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26
SC Johnson Brings Re ll Stations to Canadian Concept Store
Re ll stations for Method and Mrs. Meyer’s soaps inside London Drugs’ new sustainability-focused agship store build on lessons learned from SC Johnson’s European ‘Re llution’ initiative.
30
Kenvue Packs Purpose into Every Package
From paperboard cartons to PCR bottles and re ll pods, consumer health giant Kenvue is redesigning packaging across its 40 global brands to align with circular economy principles and meet ambitious sustainability targets.
38 COVER STORY
Water Brand Debuts with First-of-its-Kind PET Closure
By adopting a thermoformed PET cap for its PET beverage bottle, new alkaline water brand Power Hydration brings consumers a fully recyclable bottle-and-cap solution.
44 AUTOMATION
Industry 4.0 Automation Platform
Elevates Client Ef ciency
Impack overhauls its automation platform using tools to meet the demands of modern packaging, boosting speed, exibility, and support across its folder-gluer peripherals.
50
Market Garden Breweries Builds Runway for Growth into Tight Quarters
With a new rotary ller/rotary seamer at its heart, a nearly all-new packaging line is now humming along at 100 cans per minute. Future-proo ng the line meant building in a lot more capacity than is needed—for now, at least.
60 Cannabis Distributor Supercharges Packaging Ef ciency with Automation
A combination scale, bagger, checkweigher, and coding and marking operations accelerated packaging production ef ciency to 300 parts per labor hour, up from 40 parts per labor hour.
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
Tim Lehman Sr. Engineering Manager, Supply Chain, GOJO Industries, makers of Purell
Mike Marcinkowski Director of R&D Material Science, Packaging & Sustainability – Nature’s Vault/Fesh Loop
Shannon Moore Director Global R&D Packaging Sustainability, Kellanova
Andrew Seys Senior Director, Global Operational Excellence, Spectrum Brands
David Smith, PhD Principal, David S. Smith & Associates
Brian Stepowany Packaging R&D, Senior Manager, B&G Foods, Inc.
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It’s easy to overlook the cap on a bottle. Small, functional, and rarely a marketing focus, closures have long been taken for granted. But they consistently work thanks to more physics and geometry than meets the eye—giving brands more options when choosing the right ones for their products (more on page 22). Lately, the deceptively complex cap has become the focus of regulation, innovation, and consumer debate. No packaging component is too small to rethink.
In Europe, caps are now required by law to remain tethered to beverage bottles. The regulation is meant to keep closures from becoming litter and to ensure they make it into recycling streams with the bottles they seal. But consumers have had mixed reactions, some finding the caps awkward to sip around, sometimes even tearing them off entirely. Some in California are trying to follow Europe’s lead with Senate Bill 45. It’s currently held in appropriations limbo but would require tethered caps on most plastic beverage containers by 2027. Caps are among the most common items in beach litter surveys, are often lost in the recycling process, and California is understandably sensitive about its beaches.
Material compatibility is another frontier where closures are changing. For decades, water and soft drink bottles have been made from PET, while the caps have usually been polypropylene or sometimes HDPE—a mismatch that complicates sortation upon recycling. That is beginning to shift. Sydney-based Nviro1 developed a patented PET closure, the nviroCap, designed to make bottles and caps fully recyclable together. In California, beverage startup Power Hydration is already on the shelf with PET closures from Origin Materials, the first commercially scalable solution of its kind (more on page 38). Not long ago, Origin partnered with Berlin Packaging, expanding distribution of its PET 1881 caps for global beverage brands.
Fiber-based caps are another promising path. Sweden’s Great Earth became the first nutraceutical company to adopt molded fiber closures from Blue Ocean, and after a successful pilot, it has now committed to roll them out across its entire supplement line. The Absolut vodka brand recently trialed the format in limited release pilots. PulPac, meanwhile, is working with its Bottle Collective partners—including Diageo, Haleon, and Sanofi—to commercialize Dry Molded Fiber (DMF) closures, as well. Together, these moves suggest that fiber caps are progressing beyond experiments into viable packaging alternatives.
Compostable caps may hold promise, but the topic seems to be stuck on the horizon. Biopolymers like polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) made from bacteria fermentation can be used to create caps that are recyclable, compostable, and biodegradable in certain environments. A lack of industrial composting infrastructure remains a hurdle.
Not all the action is around new materials. Traditional polyolefin caps are still being lightweighted to use less plastic. Even shaving fractions of a gram per closure delivers massive resin savings at global beverage volumes, and lightweight designs now routinely balance cost, strength, and sealing performance. Aluminum is also getting a closer look. Once largely confined to wine and spirits, lightweight aluminum closures are being explored for ready-to-drink beverages and some carbonated products, offering recyclability and premium shelf appeal.
Closures are also becoming smarter. Pilot projects have introduced digital watermarks and NFCenabled caps that can verify product authenticity, aid traceability, or connect consumers to digital content. Downstream, sensors at recycling facilities could read material content data, part of the promise of Europe’s Digital Product Passport. While niche today, these features may signal another dimension of closures’ evolution. That’s not just sustainability, but functionality that links the package to broader systems of information and consumer engagement.
Across all these examples runs a common (forgive me) thread—closures are no longer static, if they ever were. They are being pushed to align with circular economy goals, improve recyclability, reduce litter, extend shelf life, and even add new layers of value. Resealable designs cut down on waste from unfinished bottles. Stronger barrier properties help beverages last longer in the supply chain and at home. And new materials, from PET to fiber to aluminum, are offering brand owners fresh options to meet both regulatory pressure and consumer expectations. PW
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Faced with growing pressure to reduce single-use waste, luxury hotel brands like Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott, and The Ritz-Carlton are turning to more sustainable solutions that don’t compromise on elegance. Kopu Water, a premium American brand founded by Justin and Mindy Mahy, is helping them make the shift by offering a bottled water program that replaces glass packaging with lightweight, recyclable aluminum bottles and pairs it with a built-in recycling system.
“Hospitality bottled water over the last 40 years has been dominated by three imported European brands, all bottled in a different hemisphere and shipped to the U.S. in glass bottles, most of which are destined for community landfills after consumption,” says Justin Mahy.
Despite being theoretically recyclable, glass presents significant challenges, especially in hospitality environments, Mahy explains. It has low residual value and often requires government regulation to incentivize recovery. Only a small number of states have effective programs in place, and even then, glass must be sorted by color and kept free from contamination. Its weight adds to transportation emissions and costs, while breakage introduces safety and logistical concerns.
and form the metal, especially in the creation of the reclosable threads.”
Recognizing these limitations, Kopu identified aluminum as a better option, one that meets both sustainability and operational goals. “We chose aluminum due to market economics and the recycling infrastructure that is built around this material,” Mahy explains. “Aluminum scrap is worth $1,000 to $2,000 per ton, where empty plastic bottles are worth a fraction. Relatively high residual value significantly increases recycling rates as aluminum wholesalers want this material back.”
In addition to its economic and recycling advantages, aluminum offers a major benefit in weight. Kopu’s bottles weigh 80% less than equivalent-sized glass bottles, resulting in proportionately fewer greenhouse gas emissions during transport and handling.
To ensure the packaging aligned with the elevated standards of its hospitality clients, Kopu partnered with Trivium Packaging to create a bottle that blends performance with premium design. Made with 25% recycled content, the aluminum bottle features a distinctive “soft shoulder” silhouette that fits seamlessly into fine dining settings and luxury guest rooms.
But manufacturing the bottle did not come without its obstacles. “Creating a bottle that provides the premium look and feel needed for Kopu’s product, and balancing this with the limitations of the production process, is a challenge,” says Chas Aylsworth, director commercial at Trivium Packaging. “For the production process of these bottles, the aluminum is much thicker than that of a traditional soda or sparkling beverage can. While still lightweight, the thicker material makes it much more difficult to bend
To complement the bottle’s form, Trivium uses a dry-offset printing process. “The technique allows for consistent print quality with vibrant colors and intricate details,” Aylsworth explains. “Our process is designed to be eco-friendly, with reduced waste and the use of safe, non-toxic inks.”
