commoditized packaged goods found elsewhere on retail shelves. There’s a lot of IP, horticulture, and grow and processing time that goes into each cannabis flower before it arrives at the packaging stage. Over-

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weights and product giveaway eat deeply into profitability. Meanwhile, consumer expectations are high, especially for a product like RYTHM that’s positioned as premium. Underweights are heavily frowned upon, to put it mildly. The preciseness of the weight was key. “But we knew, through research, that the empty jars themselves would vary sometimes by a gram, a gram and a half, even two grams,” Strickland says. “And you can’t have that kind of weight variation when you’re dealing in tenths of a gram. The traditional method of weighing product into a jar, and then trying to send it across a checkweigher, was not going to be effective at the precise weights we were looking at.” Mark Navin at Spee-Dee suggested what the company calls its tare gross weighing system, which is uses a starwheel flanked by two scales, one for before and one for after filling. It weighs the empty jar, fills the jar with cannabis flower, weighs the filled jar, and thus validates the weight by comparing the feeding scale weight versus the post-fill scale weight. “It’s validating, in real time, the weight that you just put into the jar, which I thought was pretty clever,” Strickland says. “You have the ability to set overweight and underweight limits. Of course, in the cannabis industry, there’s no such thing as an underweight. There’s no maximum allowable value yet, but I think when we specified the allowable range, we began around 3.5 grams per jar, minus zero, plus three-tenths of a gram. That was the weight range we were looking for, otherwise the system rejects the filled jar.”

Watch the tare gross weighing system in action in this brief video. Visit pwgo.to/7470 to watch.

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In yet another wrinkle that’s somewhat unique to cannabis flower, there’s a high degree of variability in size between each individual bud or nug. This factor further highlights the importance of the bud spec, originally completed before the equipment was selected. “There had to be a mixture of large and small buds, and the system had to manage the combinations it needed to give you the precise weight,” Strickland says. “It’s hard to hit a tenth-of-a-gram target when you’ve got a scale full of two-gram buds, but it all worked together nicely.” “It’s a really good system,” Watters adds. “It’s a very clever design for managing variable-weight jars. And it has a good system for managing checks and balances, so that the consumer never feels like they’re cheated by not getting their correct weight. It pretty much eliminates the possibility of a consumer getting an underweight jar.”

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One early hurdle in integrating the line was related to the capping operation. The black-painted jar posed some challenges since there were white threads on the inside of the cap. If the capper ran too fast, operators were seeing some white dust on the outside of the container, not a good look for a premium product. It forced Spee-Dee integrators to pivot, switching from a single-head capper to a three-head capper to keep the RPM of each spindle down. “We had other cappers on some of our value systems that were single-head, but the throughput speed was probably less than half the rate of the Spee-Dee line,” Strickland recalls. “So that single-head capper would work fine at those slower speeds. But on this line, which runs

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just place the painted jars on the table. at about 40 jars per minute, the single“That accumulation table single files head capper from Arol was just having to jars that are fed into a Morrison Containrun too fast and having to torque it on so er Handling Solutions air rinsing system. fast that it was doing a little bit of damIt uses just the right amount of back presage to the cap. So, they switched to the sure to feed into a timing screw rinsing three-head capper from Arol to manage system smoothly so there isn’t any jamthat speed, and the problem went away.” ming,” Watters says. “The Morrison system Another issue that the team faced flips the jars upside down to expose the early on in the project had to do with the opening of the container, where ionized amount of variable data that needed to air is used to blow each jar so you’re not be printed, in-line, onto RYTHM’s preshaving any dust particulate or whatever sure-sensitive labels. Each jar of cannabis might be caught in the jars in the manumust contain information about the spefacturing process.” cific batch of cannabis flower it contains, From there, clean jars travel into an including THC and CBD content, dates, infeed conveyor that introduces them to and other batch-specific information. On the Spee-Dee tare gross weighing conveyits face, that shouldn’t be a problem. But or. That’s where the jar supply line meets there were complicating factors. The high the flower supply line—in the tare gross line speed (for the industry), the luxury weighing conveyor below the Ishida scale. matte finish of the label rollstock and how Now in production, the scale typically it took ink, the premium silver/metallic print ribbon, and the variable jar geom- On a mezzanine, a product infeed conveyor introduces doses between 3.52 g and 3.55 g into each jar, and the jar weights are validated by etries all conspired to cause problems. cannabis flower to a multihead combination scale. the tare gross weighing system. “In general, labeling is not the most “From there, outfeed is dependent on the math that the tare gross difficult thing,” Watters says. “However, if you have variation on your weighing system is doing in the background,” Watters says. “If a jar infeed from jar to jar, it definitely does make center-lining those labeldoesn’t meet its target weight, it’s rejected right there. But if it does, ing machines quite difficult. And that setup is very important. What we the system will send it through the accept lane, which is the lane that’s find is we have quite a bit of geometric variance in our jars, often from going to feed capper.” a millimeter to a quarter of a millimeter, even to two millimeters. It Handling rejects is important since cannabis flower is expensive really does impact us in that respect, especially considering you’re also product. Though the jar, label, or cap may be relegated to scrap, the applying a tamper-evident seal to the seam between the cap and the cannabis flower certainly isn’t—at least not frequently. jar. The placement of that really does matter.” “Even if it were one or two jars per minute that were rejected—which Today, RYTHM uses two labelers on the line—Tronics brand printers typically isn’t the case—you definitely with Zebra printheads purchased from have enough time as a filler operator to Chicago Coding—that not only keep up make a quick adjustment. If you need but, combined, outpace the whole packto add some more flower, you add some aging system. Each printer is specified for more flower to it. If you need to remove 30 jars/min, so cumulatively they can run some, you remove some,” Watters says. “If at 60 jars/min, outpacing the 40-jar/min it’s a sizable number of rejects for some system. reason, you just dump the contents back into the top of the conveyor in the Ishida, and the system will do its math again.” As one might expect, the RYTHM canNext, the jars containing validated nabis flower packaging line by Spee-Dee product weights move on to capping. Behas two main inputs: cannabis flower and cause it’s a three-head system as opposed jars. The infeed for the flower is through to a one-head, the Arol capper is able to an Ishida/Heat and Control multihead outspeed the filler. That allows the filler to combination scale with product infeed speed up or slow down depending on the conveyance from Heat and Control. The backlog of flower that it has in the jars. combination scale sits on a mezzanine The jars are then capped with enough from Stainless Specialists. Jar infeed ocpressure to activate the child lock—a curs a bit further upstream, where manual child-protection mechanism is intrinsic in depalletization occurs from the pallet to an Assembly, validation, and training on the Green Thumb the cap and jar system, locking when the accumulation table. No jar orientation by packaging line. two are mated. Capped and locked jars the operators is necessary here; they can