Beyond aesthetics and recyclability, Kopu wanted to ensure its packaging would deliver true circularity in practice. To support this goal, the company launched the Kopu Aluminum Stewardship (KAS) Program.
The program includes both back-of-house and guest-facing collection systems. Hotels and restaurants receive recycling containers for staff use behind bars and in kitchens, designed to collect empty Kopu bottles as well as other aluminum beverage packaging like soda, beer, and energy drink cans. Guest areas feature custom silver or brass receptacles that communicate the sustainability impact.
Kopu tracks the weight of aluminum delivered and collected at each property, calculating capture rates that are shared with clients. This data helps them optimize operations and move toward zero waste beverage packaging. “One client, a 500-room resort in Miami, calculated that they eliminated 52 tons of landfill waste in a single year by replacing their imported water brands with Kopu,” Mahy shares.
Hotel and restaurant teams have responded with enthusiasm. “Until now there has been a sense of disillusionment about the amount of landfill waste created by their operations and a powerlessness to effect change,” Mahy says. “Kopu is providing a turn-key solution that does not take additional resources and makes the simple switch, from glass packaging that is likely to end in a landfill, to aluminum packaging that is guaranteed to be recycled.” —Anne Marie Mohan
The latest round of global plastics treaty negotiations wrapped up in Geneva, Switzerland, in August with no agreement on a draft text. After nearly two weeks of intense discussions, 1,400 member delegates from 183 countries left without a clear path forward, yet most organizations involved in the second part of the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5.2) stressed that progress was made, and momentum must continue.
Delegates spent 11 days at the United Nations office debating how to tackle plastic pollution across its full life cycle, from production to disposal. According to the Associated Press, disagreements centered on whether the treaty should cap plastic production and regulate toxic chemicals used in manufacturing. More than 100 countries supported such measures, while oil-producing nations, including the U.S., Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, opposed them.
“Consensus is dead,” said Bjorn Beeler, international coordinator for the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN), as the session closed.
Even so, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Inger Andersen told delegates that the talks had gone “deeper than ever before into all areas of the instrument.” She added, “While we did not land the treaty text we hoped for, we at UNEP will continue the work against plastic pollution—pollution
that is in our groundwater, in our soil, in our rivers, in our oceans and yes, in our bodies.”
INC Chair Ambassador Luis Vayas Valdivieso urged governments not to lose hope. “Failing to reach the goal we set for ourselves may bring sadness, even frustration. Yet it should not lead to discouragement,” he said. “It has not happened yet in Geneva,
but I have no doubt that the day will come when the international community will unite its will and join hands to protect our environment and safeguard the health of our people.”
For industry groups, the absence of a final text was a disappointment, but not a surprise. Nevertheless, the American Chemistry Council (ACC) praised U.S. negotiators for their role in steering talks. “ACC applauds the leadership of U.S. negotiators and their unrelenting efforts to bring governments together around a global agreement on plastic pollution that will help unleash American innovation to solve this global challenge,” said Chris Jahn, ACC president and CEO.
The Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS) expressed frustration that efforts focused too heavily on production cuts. Said PLASTICS President and CEO Matt Seaholm,
“Unfortunately, significant gaps remain, and there was an unwillingness among some participants to focus on addressing plastic waste, instead pushing approaches that made it impossible to reach consensus. This was a missed opportunity.”
Stressing the urgency to turn words into action were civil society groups and NGOs. The Business Coalition for a Global Plastics Treaty, which represents more than 300 companies, including more than 70 CPGs and retailers, warned that the failure
to secure consensus delays investment and clarity. “Disappointingly, consensus among nations has remained elusive, which further delays critical action to tackle plastic pollution and capture the economic benefits that effective harmonized regulation would bring,” the Coalition said.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Executive Lead, Rob Opsomer, also called the outcome disappointing but pointed to the progress made. “We leave Geneva feeling encouraged by the alignment developed over the last three years of treaty negotiations among a majority of countries, business, and civil society on a comprehensive approach to tackle plastic pollution across the full life cycle,” he said.
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) echoed the call for stronger ambition, warning that the failure in Geneva should serve as a wake-up call for governments to return to the table with renewed political will.
Although INC-5.2 ended without consensus, delegates did agree to reconvene at a future session. The Geneva talks may not have delivered the treaty text negotiators hoped for, but they did reinforce areas of alignment, such as extended producer responsibility, product design, and waste management improvements. —Anne Marie Mohan
Danone’s Alpro brand, part of its portfolio of plant-based products sold across Europe, is pairing its new kids range with a playful connected packaging experience that turns cartons and yogurt cups into gateways to adventure.
Introduced in July, the Alpro Kids line includes an oat-based chocolate drink and a strawberryflavored soy drink, both sold in 200-mL aseptic cartons with paper straws, along with soy-based yogurt alternatives in vanilla and strawberry, available in 115-g cups in four-packs. All recipes contain 30% less sugar than comparable kids’ offerings, are fortified with calcium, vitamin D2, iodine, B2, and B12, and are vegan-friendly, lactose-free, and free from artificial colorings, preservatives, and flavorings.
These nutritional benefits align with Alpro’s goal of supporting families. “The new Alpro Kids range is more than just a product,” says Gianluca Ciliento, Europe brand manager, plant-based at Alpro. “It’s a step toward empowering families to make healthier choices without compromising on taste or joy.”
transformation strategy. Says Appetite Creative Managing Director Jenny Stanley, “They recognized connected packaging as a powerful way to educate consumers about plant-based nutrition benefits while creating engaging brand experiences for both parents and children.”
Appetite developed a connected packaging strategy that features an on-pack QR code that links to a web app styled as a classic adventure video game. Using a smartphone, players can choose superhero characters such as Miss Berry, Oatino, and Soystorm, then race through levels to collect ingredients and move up the leaderboard. According to Stanley, leaderboards and character progression encourage multiple scans and sustained interaction.
To encourage repeated play, the U.K. launch at Asda added a prize promotion, with one £100 Lego voucher awarded weekly during the back-to-school season.
In addition to entertainment, the connected experience provides Alpro with valuable insights. Data collected includes behavioral patterns, product preferences, and measures of educational effectiveness, along with demographic information. Assures Stanley, “All data collection is GDPR [General Data Protection Regulation] compliant, with transparent opt-in processes.”
To maximize the investment in packaging changes while maintaining content freshness and relevance throughout different marketing periods, Appetite Creative built the “always-on” QR code into the primary packaging to allow content updates without redesigning packs.
“The content is designed with seasonal flexibility,” explains Stanley. “While the core game mechanics and educational content remain consistent, promotional elements, prizes, and seasonal messaging can be updated dynamically without requiring new packaging production.”
The current campaign ran through the summer in multiple countries, including Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. The U.K. experience was available only at Asda stores.
—Anne Marie Mohan
Since Laffy Taffy was introduced in 1971, consumers have had a love-hate relationship with the brand. They love the smooth consistency and sweet, fruit-inspired flavors of the taffy squares, but the packaging? A quick Reddit search brings up discussion titles such as, “Anyone hate Laffy Taffy wrappers with a passion?,” “Laffy Taffy has the worst packaging in existence,” and “Did anyone else get those Laffy Taffy struggles where the wrapper was stuck to the actual candy and it was so hard to get out?”
To answer the last poster, “Your_friendly_weirdo,” yes, many consumers over the years have battled to remove the sticky wrapper from the candy. Says “Truji21,” “I eat Laffy Taffy with the wrapper.” Meanwhile, other consumers developed “hacks” like freezing the candy to make the wrapper easier to remove.
That frustration ultimately led Ferrara Candy Company to revisit the wrapper design. In August, the company now rolled out new Laffy Taffy Mini Bar wrappers designed for a smoother opening experience. “The new Laffy Taffy Mini Bar wrapper is designed with a proprietary combination of materials and adhesives that enables a clean, smooth, one-pull opening experience,” says Tricia Asbridge, brand manager, Laffy Taffy & Iconics, Ferrara Candy Company. “This innovation eliminates sticking and shredding, making it easier than ever to enjoy the taffy inside.”
The updated wrappers open outward down the middle in one pull, addressing longstanding consumer pain points. To achieve this, Ferrara developed a lighter yet sturdier biaxially oriented high-density polyethylene. During production, the film is stretched lengthwise and widthwise, a process that strengthens the material and makes it more resistant to tearing. Paired with a new cold-seal adhesive, the wrapper delivers a clean release every time.