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then travel to another accumulation table, this one a diverter/accumulator from Arrowhead that feeds two Arrowhead conveyors that each feed one of the two Tronics labeling machines. One labeler acts as a master machine that takes the majority of volume. The second labeler is mostly there to accommodate spillover volume. “From there, the two Tronics labelers feed another set of accumulation tables. These will just be used for operators to pull the jars off and

SEE THE DIFFERENCE ?

to put them into secondary packaging, which is just a paperboard carton that’ll then get sent to the dispensaries,” Watters says. “It’s actually quite clever what we do. Rather than having to have two sets of trays for loads of jars—one coming from the glass manufacturer, and one leaving the facility—we’ll take the same trays that the jars actually came in and just transport them 10 feet over to the other accumulation table to use them on the way out. You’ve got a closed loop; you’re not actually wasting any paperboard trays in the process.” This step largely ends the packaging operations, save for order fulfillment. No master cases need be built since cannabis distribution doesn’t quite work the same as other, higher-volume CPG manufacturing. The facility doesn’t distribute to its dispensaries in any format other than by individualized, hand-picked order. When the jars go to order fulfillment, the orders come in from the dispensaries, and they are picked and placed in what could be called rainbow orders, containing of all the varieties that the dispensary selected, and in the quantities they want.

I T

Results and what’s next

RE JE C T ED

Watters has been keeping tabs on the RYTHM packaging line team, and he reports that the machinery has been running without a hitch since it was commissioned in October 2021. “It definitely is a very good piece of equipment,” he says. “I would say it’s one of the best pieces of equipment we’ve purchased as a company, and it’s really gearing us towards a true CPG company.” With that comes a lot of challenges. The company has had to start converting its workforce from operator-based to more technician-based. The facility has been working to make that transition by incorporating more troubleshooting and problem solving in its employee training. “Typically, in my experience in supply chains, automation shows you clear opportunities from a quality and throughput point of view. Because all of a sudden, you have a piece of equipment that can outpace everything,” Watters adds. “It highlights other areas that now need improvement that you might not have noticed before, or didn’t need improvement before that speed was there. It also has shown us some opportunities in the supply chain in sizing, in the post-harvest equipment, everything in that respect.” Summarizes Strickland, “I think this system has now painted the picture for Green Thumb leadership that you can’t be afraid to invest in the premium equipment because the premium stuff’s going to give you the results you’re looking for. You’ve got what we call the A-market vendors like Spee-Dee, the PMMI-level guys that provide the premium equipment. I think this system has painted the right picture of what the right amount of investment, with the right vendor, can do for you.” PW

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AUTOMATION OEM APPLICACTION NOTE

CANNABIS FOCUS

Production as a Service (PaaS)

Cloud-based remote monitoring

By Matt Reynolds, Chief Editor The legal cannabis market is forecasted to reach $41.6 billion by 2025, as more than 36 states have already made recreational or medical cannabis legal, and additional legalization efforts are underway across the nation. Machine builder Accelerant Manufacturing co-founder Grant Schuster and his team looked at the cannabis pre-roll cone joints market and noticed that pre-rolled marijuana products are outperforming overall market growth. The Maryland-based company saw an opportunity to use automation in this arena, and began work on cannabis pre-roll equipment to meet the niche demand. “We observed that pre-rolled product sales grew 47% year-over-year in established markets in 2020,” Schuster says. “The problem is that operators cannot hire, train, and retain labor to keep up with demand. In response, our early research and development efforts proved that automation could produce up to 2,000 pre-rolls per hour and repurpose the 15 to 20 people needed The machine’s recipe approach allows operators to easily adjust specs to different to produce the same output.” flower strains through compacting and twisting to produce consistent shape with Accelerant contacted integrator Cutting Edge uniform density. Automation to help move the effort forward. ToThis light capacity feeder enhances compacting and serves as an gether, they developed what would become Accelerant’s PRO Modular ideal component within this demanding operation where small quantiSystem. Inclusion of an Eriez® 6C electromagnetic vibratory feeder was ties of cannabis are required, and consistent shape and uniform density critical to the success of pre-rolling and reducing waste. are crucial. The Eriez feeder handles 500 to 2,000 pre-rolls per hour. The weigh The 6C electromagnetic feeder—ideally suited for precise material filling system is accurate to .01 g, and is never underweight according metering applications—features a stainless-steel tray. The enclosed vibrato the company.