Consumers have already responded positively, with many celebrating what Ferrara calls a “smoother, no-stick experience.”
The packaging refresh arrives at a time of strong growth for the brand. Overall, Laffy Taffy sales have risen 65.5% in the last four years, with Mini Bars and Stretchy and Tangy each up more than 130% during the same period. Mini Bars alone achieved double-digit growth in 2024, according to Circana data shared by Ferrara.
With momentum in the marketplace and the wrapper functionality improved, the brand also took the opportunity to refresh another hallmark of the packaging: its jokes. For more than 50 years, family-friendly “dad jokes” have been a staple on every wrapper. On National Tell A Joke Day in August, thousands of fans called the Laffy Taffy Laff Line for a chance to share jokes with Damon Wayans Jr. and his “Laff Squad” of comedians from Zanies Chicago. The top 100 submissions are slated to appear on the brand’s new wrappers in retailers nationwide.
Asbridge notes that while the wrapper material has changed, the taffy’s nostalgic and colorful design remains intact. —Anne Marie Mohan
With extended producer responsibility (EPR) reporting in mind, brand owners and retailers like Costco, Tyson Foods, and Central Garden & Pet joined forces to create the Sustainable Packaging Data Council. Supported by suppliers, the group aims to standardize sustainability reporting data through new templates. The Council tapped Specright to serve as its tech partner host and build templates for member brands to use to harmonize this data. Other technology partners like Lorax EPI and Trayak, sustainable packaging non-profits like How2Recycle, plus industry analysts and universities like Michigan State University, are involved.
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Brands are challenged with collecting and reporting on sustainability data to meet evolving regulatory requirements. These exist both in the U.S. and globally in various forms, but EPR reporting to states like Oregon, Colorado, and California is the most pressing for most here in the states. Often, the challenge stems from not having a clear understanding of reporting requirements or full access to packaging data, particularly from suppliers.
Paul Gray, director of continuous improvement at Central Garden & Pet, owner of popular lawn and pet care brands, saw immediate value in becoming a founding member of the Sustainable Packaging Data Council.
“I thought it would be a great opportunity to talk to other groups to determine and develop the best practice to manage our data moving forward so we could do so efficiently and correctly. During the initial [EPR] reporting, we learned that standardizing the data in our system is key to being able to compile the data and generate the report easily and efficiently,” Gray says.
The central mission of the Sustainable Packaging Data Council is to create templates of data requirements for reporting entities that will guide the packaging supply chain in meeting expectations and enhancing awareness and quality of information for EPR. For example, reporting attributes for Oregon’s EPR reporting requirements are now available in a downloadable template (access it at pwgo.to/8897).
“Harmonizing the data requirements will help streamline the reporting. If the material type was standard, we could utilize that in our specification management system and run the reports directly from that system,” Gray says. “Templates will be a key tool that we will use moving forward when we are developing new packaging to ensure that we have the correct data in the correct format for reporting and gather additional data to help us improve our packaging.”
The Council has been meeting weekly in 2025 for collaborative discussions and ultimately aligning on its first deliverable—reporting attributes for Oregon’s EPR reporting requirements, available in the link in bold above. The Council will continue to develop future templates for other U.S.-based EPR regulations, as well as align and share best practices around data collection. Brands helped steer these templates to be useful for brand owners.
“We’ve modified the templates that we used for some of the initial data collection after working with the council… During the development of the initial template, I wanted to help make sure that we were identifying the packaging specification that were required for reporting and those that are required for our internal use so I could utilize the templates moving forward with the confidence that we were gathering all the information required,” Gray says.
All the templates will be annually evaluated to ensure the Council remains compliant as new resources are released by Producer Responsibility Organizations (PROs). The Council aims to release California and Colorado templates by the end of the year, and to convene a workstream of global companies to address Packaging and Packaging Waste Reduction (EU’s PPWR) next year. —Matt Reynolds
A coalition of global CPGs and brand owners launched the U.S. Flexible Film Initiative (USFFI), a non-profit membership organization that aims to help to advance scalable solutions to recycle flexible plastic packaging. The initiative is initially focused on California, with the potential to be scaled to states with emerging extended producer responsibility (EPR) programs.
USFFI’s founding members General Mills, Mars, Mondelez International, Nestlé, Hill’s Pet Nutrition, and PepsiCo say they recognize both the essential role flexible packaging plays and the important work they share in helping to build a more sustainable future for flexible films.
“Flexible packaging recycling has begun to scale in other countries; now it’s our turn. We’re drawing on global funding models to accelerate real solutions here in the U.S.,” says Rachael Lawrence, senior director of sustainability at PepsiCo Foods North America.
Flexible packaging plays a critical role in meeting consumers’ expectations for safe, convenient, high-quality products while also reducing food waste, the organization says, adding that it represents one of the largest categories of plastic packaging. Yet it is often not part of municipal recycling programs today. Recognizing the challenges with recycling flexible plastics, USFFI says it wants to be part of the solution.
As USFFI’s founding members continue to advance design for recyclability and increased use of recycled content, they also recognize that strategic investment is essential to accelerating end-of-life solutions for
flexible films. In 2024, the founding members partnered with recycling research organizations to identify gaps in flexible packaging recovery. While grants and capital investment opportunities are available to flexible plastic processors and recyclers, there is little support for the operational costs of either sorting flexible packaging or processing flexible packaging bales into usable products. Earlier this year, the founding members engaged Resource Recycling Systems (RRS) to help launch USFFI and begin implementing its programs.
By committing to multi-year contracts with material recovery facilities (MRFs), flexible plastic processors, and recyclers, USFFI aims to help the industry find a next life for these materials and move towards a model where flexible films are intentionally collected alongside other recyclables.
“By directly funding MRFs and recyclers through USFFI, we aim to prove that flexible packaging can be recycled at scale and become a meaningful part of a circular economy,” says Feliks Bezati, global circular packaging director, Mars.
USFFI says it will launch its efforts by issuing requests for information (RFIs) to recyclers, processors, and MRFs interested in supporting flexible packaging recycling and being considered for operational funding. Participation in this RFI process will be mandatory for any entity that wishes to be considered for future financial support. Given the diversity of solution providers and the different states of readiness, USFFI wants to tailor its
funding to the specific needs of this emerging supply chain and welcomes inquiries to learn more. RFIs will target these company types: processors and reclaimers of MRF film bales;
plastic reclaimers that can recycle flexible plastic packaging into new products today; secondary processors capable of aggregating and processing mixed flexible plastic packaging and preparing them for reclamation
today or in the immediate future; producers of MRF film bales; and California MRF operators that are willing and able to recover the flexible packaging and film already flowing through their facilities.
Recognizing the current state of recycling flexible plastic packaging and the need to build and scale markets, USFFI alone cannot achieve the scale of change needed to create a functioning recycling system for flexible packaging. The initiative is open to expanding its membership to additional brands and retailers seeking to accelerate progress. Success will require close collaboration with others advancing critical parts of the system, including investment capital, equipment grants, municipal recycling programs, and consumer education. This collective action can create the cross-sector effort needed to make flexible film recovery a reality.
“Partnerships are essential in addressing the complexities of recycling flexible plastic packaging. At Nestlé, we believe that collective action is crucial to developing sustainable solutions. Through USFFI and its work with other key partners, we aim to help create a more robust infrastructure that will advance our shared goal to implement end-to-end recycling solutions for flexible packaging,” says Tiffany Gildehaus, senior manager of environmental sustainability at Nestlé Purina.
USFFI says that it encourages all interested stakeholders to watch for the first RFI release and prepare to respond and help shape the future of flexible packaging recovery. —Matt Reynolds
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San Francisco-based Grove Collaborative, a certified B Corp and Public Benefit Corp, offers a range of environmentally friendly home and personal care products under its Grove Co. brand as well as from other companies. In August, the company launched what it calls “a major upgrade for Grove Co.’s portfolio,” with its new Toilet Bowl Cleaner Pods. The pods feature a zero-waste film that significantly reduces synthetic materials and are packaged in a new home-compostable pouch.