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The Accelerant PRO Modular System incorporates an Eriez 6C electromagnetic vibratory feeder that handles 500 to 2,000 cannabis pre-rolls per hour and is accurate to 0.01g—and it’s never underweight, the company says.

es makes funding difficult for many start-ups, according to Accelerant. These fledgling companies seek partnerships and financial considerations in new and creative forms. Accelerant offers a perfect solution: high-performance equipment under a lease that is based on cost per unit and includes maintenance. “Ours is the first ‘production as a service’ (PaaS) pre-roll machine,” Schuster says. “Because most cannabis operations are start-ups, we provide the machine, maintenance, and scale for no upfront costs. We charge on a per-unit-produced basis at a price that declines based on production levels. We call it a ‘plug, play, and prosper’ solution.” He adds, “We are proud that we are helping United States companies satisfy the market for safe medical and recreational cannabis while contributing financially to their local economies.” According to Eric Confer, Eriez Light Industry Market Manager, “Prerolls are hard to manufacture. The value of a pre-roll is 80 times as valuable as the cannabis itself. Every gram is costly. Labor is difficult and weight inaccuracy is common. Our 6C feeder fits this application and eliminates waste. Cycle times that were 30-40 seconds prior to installation are now five seconds.” “We needed a reliable vibratory feeder,” summarizes Schuster. “Eriez provided us a partnership—the kind we want with our clients. Eriez responded right from the start with a prototype product and support to help us produce 10 units immediately. We reduced cycle times and solved other issues with Eriez. We are impressed with the willingness of Eriez to work in the industry and partner with Accelerant.” According to a recent study by MJBizDaily, the pre-roll market grew 46% in 2020, especially in mature markets such as California, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington. The innovators at new OEMs like Accelerant Manufacturing really are blazing a path to the future, but using established partners to get there. PW

tory feeder drive is designed to operate in dusty and wet environments. When paired with the Unicon solid-state feeder control, superior feed rate control is achievable. The Eriez 6C electromagnetic vibratory feeder meets United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) requirements. “If you do a deep dive on our PRO Modular System, you will see many other features that provide our customers state-of-the-art technology at a price point that is attractive,” Schuster says. “We have a cloud-based platform that is meeting and exceeding customer expectations.” The Accelerant modular system allows for capacity expansion as the producer’s market grows. It’s robotic cone loader adapts to sizes ranging from 70 mm to 140 mm offered by brands such as RAW, Elements, JWare, Hara, Futurola, and more, according to Schuster. With the machine’s recipe approach, operators easily adjust specs to different flower strains through compacting (vibration and rod) and twisting (turn and depth) to produce consistent shape with uniform density. The durable design includes a stainless-steel frame and contact parts, a sophisticated scale, quality motors and a modular method that allows swap-outs. Remote monitoring enables ready data to be sent to Accelerant’s cloud platform for every 10 units. Recipes, weights, configurations, quantities, and cycle times are adjusted by station. Real-time remote visuals are integrated using in-line cameras. Key data insights allow Accelerant’s engineers to assist operators in improving productivity and quality. Maintaining an ideal environment is possible through monitoring humidity and temperature. Production count monitoring ensures compliance. ExceptionAccelerant partnered with Cutting Edge Automation to provide customers with based weight conformity and key issue alarms act in state-of-the-art technology at an attractive price point. The cloud-based platform real-time to address root causes and reduce downtime. is exceeding expectations. The stigma attached to cannabis-related business-

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Previewing PACK EXPO East 2022 Last year’s wildly successful PACK EXPO Las Vegas proved to the packaging community not only that pandemic era in-person events can be done, but they can be done safely and executed well. Carrying momentum from September 2021’s PACK EXPO Las Vegas, PMMI continues on its industry reunification tour, this time with the returning regional hit PACK EXPO East 2022. With many of the nation’s CPGs, and plenty of pharma manufacturers, located within 200 miles of Philadelphia, PACK EXPO East 2022 promises the full PACK EXPO vibe in an easy-to-get-to location. PACK EXPO East 2022 runs March 21st to 23rd at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. Produced by PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies, the three-day event features 400 exhibiting companies and spans 100,000 net square feet, providing the opportunity for attendees to exchange ideas with 7,000 peers.

March 21-23, 2022 Pennsylvania Convention Center Philadelphia, PA USA The northeastern U.S. is home to nearly one-third of the nation’s top CPGs. Plus, manufacturing companies are one of the top five employer groups in the region, according to Statistical Atlas. Benefiting from this concentration of CPGs and brand owners, PACK EXPO East will address the trends and challenges driving the food and beverage, pharmaceutical and medical device, cosmetics and personal care, industrial and household chemical, and other packaged goods industries. Attendees include manufacturers, managers, engineers, production supervisors, purchasers, brand managers, package designers, product development professionals, and supply chain and logistics professionals from companies of all sizes. The show has already surpassed the size of the last two PACK EXPO East events in 2018 and 2020, which was held just before the pandemic, and exhibit sales continue their upward trend. Registration is also keeping pace with the 2020 show. Visit pwgo.to/7466 for live stats on attendance and exhibitors. “Things have changed dramatically since 2020 and our industry has been working to keep up during this pandemic,” says Laura Thompson, VP, Trade Shows, PMMI. “There is a need to meet face-to-face to

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find solutions to keep up with demand and our numbers indicate that the industry is excited to come together and see the latest technologies first-hand.”

Bring the whole team Feedback from attendees and exhibitors alike has identified PACK EXPO East as a highly efficient way for end users and suppliers of packaging technologies to engage. It doesn’t hurt that the East Coast region is so strongly represented in this industry. After four successful PACK EXPO East events, a frequent theme is how accessible the shows have been, and not only to top packaging equipment and materials buyers, but also to whole teams of attendees who otherwise don’t get to go to hands-on trade shows. Attending organizations find they can reproduce a “PACK EXPO” experience for bigger portions of their teams, and can send folks they might not be able to fly to Chicago or Las Vegas. The barrier to entry is much lower for those in the northeast. “I’m a returning attendee to PACK EXPO East,” John Kuzanan, Engineer with Empire Coffee Co. Inc., says. “Empire Coffee roasts a range of coffees and we’re here to find k-cup solutions. The show is close to our operation in New York and it’s a good venue for speaking one-on-one with suppliers about their technologies.” Some attending companies send younger employees as a way of rewarding, incentivizing, and nurturing their professional development, or send a mix of employees of different experience levels together to encourage mentoring relationships. These types of attendees can benefit from one-on-one, face-to-face dialog with the northeast regional packaging machinery and materials suppliers they will continue to work with throughout their careers.

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Health, Safety, and Local Philadelphia Regulations To learn about the PACK Ready Health and Safety plan and Philadelphia’s recent vaccination mandate*, visit packexpoeast.com/packready. The site will have the most updated information and details on vaccination requirements and exemptions. PW *The City of Philadelphia requires proof of vaccination for all venues serving food and beverage, therefore proof of vaccination is required to attend PACK EXPO East. For more information on Philadelphia’s vaccination requirements and exemptions visit packexpoeast.com/faqs. Show Management will continue to monitor any updates from all state and local directives as well as our partners at the Pennsylvania Convention Center and update show participants accordingly.

“I came to PACK EXPO East looking to find packaging and labeling solutions but was pleasantly surprised to find so much more,” adds David Garcia, product manager, Refresco Beverages US Inc. “It is very informative and the one-on-one engagement here is invaluable. PACK EXPO East is a great place to disover the latest technologies in the industry and see them in action. I’m walking away from the show knowing what types of machinery I’m going to invest in.”

Educational and networking opportunities abound The biennial event provides professionals from the consumer packaged goods- and life sciences-rich northeast corridor a convenient and rewarding opportunity to explore the latest packaging and processing technology in person, connect with suppliers, and find applicable solutions in a changing marketplace. PMMI has proven that PACK EXPO events provide unmatched networking and educational opportunities. Attendees and exhibitors alike will have access to must-see highlights at this year’s show. Free, supplier-driven, 30-minute seminars on the Innovation Stage offer opportunities to learn from experts. Meanwhile, the Forum at PACK EXPO will feature free, interactive, 45-minute open sessions followed by small group discussions and Q&A sessions on the latest industry trends. Networking highpoints include the PACK EXPO East Opening Reception, the Young Professionals Reception, hosted by PMMI’s Emerging Leaders Network, and The Packaging & Processing Women’s Leadership Network (PPWLN) networking reception. PACK EXPO East isn’t just for the pros. The event offers programs and activities aimed at getting students excited about careers in packaging, too. For example, come see high school robotics teams from the Philadelphia area showcase their design, engineering, and troubleshooting

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skills, at the Future Innovators Robotics Showcase. PMMI’s Certified Trainer Workshops, held March 21-22 will equip your company with strategies and tactics to train well across all employee skill levels including service technicians, service and training managers, maintenance technicians, internal trainers, line supervisors, and any employee tasked with training fellow employees or customers. Field service technicians are the face of your organization. While technical proficiency garners the most attention, there is far more to being a technician. Also held March 21-22, Fundamentals of Field Service is a two-day workshop explores non-technical knowledge and skills needed to be a great technician. Topics include: Customer Service, Troubleshooting, Environmental Issues, Safety, Training, and Service Call Follow Up. The Workforce Development Pavilion will feature PMMI Partner Schools presenting mechatronics, packaging, and processing offerings, with an opportunity to meet students interested in careers in the industry. The Association Partner Pavilion houses leading associations dedicated to advancing the packaging and processing industry, including the Reusable Packaging Association (RPA), Institute of Packaging Professionals (IoPP), AIM, CPA—The Association for Contract Packagers and Manufacturers, Flexible Packaging Association (FPA), Adhesive and Sealant Council (ASC), OMAC – Organization for Machine Automation & Control, and the Foundation For Supply Chain Solutions (F4SS) with many more to come. Visit packexpoeast.com for a full schedule of events, and to register where necessary. “As industry analysts, we’re here to observe trends and new technologies…,” says Dan Ward, Commercial Director, Ducker Frontier. “PACK EXPO East is a good show to see what is going on in the industry.” Just a drive or train trip away for most of the east coast, no other similar event will offer such a wide range of state-of-the-art packaging and processing solutions as PACK EXPO East. For more information and to register, visit packexpoeast.com. —Matt Reynolds

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X-ray technology

Checkweighing

By Anne Marie Mohan, Senior Editor One of the largest independent manufacturers of private-label pet food products in Europe, U.K.-based GA Pet Food Partners espouses the core values of quality, integrity, and innovation—principles it imparts throughout the business, from processing through packaging, and everything in-between. The company is located in Bretherton, Leyland in Lancashire on a 40-acre site, where it produces 80,000 metric tons, or approximately 97,000 tons, of dry dog and cat food each year across three extrusion lines and eight packaging lines. Shares the company’s Managing Director, Dr. Andy Kettle, the culmination of GA Pet Food’s core values is its Freshtrusion™ process, which allows the company to incorporate higher levels of fresh meat into its recipes than provided by any other manufacturer. Freshtrusion, Dr. Kettle explains, involves the collection of the finest fresh meats and fish from trusted farms and fisheries, transportation of the For a new automated line that handles bag sizes from 1 to 4 kg, GA Pet Food installed the meat and fish in GA Pet Food’s own refrigerated versatile G40 X-ray system from Sapphire. trucks, and extensive on-site quality testing. This Designing the massive system to accommodate bags weighing up is followed by gentle cooking of the recipes at approximately 180°F, to 25 kg and measuring up to one meter (~3 ft) lying flat was a nearly which he says protects the products’ proteins and ensures maximum two-year project that involved challenges both with optimizing X-ray digestibility and nutritional value. With the use of proprietary technoldetection for such large products as well as engineering the machine for ogy, the company is also able to reduce the moisture content of the easy installation in the facility. freshly prepared meat and include increasingly high amounts of fresh meat into its recipes. Guaranteeing the Freshtrusion-produced product retains the highest quality and gets to the consumer contaminant-free is the job of GA Pet GA Pet Food is no stranger to the Sapphire platform of X-ray prodFood’s packaging operations, which recently got a boost with the replaceucts. “Sapphire is the only X-ray provider that GA has partnered with,” ment of three manual filling lines with one that is fully automated, reducshares Dr. Kettle. “We purchased our first machine in 2013, and now ing labor by 75%. Demonstrating the company’s commitment to innovawe have nine on-site. Sapphire machines offer great flexibility in coption, the line includes a nearly 22-ft-long X-ray machine, the largest of ing with a wide range of bag formats and sizes as well as unrivaled its kind ever engineered by U.K. supplier Sapphire Inspection Systems. performance.”