The pod was developed in partnership with SmartSolve, which engineered a dissolvable, cellulosic film technology that replaces a portion of the polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) typically found in dissolvable films. Each pod contains about 0.28 g of PVA compared to 0.45 g in a standard pod, for a 38% reduction in PVA plastic.
“The PVA is only present to ensure a solid seal of the pod, keeping the dry powder formula contained within the sachet, and to guarantee an overall quality customer experience,” explains Stephen Acciaioli, senior manager of packaging at Grove Collaborative.
“While PVA has been scientifically shown to be biodegradable, safe for the environment, and not a contributing microplastic, it is still a synthetic plastic, and we only want to use it when a scalable alternative doesn’t exist,” he adds. “We’re always trying to do better and minimize the amount of synthetic materials in our products where we can, and this launch is a step in that direction.”
Not only does the pod reduce plastic, it reduces product waste, as well. “The pods provide consistent dosing every time so that customers don’t use too much, which is wasteful, or use too little, which is not as efficacious,” says Acciaioli. “Pre-dosed sachets are a convenient format that helps take the guesswork out of this particular area of home cleaning.”
The toilet bowl cleaner sachets are packed in a home-compostable pouch supplied by Grounded Packaging. The structure combines FSC-certified paper laminated with cellulose and biopolymer films, including polybutylene succinate (PBS). The zipper is also compostable, made from polylactic acid (PLA). The pouches are certified as both home compostable (AS 5810-2010) and industrially compostable (ASTM D6400).
Until the introduction of the new pods and compostable pouch, Grove Co.’s Toilet Bowl Cleaner was sold in a recyclable metal tin—the best available alternative to plastic when the company initially launched its pod products. According to Acciaioli, while metal is highly recyclable, it carries a larger carbon footprint than a flexible pouch. “Producing pouch packaging for 52,000 units [a standard order size when replenishing product purchase orders] generates roughly 5,774 kg of CO2 compared to 34,743 kg for the same number of tins,” he says.
The pouch also proves more sustainable than a traditional 16-oz spray bottle. When a single pouch of eight toilet bowl cleaner pods is compared with a bottle, the pouch reduces plastic by 67%. The pods, plus pouch, use 2.24 g of PVA and 10.2 g of bioplastics, respectively, while the bottle uses 36.9 g of plastic.
Grove Co.’s Toilet Bowl Cleaner Pods in an 8-ct pouch are available for $11.99 on the Grove Collaborative website. The company plans to expand the compostable pouch to other pod-based products in its lineup, including laundry detergent and dishwasher pods, by year end. —Anne Marie Mohan
Colorado-based Crocs has long been known for turning footwear into a colorful expression of individuality. Now the brand’s packaging is carrying that same spirit of innovation into sustainability. Since August 2023, every carton of Crocs’ Jibbitz-brand shoe charms has been printed with Algae Ink, a renewable ink made from algae biomass. In partnership with Living Ink Technologies and packaging supplier EcoEnclose, the project has already produced roughly 3.2 million cartons and marks the first commercial use of Algae Ink as the black component in a full CMYK print run.
Says Crocs Senior Retail Operations Manager Amber Bochmann, “When EcoEnclose brought the opportunity to partner with Living Ink on this project, I was ecstatic. The idea of being the first brand to incorporate black Algae Ink using a four-color process was very exciting. As you can see by the palette of colors that our Classic Clog comes in, color and personalization shine brightly within our brand.”
Crocs’ use of Algae Ink aligns with the brand’s broader sustainability goals to “tread more lightly” and “create a more comfortable world.” In 2024, the company reduced the carbon footprint of its classic clog by 10% by incorporating bio-circular content into its proprietary Croslite resin compounds. The company’s updated materials now include 25% bio-based content sourced from repurposed, plant-based waste and certified by ISCC Plus.
Expanding its sustainability efforts into packaging, Crocs ships most of its products in a film bag that reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 85% versus a shoe box. Furthermore, the LDPE that’s used is made from 100% recycled content. Its adoption of Algae Ink, which is also being used in select retail bags, reflects the company’s concern around the environmental footprint of conventional printing inks.
According to Living Ink, petroleum-based carbon black, widely used as a pigment, is produced by burning fossil fuels, a process that generates GHGs and involves toxic chemicals. It is also subject to growing regulatory scrutiny and negative consumer perception. In contrast, Living Ink reports that its life-cycle assessment of Algae Ink shows that the bio-based pigment eliminates reliance on fossil resources, reduces carbon emissions by more than 200%, and cuts water use by 98%.
Living Ink’s patented pigment production process begins with waste biomass that would otherwise be discarded. In the case of Crocs, the pigment is made from algae biomass sourced from the nutritional supplements industry. More broadly, the company notes that its Algae Black pigment can be derived from a variety of renewed waste streams, offering flexibility and scalability as demand grows. The production process involves heat treatment and particle refinement to create a stable, carbon-negative pigment that is then formulated into Algae Ink. According to Living Ink, because algae absorb CO2 during growth, the resulting pigment also contributes to carbon sequestration.
To date, Algae Ink has been used in single-color and pilot-scale projects across packaging, apparel, and cosmetics. With Crocs, Living Ink demonstrates that its pigments can be integrated into full-scale, four-color commercial printing. The company has shared that its next phase of development includes scaling pigment production from thousands of pounds to millions of pounds annually, supported by expanded sourcing of waste biomass and partnerships with global brands.
—Anne Marie Mohan
Table Top Systems
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“When you go into a factory, you can’t just drop a bunch of robots in and expect everyone to adapt. Acceptance comes when the people who will be working alongside the machines are included from the very beginning of the process.”
–Milt Walker, director of business development for NexCOBOT, in a webinar from A3 – Association for Advancing Automation, “Beyond Automation: How Intelligent Robots will Change the Factory”
“We can utilize food waste as a resource to convert into so many industrial products, and biodegradable polymers are just one of them. We’re aiming not only to valorize food waste but also to reduce the manufacturing cost of this eco-friendly polymer. There are also different options, like generating biofuels and biochemicals.”
–Professor Sha Jin of the Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science’s Department of Biomedical Engineering, in an article from Phys.org, “Researchers turn food waste into biodegradable plastic”
“On a fundamental level, the definitions and parameters of luxury are shifting. Where once people took pleasure in unwrapping layer after layer, almost a ritual of excess, today’s consumers increasingly view that as wasteful. And they’re absolutely right. Luxury isn’t disappearing, what we value in it is changing. There’s a real opportunity to place new value on packaging—to treat it as something the consumer genuinely appreciates, whether because it’s low impact or designed to be reused. We have clients who still use branded candle glasses or gift boxes that are in consumers’ homes years after purchase. That brand is living in the customer’s daily life. That’s real equity.”
–Amy Nelson-Bennett, CEO of Positive Luxury, in a press release from EasyFairs, “The new face of luxury: Smart, sustainable, and story-driven”
“Robots are becoming self-aware and even self-repairing. We’ve seen demonstrations where a robot swaps out its own battery, which means it can work longer without human help and opens up entirely new use cases.”
–Ricky Watts, senior director, industrial and robotic division at Intel, in a webinar from A3 – Association for Advancing Automation, “Beyond Automation: How Intelligent Robots will Change the Factory”
Jenny
Stanley, the
founder
and
managing director
of creative technology studio Appetite Creative and author of the book, ‘Connected Packaging: The Game-Changing Marketing Tool,’ explains why now is the time for brands to embrace on-pack digital technology.
When did you recognize that packaging could become a media channel rather than just a “protective layer”?
It was quite some time ago, back in 2015, so basically 10 years ago, and we were working with Shazam [music identification app], and Shazam was doing a lot of this scanning both on-pack, but also on their advert. And when they were doing it on the physical pack, that’s when I thought, hang on a second, this actually has a lot of potential. And we kind of moved into talking to a large packaging company, and that’s where it grew from, where we could see that what we were doing from digital advertising just translated so well into packaging—especially because it’s an opt-in media because the packaging is already in the hands of the consumer, which makes it the most targeted media channel possible.
We’ve been talking about this technology for years, but there still aren’t a lot of commercial examples. Why is now a good time for brands to get involved with connected packaging?
I definitely agree with you. It’s not moved that quickly. As I said, I was talking about this in 2015, but I don’t think it really has had its movement until COVID. And after COVID, people said, ‘Hey, look, this is what the QR code is, this is what it does.’ And it really got it into the vernacular. So first, you needed the public to be able to understand what it [connected packaging] is to be able to have the numbers to make it worthwhile.
And then I think there are some other trends happening out there, like regulatory compliance. So there’s the EU digital product passport. Now that’s something where you must have something [a digital enabler], and the QR code is the easiest way to be able to deliver so much information, especially if you’ve got finite space on packaging. And there are the extended producer responsibility requirements as well. So again, this needs to be able to tell the consumers so much more when we don’t have any more space in the physical realm to be able to do that. So that’s number two.
Number three, there are now more and more examples in case settings of brands doing it well: We get a 14% scan rate, we
get three-minute engagement time. You compare that to what you get from a digital ad, a 0.01 click-through rate, and that’s considered okay, if not good. There’s a huge difference there. That’s a big mover as well. Now people are starting to say, ‘oh, this actually does work.’ And also there’s an increase in sales. We want the general public to get involved. So it’s that technology tipping point. It’s no longer experiential, it’s now becoming business critical.
Which enabling technologies—QR codes, NFC tags, or RFID labels— are proving the most practical and scalable for CPG brands today? QR codes are leading the charge. They’ve got the universal comfortability and cost effectiveness. We do a global survey every year. Eighty-eight percent of brands surveyed plan to use a QR code in 2025. QR codes don’t require any extra hardware anymore. They work across all the mobile smartphones. So that gives us that scalability, which is obviously necessary.
Read about one of Appetite Creative’s connected packaging projects on p. 10.
But NFC was also rising up in the ranks, surprisingly so, and I think this is really a great technology for premium experiences. I think there is a balance of cost, functionality, and ROI. Obviously there is a cost for the NFC that the QR code doesn’t have. So if your product is retailing at £1.50, adding anything onto that cost is going to affect that margin. So when you start talking about products that are maybe over the £20 mark, more luxury, then NFC can really bring in some extra functionality.
How would you advise a CPG brand on which technology to use? It depends on a number of things. What are your objectives? Who are your target audience? What’s your budget? QR codes are really that broad base, that scalability, data connection, universal accessibility, cost effectiveness. But NFC would be your premium. Maybe you are an alcohol brand that costs £20 or £25 or whatever your currency is, and you can have a contactless experience. Again, does that work for your target audience? Determine what actually fits with what you’re trying to do, and make sure you’ve got that brand experience that works best.
Can you tell me a bit about the new International Brand Packaging Network (IBPN) that was launched at this year’s AIPIA (Active & Intelligent Packaging Industry Assn.) Congress?
Yes, definitely. So I’m one of the founders of the network. We launched it to accelerate connected packaging as an industry. We feel like we need to really bring everyone together and establish packaging as a dynamic interactive media channel that enhances brand communication and experience. It deepens consumer engagement, and it accelerates sustainable innovation and communication. So our plan is to bring brands, technology providers, media agencies, and packaging manufacturers together to share case studies and objective, peer-reviewed research, analysis, and benchmarking to show the opportunities.
At the moment, we are an open network and have some founding members, both brands and solution providers who are looking to come together and forward the industry. It’s about open collaboration and everybody learning and pushing the industry forward. —Anne Marie Mohan
By Sterling Anthony, CPP, Contributing Editor
Continuous thread (C-T) closures are meant to be applied to containers (e.g., bottles, jugs, jars, tubes, aseptic cartons) that have matching C-T finishes (necks). The matching needs to be in terms of both dimensions and styles for the container and closure to combine in a secure fit. The designation, C-T, means that the thread travels a continuous spiral around the finish, unlike with a lug finish, where the thread is interrupted and not continuous. C-T closures are used in a wide variety of product categories, including food, beverage, cosmetics, personal-care, pharmaceuticals, and household chemicals, among others.
The wide use of C-T closures bespeaks their simplicity. The conveniences of easy opening and easy reclosing are accomplished with a counterclockwise turn and a clockwise turn, respectively. That simplicity, though, is an end-result that’s in contrast to the complexities that preceded it. Packaging suppliers, packaging designers, and packaging users (i.e., brand owners) had to have managed a host of factors and considerations. Convenience is not the only function affected—in addition, there are containment, protection, and communication. As if that wasn’t enough, aesthetics also can come into play.
As with all packaging-related undertakings, decisions start with the product. It stands to reason that products with dissimilar characteristics will have dissimilar needs regarding C-T closures. Reflecting this fact, C-T closures are available in standard stock designs, as well as specialized designs to accommodate requirements such as trigger spraying, dispensing, measuring/dosing, tamper-evidence (T-E), and child-resistance (C-R).
Specifying C-T closures and containers that have C-T finishes is facilitated by standardized nomenclature, such as that of the Glass Packaging Institute and the Plastics Industry Association. Dimensions are designated by letters. For a container’s finish, T is the outside diameter across the threads, E is the outside diameter within the threads, I is the inside diameter, S is the measurement from the top of the finish to the top of the first thread, and H is the height (the measurement from the top of the finish to the bottom of the finish, where it meets the container’s shoulder). For a C-T closure, the same letters are used in a mirroring fashion, given that the closure overlays the finish and that the external threads of the finish glide up and down the internal thread tracks of the closure.
Threads on the finish of a container have a profile style. Looking at a container’s finish from a sideview, you will note that the thread has a radius and angles
(top and bottom). That’s what is meant by profile style; there are two, designated as L and M. C-T closures, in counterpart, are designed as L style or as M style.
The L style is symmetrical, with angles of 30 deg and with a wider variety of applications. It’s cost-effective in that its symmetry simplifies mold design. Costeffectiveness is further enhanced when closures are made of thermoplastics (polyethylene or polypropylene) and manufactured by injection molding. Yet another plus of the L style is its proven compatibility with high-speed capping stations. All of that said, it would not be packagingrelated if it didn’t require systematic trade-offs. The L style is less precise when it comes to holding tight tolerances. That can be a problem if the matching container has been produced from an older mold that has surrendered some of its dimensional sharpness over time.
The M style—also known as a modified buttress—is asymmetrical, having a top angle of 45 deg and a bottom angle of 10 deg. There is a longer contact surface between the thread on the finish and the track inside the closure, making for a tighter, more secure seal. That degree of margin is valuable when leak resistance is of maximum importance. Examples include large-size bottles and hazardous substances, such as strong chemicals. On the debit side, M-style C-T closures are more expensive, owing to their more complex design. And there’s the issue of availability—some closure suppliers don’t offer the M style. Another shared designation between finish and closure is based on finish width and thread turn. It’s composed of a two-digit designation and a three-digit designation, separated by a dash. The two digits state the outer diameter of the finish, in millimeters. The three-digits refer to the turns that the threads make around the finish but have no literal translation. A 28-400 C-T closure, for example, is meant to match a finish having an outer diameter of 28 millimeters, with a thread that spirals 1 full turn around the finish. There are other three-digit designations. For example, 410 designates 1.5. thread turns, 415 designates 2 thread turns, and 425 designates 2 thread turns but with narrow threads. Of a given thread, the larger the number of turns, the taller the finish must be. To accommodate a shorter finish, therefore, 2 thread turns require a narrower thread.
Despite this standardization, ordering C-T closures is not akin to online shopping, or simply clicking on items to put in a cart. If that were the case, there would be no instances of C-T containers and C-T closures failing somewhere in the supply chain. Things sometimes go wrong, necessitating troubleshooting. That will be the topic of next month’s column. PW
By Shannon Blue, Contributor
The packaging industry is experiencing a seismic shift as digital technology transforms how brands engage with consumers. According to Towards Packaging, the global smart packaging market is projected to reach $68.99 billion by 2032. Given this growth, brands are evolving their strategies to seize the opportunity. While QR codes—a central feature of connected packaging—have existed since 1994, the pandemic catalyzed their widespread adoption; a 2021 report revealed that 79% of consumers had already interacted with a product via a QR code.