Custom solution required

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Flexibility is most assuredly top of mind for the company; GA Pet Food handles 700 different recipes and 2,500 different packaging formats in various constructions of paper, polyethylene, and foil. “So it’s a challenge to find inspection equipment that can cope with that,” says Dr. Kettle. “Sapphire has the expertise to create bespoke [custom] solutions for us that fully integrate with our own systems to provide a high level of process control and, in turn, reassurance for our own customers about the quality of every bag of their products.” One of its most recent acquisitions from Sapphire was the G40 X-ray system for a small-pack line installed in 2020 that replaces two manual filling lines and handles bag sizes from 1 to 4 kg. According to Dr. Kettle, GA selected the G40 due to the machine’s flexibility in handling a range of pack sizes, as well as the option to integrate the machine with the company’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. In early 2020, GA Pet Food Partners approached Sapphire with the need for an X-ray system that could integrate with the new large-pack packaging line it was developing to replace three manual lines. The company needed a system that could handle bags weighing from 5 to 25 kg and measuring one meter long and 520 mm (~20 in.) wide. Requirements included speeds to 14 bags/min, 24 hrs/day, 7 days/ week; the ability to detect stainless, ferrous, and non-ferrous metal down to 2 mm and glass down to 4 mm; and a footprint that could fit into a fairly tight space. “We also wanted the ability to checkweigh bags and collect rejects, which significantly added to the overall length,” says Dr. Kettle. He adds that another prerequisite was the ability of the X-ray system to fully control the machine through GA Pet Food’s ERP system and to be able to archive all images taken by the machine. This, along with a time stamp on each bag, allows for easy identification of a specific item if there are any issues after the product has been sold. Says Sapphire CEO Richard Parmee, “It was clear from the start that the latest innovative request from GA Pet Food Partners was going to need our unique bespoke approach to create our largest ever machine that can seamlessly integrate into the factory’s existing systems to ensure every product is of the high standard.”

Optimum geometry allows for large-product inspection Engineering an X-ray machine capable of inspecting bags weighing up to 25 kg at 1,800/hr posed challenges for Sapphire in terms of the accuracy and reliability of the design. “This machine is transporting and inspecting a substantial tonnage and value of product on a round-theclock basis, so it is built to be very robust,” says Parmee. “Optimization at the proprietary component and algorithm level is key to accuracy.” With X-ray technology, the larger the container diameter, the greater the impact on detection levels. “An X-ray system creates an image where the contaminants can be seen, generally, as dark features compared with the surrounding food matrix,” explains Parmee. “The greater the dimensions of the product, the smaller the proportionate difference, which is represented by a contaminant of a given size. As a result of this, we always try to design systems where we can image the pack through its smallest dimension.” The maximum GA Pet Food bag width is 520 mm, although the Sapphire machine can inspect wider bags up to 700 mm, “but the actual

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CPA Releases State of the Industry Report, Prepares for Annual Meeting Despite the colossal challenges faced by businesses resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, the contract packaging/contract manufacturing (CP/CM) industry in North America is one market that met those challenges and is alive and kicking. In fact, it’s bounding forward at a growth rate that’s “rarely seen outside a Petri dish.” That’s according to Carl Melville, COO of The Melville Group, whose firm produced the recently released sixth edition of CPA, The Association for Contract Packagers and Manufacturers’ State of the Industry Report.

“This is a great time to be in our industry,” says Melville. “In spite of probably the biggest shock to our economy, certainly since the Great Depression, our industry has done phenomenally. After a very brief pause, it has come roaring back.” According to the report, the CP/CM industry is forecast to grow at a 10.2% CAGR through 2025 to reach $121 billion in revenue, up from $67.5 billion in 2019. That number is slightly down from the 11.9% projection made in the last report (2017/2018), but still twice the rate of those industries it serves. “Our industry has been around a long time, and it’s continuing to experience double-digit growth,” says Melville. “I think we should celebrate that.” However, he cautions, while celebrating these numbers, CP/CMs also need to be aware of a number of industry headwinds—some resulting from the pandemic, some exacerbated by the pandemic, and some that had already begun gaining steam pre-COVID-19. The CPA 2021 State of the Industry Report is available for purchase for $995 for current CPA members; $1,995 for nonmembers. Read more coverage on the report at pwgo.to/7443. CPA’s annual event is now called “ENGAGE” – The Contract Packaging and Manufacturing Experience. Registration is open for the event, which is scheduled for March 1-3, 2022, at the Hilton Clearwater Beach Resort and Spa in Clearwater Beach, Fla. This is the largest networking opportunity for the CP/CM industry, its customers, and suppliers. Learn more at contractpackaging.org/engage For more information on how to leverage your CPA membership or become a member, visit contractpackaging. org. To subscribe to Contract Manufacturing & Packaging, The official publication of the Contract Packaging Assn., go to pwgo.to/7456. —Natalie Craig