Through the strategic deployment of QR codes, brands are discovering a powerful way to create direct connections with their consumers. This technology enables them to deliver enhanced customer experiences, build stronger brand loyalty, and collect valuable consumer data.
The successful implementation of connected packaging requires a sophisticated approach that addresses multiple strategic objectives. From an operational standpoint, it can significantly streamline the consumer journey by incorporating features such as “scan to pay” functionality, effectively reducing friction in the purchasing process and driving sales growth.
Beyond operations, connected packaging serves as a powerful vehicle for information sharing. Brands can set themselves apart by offering detailed insights about their products, from ingredient sourcing to sustainability initiatives, thereby building consumer trust through transparency. This informational aspect extends into functional value, where brands can deliver personalized content such as recipes or dosage instructions, enhancing the consumer’s product experience and encouraging repeat purchases.
To operationalize a QR code infrastructure, brands must address four key domains:
1. URL creation and delivery, including URL origination, URL management, and URL enhancement.
2. Code design and quality control, covering design code production, code artwork integration, and code artwork adaptive design.
3. Connected platform customer experience, spanning everything from the design through to the build and integration with firstparty data and e-commerce platforms.
4. End-to-end integrated analytics and ROI.
Considering each of these elements strategically is important, as packaging and branding agency SGK outlines in its recent white paper on connected packaging, developed in collaboration with Experience is Everything. “We should not think of the QR code as a link to a brand’s website or campaign page,” it reads. “We should think of [it] as a connection to a digital instance of the product itself, down to the SKU level, which allows consumers to engage at multiple levels with the brand and the product as they hold it in their hand.”
The promotional capabilities of connected packaging are equally significant. Through digital brand promotions, companies can not only drive incremental sales, but also gather valuable first-party data about their consumers. And, perhaps most importantly, connected packaging opens up new avenues to inspire. By inviting consumers to experience the brand’s creative proposition directly via brand digital channels, companies can strengthen brand equity and foster long-term loyalty.
According to Paul Simonet, founder of Experience is Everything, the successful implementation of a connected packaging strategy hinges on brands’ ability to consider not only how to operationalize efficiently across all products, but also how to optimize effectively across different consumer experiences.
To optimize connected packaging engagement, include the following:
Elevated code design: Increasingly, designed codes are being used by brands to create impact and to increase scan rates of key activities. They should be viewed as brand experiences and invitations to engage, not merely functional elements.
Creative brand experiences: Modern device capabilities enable innovative engagement through technologies like geo-location, face filters, VR, and AR.
Sustainability stories: Connected packaging is a low-cost, D2C channel that allows a brand to share its sustainability initiatives.
Multichannel integration: QR codes are increasingly being used to connect multiple campaign channels, including POS, TV, print media, and social media. These channels should be tracked in an integrated way and connected back to the one always-on channel— the connected package.
The potential return on investment is compelling. Tetra Pak reports that connected experiences can deliver up to a 20% increase in sales, demonstrating the commercial power of well-executed connected packaging strategies.
As the digital and physical worlds continue to converge, connected packaging will become even more of a valuable bridge between brands and consumers. Those who master this complex but rewarding strategy will likely find themselves at the forefront of consumer engagement, driving both brand loyalty and business growth. PW
Refill stations for Method and Mrs. Meyer’s soaps inside London Drugs’ new sustainability-focused flagship store build on lessons learned from SC Johnson’s European ‘Refillution’ initiative.
By Anne Marie Mohan, Senior Editor
SC Johnson is taking its refill ambitions to the Canadian mainstream. The maker of Method and Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day soaps has partnered with London Drugs to pilot in-store refill stations at the retail chain’s new concept store in Burnaby, British Columbia. The move builds on SC Johnson’s years of experimentation with refill systems in Europe and is the company’s first North American pilot of its newest technology. London Drugs features the refill stations prominently in its 20,000-sqft flagship store at The Amazing Brentwood shopping mall. The retailer’s new open-concept, consumer-centered store prioritizes wellness and sustainability and gives shoppers access to expanded pharmacy services, product and packaging recycling, and sustainable product choices. The SC Johnson partnership puts refill packaging at the heart of this environment to encourage reuse as part of everyday shopping. According to an SC Johnson spokesperson, the inclusion of the refill station in London Drugs’ new store was a team effort. “London Drugs set out to test a new store concept with a focus on sustainability, and we’ve been working to offer more refill and reuse options for our products,” they say. “We worked together to ensure a refill station was part of that store planning process.”
The Burnaby pilot builds on SC Johnson’s earlier work with its Ecover environmentally friendly household cleaner brand in Europe. Ecover’s “Refillution” initiative was launched in the U.K. in 2019 and has now grown to include more than 700 refill stations across Europe. The campaign framed reuse in simple terms, asking, “Why melt a bottle to make a bottle, when you’ve already got a bottle?” The phrasing resonated with shoppers by presenting refillable packaging as a practical and rewarding option rather than a sacrifice.
To share learnings from the initiative, Ecover commissioned a consumer insight report, “The Refillution Has Begun,” that identified drivers and barriers to refill adoption. The report called out three misconceptions—packaging is disposable, recycling is the only answer, and convenience is everything—that must shift for reuse to scale.
It also laid out strategies for motivating consumers, such as highlighting the disadvantages of single-use, creating visible refill movements, and offering cost savings. Equally important were recommendations for removing barriers, including designing systems that minimize consumer effort, ensuring clear instructions, building machines that are failsafe, and reducing refill premiums.
Insights from Ecover’s Refillution program guided how SC Johnson and London Drugs designed the Burnaby pilot. One lesson was that visibility is critical. In Europe, refill stations performed best when positioned prominently in stores. Reflecting that learning, the stations in London
The San Francisco 49ers are planning for a winning year both on the field and in sustainability, rolling out a new reusable cup program with PepsiCo. It’s PepsiCo’s first reusable cup project in collaboration with an NFL franchise, debuting at the 49ers’ first preseason game August 9 and continuing through the team’s 10 home games this season, the team says.
“The 49ers are aligned to our ambitions to advance sustainable packaging solutions, and so when the opportunity arose to bring this program to Levi’s Stadium, we were excited to move forward,” says Emma Stradling, senior director at PepsiCo Beverages North America Packaging Transformation and Commercial.
To start off, the new program launched in two clubs within Levi’s Stadium: the United Club and the Graton Winners Club, which together seat up to 6,500 attendees. Accounting for all 49ers home games this season, the program is estimated to eliminate the need for tens of thousands of disposable single-use cups.
Reusable packaging company Bold Reuse is managing the collection, sanitization, and redistribution of cups for the program. The company is working in partnership with Levy, the stadium’s hospitality provider, which supports guest engagement and operations inside the venue, working to ensure cups make it back into the system.
“Fans will find clearly marked return bins right next to trash and recycling in the United and Graton Winners Clubs, so it’s just as easy to return a cup as it is to dispose of one,” explains Jocelyn Quarrel, CEO of Bold Reuse.
Once the cups are collected, they head to a local Bold Reuse wash hub, where they undergo a quality control and sanitization process, aligning with standards used at restaurants to clean durable plates and glasses, Quarrell says. After the cleaning process, the cups are inspected, re-packed, and sent back to the stadium for their next use. “It’s a closedloop system designed to keep cups in use and out of the landfill,” she says.
The cups’ manufacturer says the cups can be used over 500 times, though a third-party analysis of the operation suggests they are used around 300+ times, Quarrell says.
The cups themselves help to ensure sustainability even if they find their way out of the closed-loop system. Being made from widely recyclable polypropylene increases the chance they are recycled even if a fan takes a cup home.
This program and others like it from PepsiCo tie into the company’s global sustainable packaging strategy, pep+ (PepsiCo Positive). It includes a focus on reducing virgin plastic, designing packaging for circularity, and reducing packaging waste by supporting systems like recycling and reuse infrastructure.
“Advancing reuse requires collaboration and a systemic shift to help make the reusable option the most convenient and accessible option for consumers to enjoy their beverage,” says Burgess Davis, chief sustainability officer at PepsiCo. “Initiatives like this can provide important insights into how that shift can become a reality at scale while having an immediate impact in reducing waste.” —Casey Flanagan
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Drugs are located near the front of the store to ensure shoppers encounter them as part of their regular routine.