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scanning width is dependent on bag height,” Parmee relates. To address the challenges presented by the bag size, Parmee says Sapphire adopted an approach of carefully examining the orientation of the X-ray beam to determine the optimum geometry. “Additionally, the radiographic hardware design, settings, scan rate, and product separation all contribute to creating a low-noise image, which provides the best opportunity for our proprietary algorithms to deliver accuracy.” To allow for product checkweighing using the same system, Sapphire incorporated gravitational weighing with load cells. The data from these load cells is processed by Sapphire’s new G40 XL 22-ft-long X-ray/checkweighing machine is the largest of its kind the same computer that compiles and pro- ever engineered by the U.K. supplier. cesses the X-ray images, thus product weighing shares the same database and analysis systems as X-ray inspection. “This computer interfaces with the factory communications network, Another challenge in the design and manufacture of the X-ray syswhich enables data interchange—both X-ray inspection and weight— tem was its sheer physical size; the final footprint of the machine is between the X-ray machine and the GA Pet Food Partners factory sysapproximately 22 ft L x 7 ft W x 8 ft H. “It [the machine] had to be tems,” explains Parmee. “We have been able to incorporate the most designed and built in a modular fashion so that it could be installed usadvanced digital signal processing to guarantee the accuracy of the ing a gantry within the factory,” explains Dr. Kettle. “With a machine of weight measurement, even with high levels of vibrations.” this size, ensuring its safe use required careful consideration. We had to

Behemoth size requires careful design

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1/27/22 4:23 PM

“In fact,” Parmee shares, “we are currently working, in a completely control the size of the doors and access panels, for example, to ensure different sector, on an application where we have been able to use the it was still ergonomic to use. central inspection system from this project but with a unique reject “The physical handling of the rejects was another challenge, given handling for the new application.” the size of the bags. This needed a lot of thought to avoid any negative As for GA Pet Food, Sapphire has met its expectations so well with effects on the whole production line—and potentially factory downthe recent X-ray/checkweighing system, it plans to add three more piectime. Our solution was to design a new reject mechanism with the abiles of Sapphire equipment in the near future. PW ity to either convey good product directly to the outfeed or safely divert contaminated product to a contaminated collection bin and underweight product to a weight collection bin. The new reject mechanism must operate rapidly, SU S due to the speed of the line, but still reject large, heavy S AI product sacks to the bins without damage.” U I For the body of the machine, GA Pet Food opted for a stainless steel construction for longevity and ease of maintenance. Although loose product is not conveyed through the machine, Parmee says hygienic design is always good practice. “Of course, inspecting a product after the packaging is sealed is an ideal situation, as there is no possibility of foreign materials entering the package,” he notes. “But general sanitary aspects in all our products include ease of cleaning and having ready and rapid access to internal features of the machine.” Flexibility to handle multiple bag sizes is made possible through the machine’s integration with GA Pet Food’s ERP system. Explains Dr. Kettle, “To facilitate this [changeover], all machine parameters are stored on our ERP system, which the operator has access to via a single control screen for the entire line. There are only two parts that have to be manually exchanged— otherwise the line is fully automated.” The X-ray/checkweighing machine is positioned imCURBSID R CYC AB mediately following the bagging machine, an IGF 1200 A R MAI R from Concetti North America Corp., which fills and closes premade, open-mouth bags at speeds to 950/hr. IPG® Curby Mailers are made from recyclable Other quality control equipment on the line includes a paper and lined with an innovative honeycomb paper structure. The Curby Mailer™ was designed throat metal detector, the Safeline T Series Profile from to replace traditional polybubble and Kraft mailers with Mettler Toledo, which inspects free-flowing product edge to edge and seam to seam protection. as it falls from a weighing system to the bagging machine, a custom bag recognition system from Routeco The Curby Mailer is: • A one to one replacement for single use plastic that ensures the correct bag is loaded into the bagger mailers every time, and a Qipack seal inspection system that Made from • Made with recyclable paper uses a thermal imaging camera to provide a non-deR CYC AB • PATENT PROTECTED A R! structive means of validating the integrity of every bag • The ultimate honeycomb protection seal. A Mach 5.1 palletizer from Symach, a BW Packaging Systems company, stacks the bags after they are • Curbside recyclable, easily disposed with all your other recyclable materials inspected by the Sapphire system.

W AB

US I G

Transferrable technology Custom-engineered for GA Pet Food but now available as a standard offering, Sapphire’s giant X-ray machine has been given the model name G40 XL. Explains Parmee, the model shares many of the same capabilities as the company’s G40 high-speed linear array inspection system, which has a detector array length of 409 to 614 mm, but has a higher capacity.

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By Anne Marie Mohan, Senior Editor

Walmart Brand Leans in to ‘Humanization’ of Pets “Pets are people, too.” At least that’s what recent research, including a report from PMMI Business Intelligence, seems to suggest. According to the report (see pwgo.to/7459), many of the same trends driving human food packaging, such as sustainability and e-commerce, are also driving pet food packaging developments. This “humanization” of pet food means consumers are looking for the same nutrition and freshness for their pets that they get from their own items in the shopping cart. Capitalizing on this trend, Walmart’s super-premium, privatelabel dog and cat food brand, Pure Balance, is made from natural ingredients and, depending on variety, is free from fillers, artificial preservatives, flavors, or colors, does not include soy, corn, wheat, or grain, and includes vitamins, minerals, and other trace elements. In 2020, global packaging design company Equator redesigned packaging for the brand to evolve its look and feel to reflect the products’ high quality and to align it with premium-tier cues. Says Equator’s Creative Director, Aaron Funke, the team introduced a host of sharp, characterful photography, such as prominent pet photos to make the packaging more pet-centric and images of ingredients to signal food type, flavor, and ingredients, putting the products’ freshness and health benefits front and center. “With a modern look and unified design architecture, the packaging features black [dog] and grey [cat] color palettes, accented with pops of bright color to enable versioning and ease of navigation,” says Funke. “Outlining key product benefits and product attributes is a clear claims and benefits system that helps consumers quickly select the right product for their pet.” Between February and July 2021, Walmart rolled out a brand extension to Pure Balance, called PRO+, formulated to address the needs of cats and dogs according to their size, life stage, or specific health condition. There are four SKUs for cats, five for dogs. For the extension, Walmart wanted packaging that would maintain the core integrity of the Pure Balance line, highlighting the emphasis the brand places on real ingredients and real value for consumers, while communicating PRO+’s points of differentiation. Elements retained from the existing Pure Balance packaging design include the use of black and grey, as well as the pack architecture. “We carried forward foundational equities, such as font styles and photography styles, so that consumers could swiftly link the new range with the positive brand associations belonging to Pure Balance, and it would connect back with Pure Balance’s unique selling point of providing real food and real ingredients,” says Funke. “But we

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also wanted to give the new product range its own identity, drawing attention to the fact that these products offer new and compelling nutritional benefits and are targeted toward specific groupings of canine/feline and dietary requirements. “This sub-brand is benefit-led, a bit like health and wellness crossover products for humans, such as vitamin-fortified water, are benefit-led. For those customers who have bought these products for themselves, navigating these pet food varieties may feel somewhat familiar. With the dog food varieties, for example, there are Large Breed, Small Breed, Puppy, Senior Dog, and Weight Management formulas. So for ease of navigation, we established corresponding

colors based on the benefit of the food, rather than its taste profile, as had been done in Pure Balance. Also to differentiate it from the parent brand, the animal’s face is seen straight on, rather than in profile, and the ingredients are pictured smaller and positioned to the side to bring more attention to the health benefit callouts. In these ways, the elements work together to prioritize benefit while giving the flavor profile lesser prominence.” Since the release, a number of consumers have voiced their approval of the packaging via Walmart.com. Comments include, “I really like the packaging. It’s sleek, and I love the colors,” “There is a lot of useful information on the back of the packaging, including a chart of how to mix in this dog food at certain percentages over time… . I thought that was very helpful of the manufacturer to put that on the packaging,” and “It is well packaged and extremely fresh, not to mention the packaging is very professional and jumps out on you at shelf.” For her part, Liz Ramirez, Product Development at Walmart congratulates the Equator team for the beautiful design. “This is such an important and growing category for our pet parents,” she says. “Way to make a difference!” PW

1/26/22 2:27 PM

INDUSTRY WATCH

NEW DESIGN

Companies TricorBraun expanded its presence in the beverage packaging market with the acquisition of Zuckerman Honickman and Vessel Packaging. Mold-Rite Plastics celebrated its Ohio facility’s 50th anniversary.

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Following the recent merger between Arjobex and MDV, the new group will be known as Polyart. Beckhoff’s TwinCAT automation software turned 25. Ranpak Holdings Corp. expanded its cold chain packaging solutions with the acquisition of Recycold Cool Solutions BV. Oliver Inc. acquired Professional Image and aspecialtybox.com. ProAmpac acquired Prairie State Group, an SQF-certified provider of flexible packaging and labeling services, strengthening its flexible and sustainable packaging offerings for the food and pet food markets and expanding its labeling capabilities. With the acquisition of SAPICI, a manufacturer of high-performance polyurethanes for coatings, flexible packaging, and industrial adhesives, Sun Chemical will add to its capabilities to develop and produce polymers for its portfolio. Printpack invested in Nexus Circular’s commercial scale up of its proprietary advanced recycling process.

People Buffy Hagerman was appointed Marketing Communications Manager for Key Technology, a Duravant brand. Formost Fuji Corp. promoted Derek Dietrich to Service Manager and David Korsmo to Assistant Service Manager. Bob McHenry will fill a new position within the department as Service Resource Specialist. Greg Rousselot was appointed Strategy and Business Development Manager for PTI. Vuk Trivanovic was named CEO of Shurtape Technologies. Chris Nothnagle was appointed Senior Director, New Business Development for Toray Plastics. Rohrer Corp. added Chris Rautner, Chief Human Resources Officer, Gary Starks, Senior Vice President of Operations, and Martin Layding, Chief Financial Officer to its leadership team. It also acquired Jay Packaging Group. Lee Ralph was appointed Commercial & Supply Chain Manager for Eco Flexibles. Garrett Guinn joins SOMIC Packaging as Western Regional Sales Manager.

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In Memoriam Laura Rowell and Elisabeth Comere passed away in October 2021. They were instrumental in establishing environmentally focused packaging organizations and initiatives such as AMERIPEN, The Sustainable Packaging Coalition, The Recycling Partnership, and the Carton Council of North America. Bernie Lerner, founder of Automated Packaging Systems, passed away on December 11, 2021.

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Visit the link below each item for more info.

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TECHNOLOGY

Robotic Bacon Loader

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JLS’s hygienic Harrier system automatically loads fresh, sliced retail bacon drafts into thermoformers. A patentpending robotic gripper EOA tool prefolds a flat bacon L-board flap using a combination of linear servo actuators.

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Counting/Dispensing System Featuring its HQ Series counting and dispensing machines, Cremer’s customizable system is suitable for apportioning various wrapped food assortments such as mixed chocolates, candies, and coffee pods.

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EDL Packaging’s twin-stream shrink-film bundler is designed to collate and securely bundle 3-, 4-, and 6-packs of shrink-wrapped bottles, allowing for faster shelf stocking at retail locations.

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MATERIAL HANDLING SOLUTIONS

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1/26/22 3:33 PM

AD INDEX Search Packworld.com for additional information on any of the advertisers listed or visit their website directly ADVERTISER WEBSITE