Ecover also found that clear instructions build confidence with first-time users. At London Drugs, step-by-step directions are integrated into the station. The process is straightforward: Consumers purchase a 750-mL Method or Mrs. Meyer’s refill pouch in store, take it home, wash it out once it’s empty, and return to the store to refill it with product again. The packaging is leakresistant, collapsible for transport, and designed to withstand multiple cycles.
“This refill system is easy to use, quick, effective, and cost-saving and ultimately allows individuals an opportunity to reduce their plastic footprint,” says the spokesperson.
Technology was another area requiring improvement. According to the SC Johnson spokesperson, many early in-store refill systems resulted in product leakage, which drove the need for increased in-store associate time. The London Drugs stations incorporate automatic shutoff features to prevent spills and streamline operation. “The latest technology, like what’s seen in the London Drugs store, helps solve for that key issue of spillage and allows for store labor levels comparable or lower than with single-use products,” they say.
Management of the refill stations is a “collaborative effort,” says the spokesperson. “We supply the bulk product for the refill machines, and London Drugs manages the day-to-day operations of refilling the machines when needed,” they explain.
Ecover’s experience also showed that mainstreaming refill requires well-known brands, not niche options. The London Drugs pilot therefore features Method dish soap in Lime + Sea Salt and Clementine scents, Method gel hand soap in Sweet Water and Sea Minerals varieties, and Mrs. Meyer’s dish and hand soap in Lavender and Lemon Verbena scents.
“These are high-impact usage categories that shoppers buy frequently, offering a large circularity impact,” the spokesperson said. “Consumer trust and perception of brands is certainly important, as is market penetration and sustainability attributes of those brands and products. Those were all key considerations in choosing Mrs. Meyer’s and Method brands for this pilot.”
Finally, the Refillution highlighted the importance of economics. Shoppers were more likely to adopt refill when it offered a tangible savings. At London Drugs, the refill price per milliliter is 10% lower than the single-use equivalent, an incentive designed to encourage trial.
Together, these strategies reflect SC Johnson’s broader goals around refillable packaging: making refill systems visible, practical, and affordable in order to shift consumer behavior toward reuse on a larger scale.
The London Drugs pilot fits into SC Johnson’s larger sustainability roadmap. Since 2018, the company has reduced its use of virgin plastic by 33% through PCR, lightweighting, and refill initiatives. “We plan to offer shoppers a variety of refill and reuse options across our brands in all regions of the world,” the spokesperson says. “These offerings include bulk refills, concentrates, refill machines and reusable storage options. Having a variety of refill format offerings gives us the best opportunity to shift consumer behavior to refill options.”
SC Johnson also sees refillable packaging as a component of Extended Producer Responsibility. “We’re encouraged by recent legislation in France, and subsequently Europe, that requires stores to carry refill options,” the spokesperson reports. “In recent U.S. State EPR legislation, we also see the requirements for refill sales, which is encouraging. With legislated requirements, we expect broader adoption of the refill format by consumers.”
Early adoption of the refill station—which debuted with the opening of the London Drugs flagship store in May—is encouraging, with strong unit velocities, says the SC Johnson spokesperson. “However, it’s still early in the pilot,” they add. “Our hope is that more consumers adapt to this model so that we can continue to look where else we can bring this type of refill and reuse offering.”
The Burnaby pilot may be a limited initiative, but it’s one that SC Johnson views as part of a larger shift. “Every little bit counts to help reduce plastic usage and potential waste,” the spokesperson says. “This is one small step to tackle a global problem.” PW
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From paperboard cartons to PCR bottles and refill pods, consumer health giant Kenvue is redesigning packaging across its 40 global brands to align with circular economy principles and meet ambitious sustainability targets.
By Anne Marie Mohan, Senior Editor
While Kenvue may not be a household name, its collection of iconic brands—among them Aveeno, Band-Aid, Johnson’s Baby, Listerine, Neutrogena, and Tylenol, to name just a few—touch the lives of more than 1.2 billion people across the world every day. Based on Kenvue’s 2024 financial reports, the company generated $15.5 billion in annual revenue and manages a portfolio of 40 global brands. As the world’s largest pure-play consumer health company by revenue, Kenvue is working to make those everyday interactions healthier for the planet as well.
Under its Healthy Lives Mission ESG strategy, deployed in 2023, Kenvue has established bold sustainability targets aimed at transforming its packaging portfolio. At that time, the company pledged that 100% of its packaging would be recyclable or refillable by 2025. It also committed to reducing its use of virgin plastic in packaging by 25% by 2025 and by 50% by 2030, using 2020 as its baseline year.
These goals align with Kenvue’s broader environmental commitments, which include a 42% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Since 2020, it has achieved a 26% reduction. The goals also align with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF)’s Global Commitment, of which Kenvue is a signatory. The Global Commitment is a worldwide initiative to create a circular economy for plastics. Signatories commit to ambitious targets to eliminate problematic plastics, increase recyclability, and incorporate more recycled content across their portfolios.
“Our journey toward circularity and environmental stewardship is deeply rooted in our core values, and we have always strived to make a positive impact on both people and the planet,” says Sushil Iyer, head of global packaging R&D at Kenvue. “When setting our sustainable packaging goals, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of our current practices, industry trends, and consumer expectations. This thorough
A shopper’s basket brimming with everyday essentials—from Aveeno lotion and Listerine mouthwash to Band-Aid bandages, Tylenol pain reliever, and Zyrtec allergy medication—showcases the breadth of Kenvue’s iconic consumer health brands.
Kenvue’s sustainability work also focuses on improving everyday usability. For OGX hair care, that meant creating a bottle that is easier to use while significantly reducing environmental impact. Launched in the U.S. and Europe in the second quarter of 2024, the redesign introduced a 100% rHDPE bottle that requires 30% less squeeze force.
“We used digital simulation models to optimize the material distribution within the package, while also reducing the total weight,” says Sushil Iyer, head of global packaging at Kenvue. “The squeeze force was fine-tuned during the pilot phase and through our analytical lab data.” The change helps consumers more easily dispense the product and improves product evacuation.
Switching to PCR required meeting strict quality, brand, and performance standards. This included matching color and ensuring compatibility with the product formula. As Iyer explains, Kenvue’s Packaging and Procurement teams work closely with suppliers
to maintain a steady supply of PCR through long-term commitments and risk-mitigation strategies.
Addressing the higher cost of PCR compared to virgin plastic, Iyer says, “The value of the product for the consumer experience is about the total value proposition, end-to-end cost model, and our Healthy Lives Mission Commitments. “Often, our retail partners have similar sustainability commitments as Kenvue in the markets we sell in. Most importantly, we want to deliver superior sustainable products for our consumers.”
evaluation helped us identify key areas where we could make the most significant and lasting impact.”
According to EMF’s 2024 Global Commitment Progress Report, based on signatories’ progress at fiscal year-end 2023, Kenvue had achieved a 21% reduction in virgin plastic use versus 2020 and reported that 71.4% of its plastic packaging was reusable, recyclable, or compostable. At this time, it has not yet reached its 2025 goals.
“The latest report is based on 2023 annual tonnage data,” says Iyer. “We’ve made strides on reducing virgin plastic across our portfolio and are shifting to more recycled content while continuing to unlock new paths through industry collaborations.”
Kenvue’s brand portfolio spans three main segments: Skin Health and Beauty, with products such as Clean & Clear, Lubriderm, and Rogaine; Essential Health, with products that include Desitin, Neosporin, and Stayfree; and Self Care, with Benadryl, Nicorette, and Zyrtec— among others. With product formats as varied as these, Kenvue’s packaging strategy encompasses a wide variety of materials and formats. Packaging types include bottles, jars, tubes, closures, pumps, and cartons. Packaging materials consist of PET, polyethylene, polypropylene, glass, and paper, all of which are recyclable in many of Kenvue’s markets today, says Iyer.
“Our focus is always on selecting the best packaging materials that deliver the desired brand equity, quality, and consumer experience,” he explains. “By doing so, we ensure that our packaging not only meets our high standards, but also aligns with our commitment to sustainability.”