CAPACITIVE LEVEL CONTROL

PAGE

Allied Technology LLC www.allied-technology.com

Batching Systems www.batchingsystems.com

BELL-MARK www.bell-mark.com

Ellsworth Adhesives www.ellsworth.com

Exair Corporation www.exair.com

Federal Mfg LLC www.federalmfg.com

Fibre Box Association www.fibrebox.org

GRA Services International www.graservices.com

Heat and Control, Inc. www.heatandcontrol.com

High Tek USA, Inc. www.hightekusa.com

ID Technology www.idtechnology.com

Analog Level Tri-Clamp, Sticky Liquids

Fine Powders

Ideal-Pak Massman LLC www.ideal-pak.com

Intertape Polymer Group www.itape.com

Intralox www.intralox.com

James Alexander Corp. www.james-alexander.com

482 Fahrenheit / 250 Celsius

King Plastic Corporation www.kingplastic.com

Klöckner Pentaplast, PHD www.kpfilms.com

IFC

Label-Aire, Inc. www.label-aire.com

10, 11

Mantrose-Haeuser Co., Inc. www.mantrose.com

Modular Conveyor Express www.modularconveyor.com

Mold-Rite Plastics www.mrpcap.com

Nercon Conveyor Systems www.nerconconveyors.com

PakTech www.paktech-opi.com

PFlow Industries, Inc. www.pflow.com

PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies www.pmmi.org

BOOTH 521

AtEx, IECEx

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25, 31, 47, 59

ProFood World www.profoodworld.com

Rechner Electronics Ind., Inc. www.rechner.com

Ryson International Inc. www.ryson.com

Siko Products, Inc. www.siko-global.com

Spee-Dee Packaging Machinery www.spee-dee.com

Triangle Package Machinery Company www.trianglepackage..com Uline www.uline.com

3 15

Unified Flex Packaging Technologies www.unifiedflex.com

IBC

Van der Graaf www.vandergraaf.com

OBC

WEIMA America, Inc. www.weima.com Westrock www.westrock.com

32 OFC

Connect with a Leaders in Packaging supplier and support packaging education!

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March 21-23, 2022 Pennsylvania Convention Center Philadelphia, PA USA

YOUR EAST COAST CONNECTION FOR PACKAGING AND PROCESSING

1/27/22 4:00 PM

60 PW FEB2022

THE INSIDER

By Ben Miyares, Packaging Sherpa

Bold but Implausible Plan Pinpoints U.S. Role in Global Ocean Plastic Waste Americans, we are told, generate more plastic waste both by weight and per person than any other country—42 million metric tons (MMT) yearly—or 287 pounds per man, woman, and child, at least as of 2016. That is more than the 30 MMT/120 pounds per person of plastic waste spewed out by the 27 European Union countries and way more than India (26 MMT/43 pounds per person) or China (22 MMT/35 pounds per person), the next two highest national plastic waste generators, according to a pre-publication report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NAS). If current practices continue, the weight of plastics discharged globally into the ocean could reach up to 53 MMT per year by 2030, “roughly half of the total weight of fish caught from the ocean annually,” says the NAS’s Committee on the United States Contributions to Global Ocean Plastic Waste, which wrote the bold but implausible report, due out this Spring. Key elements of the NAS Committee plan call for the U.S. to: • Substantially cut solid waste generation to reduce plastic waste in the environment and lower the environmental, economic, aesthetic, and health costs of managing waste and litter. • Conduct a scientifically designed national marine debris shoreline survey every five years. • Establish new or enhance existing National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) plastic pollution monitoring programs. • Create a federal research and policy strategy that focuses on identifying, implementing, and assessing equitable and effective interventions across the entire plastic life cycle to reduce U.S. contribution of plastic waste to the environment, including the ocean. The NAS calls for the strategy to be developed by December 31, 2022. But, in view of the number of ocean plastic waste “knowledge gaps” the report writers identify, that deadline comes too soon. Those knowledge gaps include: • Limited access to transparent data on plastic production, which the report considers “a significant barrier to understanding the amounts and trends in quantities and types of plastic resins.” The committee admits it doesn’t know “just how much plastic is produced in the U.S. and how much is used for packaging. Still, it reports, “compared to other packaging materials, such as glass, plastic packaging uses less material, due to its strength, and less energy during transport, due to its lightweight nature.” • Little national-scale data in the U.S. besides the Environmental Protection Agency’s municipal solid waste numbers to understand the “sources, types, and relative scale of plastic waste generated and

disposed or leaked to the environment.” • Lack of a comprehensive understanding of the contribution of various transport pathways to plastics in the ocean. This, notes the report, “is hindered by the complexity of the transport processes and the data needed to measure and model variability in fluxes over space and time.” The committee adds that research is needed on “the rates at which plastics degrade at various depths in the ocean, and how this varies by polymer type” as well as the “fate of plastics in marine biota, including residence time, digestive degradation, and egestion and excretion rates.” • Tracking and monitoring shortfalls: The committee believes there would be “significant value in developing a data and information portal by which existing and emerging marine debris/aquatic plastic waste data sets could be integrated to provide a more complete picture of the efforts currently tracking plastic pollution across the nation.” Closing those four knowledge gaps in time to meet a less-than-oneyear-away deadline is a vain and irrelevant hope that will not affect the outcome of NAS’s awesome and terrible six-pronged strategies: • Reducing plastic production, especially plastics that are not reusable or practically recyclable—i.e., by establishing a national cap on virgin plastic production. • Innovating design and materials to develop plastic substitutes that degrade more quickly or can be more easily recycled or reused. • Decreasing waste generation by reducing the use of disposable plastic intended for short periods of use. • Improving waste management by imposing regulatory limits on plastic or microplastic waste discharged into the ocean by river systems. • Capturing waste in the environment including ground litter, storm water, or directly from waters where it accumulates. • Minimizing at-sea disposal by directly targeting the flow of plastic from vessels or platforms. Finally, in recommending “potential means to reduce United States contributions to global ocean plastic waste,” the NAS Committee endorses the “need and opportunity to deploy economic instruments such as taxes and subsidies and extended user responsibilities and behavioral interventions such as promoting the voluntary adoption of pro-environment behavior in societies through non-price and nonregulatory means to incentivize the most environmentally benign use, recycling, and disposal of plastics and plastic waste.” Ultimately, the plastic waste reckoning envisioned by NAS would signal an end to contemporary plastics manufacturing and management. And that doesn’t sound very voluntary to me. PW

Ben Miyares, Packaging Sherpa, is a packaging market and technology analyst and is president of The Packaging Management Institute, Inc. He can be reached at bmiyares@packmgmt.org.

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