The redesign has reduced the total carbon footprint of OGX by 16%, driven by improvements in both formula and packaging. “Our internal Sustainable Innovation Profiler guided design decisions and the impact on carbon footprint,” Iyer says. The bottle is designed for recycling, following industry logo schemes such as How2Recycle and the U.K.’s On-Pack Recycling Label (OPRL). PW
To support its goals, Kenvue has embedded sustainable design into its global packaging development process. The company has developed comprehensive design guides and playbooks that all brand teams must follow. These include principles for Design for Recycling (DfR), which provides guidance on the appropriate use of PCR content, refillable and reusable formats, and recovery-friendly features.
Kenvue has also created the Sustainable Innovation Profiler, an internal tool that evaluates the environmental performance of new products—including both formulation and packaging—with the goal of ensuring that 75% of New Product Development (NPD) meets improved sustainability criteria. According to Iyer, it was designed with feedback from all the participants in a product’s life cycle. “It helps assess how new products can deliver against our Healthy Lives Mission by embedding the principles for adopting more sustainable ingredients and packaging materials into new innovations,” he explains.
In addition to internal tools, Kenvue leverages peer-reviewed LCA analysis from external partners and suppliers to support product environmental claims.
Kenvue organizes its sustainable packaging innovations around four primary strategies: reduce, replace, refill/reuse, and recover, with some packaging innovations falling under several categories. The company has implemented changes across its brands and regions to remove unnecessary materials and transition to lower-impact alternatives.
Among some of the packaging innovations cited in the EMF Report: Reduce/Replace: Le Petit Marseillais has optimized the bottle
design for its shower gel to reduce overall plastic use, while incorporating 30% PCR. In India, Stayfree redesigned the size of its film bags to reduce the amount of plastic used. In the U.S. and Europe, Kenvue redesigned the bottle for its OGX hair care products to be lighter and contain 100% rHDPE (see sidebar on p. 31).
Replace: In Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA), Le Petit Marseillais lipstick containers eliminated polystyrene, moving to a mono-material plastic instead.
Replace/Recover: In Latin America (LATAM), Listerine transitioned its security seals to PET from PETG. PETG is not widely accepted in recycling systems, while PET is commonly recycled. In North America, Zyrtec redesigned its secondary packaging, moving from a blister pack to a plastic-free carton for recyclability (see sidebar on p. 34). Aveeno lotion bottles now use 50% PCR, replacing virgin plastic, and are recyclable, excluding labels. The bottles also feature a pump that can be recycled in many markets (see sidebar below).
Refill/Reuse: In North America and EMEA, Johnson’s Baby rolled out a refill-at-home range. In North America, Neutrogena launched Gentle Foaming Cleanser powder concentrate with a reusable bottle and pump (see sidebar on p. 36).
Recover: In North America, Neutrogena HydroBoost Water Gel and Cream transitioned from a plastic to a glass jar. In EMEA, Listerine updated its packaging with washable adhesive labels and introduced clear caps, enhancing compatibility with local sorting infrastructure. In LATAM, the brand transitioned to clear PET caps, replacing black caps that could not be detected in standard recycling streams.
Explains Iyer, “Our diverse portfolio allows us to explore multiple avenues and tailor our approach to different product lines, ensuring that each solution is optimized for both environmental impact and consumer satisfaction.”
Kenvue’s sustainable packaging work extends beyond material changes to include designs that improve performance in challenging supply chains. For Aveeno, that meant creating a pump dispenser that could withstand the rigors of e-commerce shipping while meeting recyclability goals. Developed in partnership with Aptar, the new all-plastic pump is fully recyclable and e-commerce compliant.
Digital twin simulations guided the redesign. “We used virtual ISTA6A digital simulations to analyze the impact of e-commerce and matched impacts to those found in physical environments,” explains Sushil Iyer, head of global packaging at Kenvue. “This helped us identify root causes and the ability to iterate quickly for solutions.”
Replacing traditional pump materials while maintaining dispensing performance required careful engineering. Compatibility with formula characteristics was also key. “We’re consistently continuing to build our knowledge, learn in the market, listen to our consumers, and further innovate sustainable dispensing experiences,” Iyer says.
The pump can be recycled with the bottle, and consumers are asked to leave the two components together when recycling. This simplifies the process for shoppers and increases the likelihood that the entire package will enter the recycling stream. PW
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As part of Kenvue’s broader sustainable packaging strategy, Zyrtec, “the #1 doctor-recommended allergy brand,” has introduced a redesigned package that supports the company’s commitment to eliminating plastic and increasing recyclability. The U.S. rollout replaces a multi-material format that combined a thermoformed plastic blister tray and a paperboard backing with a 100% paperboard carton.
The shift eliminates approximately 152,000 lb of plastic annually, equivalent to more than half a million 8-oz plastic water bottles.
“For OTC medications of smaller counts or label claims, secondary packaging is often required for shelf prominence with clear labeling for facts and usage directions for safe dosing by the consumer,” says Sushil Iyer, head of global packaging at Kenvue.
Iyer notes that moving from plastic to paper required a complete rethinking of the value chain and manufacturing setup. But the new format opened up new design possibilities. “The new paperboard carton enabled our marketing and design teams to create more effective communication to the consumer,” he says. “The brand leveraged an enlarged logo and iconography to visualize product benefits.”
Paperboard is already widely recycled and therefore intuitive for consumers to recycle. “From a brand perspective, it enabled a more superior consumer experience overall,” Iyer explains.
The packaging refresh also includes a new flat-front carton design with bold graphics, clearer ingredient information, and bright colors like red, orange, and yellow to reflect Zyrtec’s brand personality. The bottle and cap remain unchanged, but the label has been updated for a more modern look.
The new Zyrtec packaging is now available in stores and online for both adult and children’s products. Early feedback from consumers and retailers has been extremely positive. PW
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Kenvue’s sustainable packaging efforts also include testing new ways for consumers to reuse containers rather than dispose of them after a single use. For Neutrogena, that has meant piloting several refillable and reusable formats designed to reduce environmental waste and respond to growing consumer interest in more sustainable practices.
In the U.S., the brand launched a gentle foaming cleanser concentrate refill for use in a reusable bottle and pump that weigh 94% less than the full-size cleanser. In Latin America, Neutrogena HydroBoost introduced refill pods that reduce plastic waste by 89% when consumers reuse the original package. The brand has also tested stand-up pouches for face wash with a hinged, reclosable spout.
“Each launch has facilitated insights to continuously improve our refill product experience and business model,”
Designing sustainable packaging in the consumer healthcare space presents unique challenges. Regulatory and performance requirements limit material substitutions. Packaging must preserve product efficacy, ensure hygiene, and support safety and child-resistance where needed.
Creating refillable or reusable packaging requires a compelling value proposition and consumer adoption. “It’s important to design a simple, intuitive refill experience that is based on consumer insights,” Iyer says.
These trials not only support waste reduction but also give the brand opportunities to build loyalty and engagement while offering consumers more customized product experiences. PW
“Some of the design tensions we face are related to balancing material performance with market regulations and channel requirements,” says Iyer. “Our R&D organization collaborates closely with procurement, suppliers, and other teams to ensure that we bring purpose-fit, highquality, sustainable packaging formats to our brands.
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“We’re accelerating a circular design path and approach to focus on recycled, recyclable, and refillable packaging solutions.”
However, even as it designs for recyclability, Kenvue recognizes that infrastructure is uneven. The company defines “recycle-ready” packaging as that which is compatible with recycling processes, even if collection or processing is not yet available locally. According to Iyer, by joining forces with industry consortiums, pushing the envelope for broadening recycling adoption, and designing for recyclability, Kenvue is helping future-proof packaging circularity. At the same time, it continues to work closely with NGOs and policymakers to define widely recycled materials and advocate for increasing recovery.
“Designing recyclable or recycle-ready packaging starts with us, as brand owners and product innovators,” Iyer says. “We are continuing to redesign many of our packages to align with curbside recycling collection per local rules as well as to be compatible with recycling technology.”
Kenvue is looking ahead to new materials, technologies, and business models that will drive further progress. While mechanical recycling remains central to Kenvue’s strategy, the company is also exploring advanced recycling. Also referred to as chemical or molecular recycling, advanced recycling comprises a group of technologies that break down hard-to-recycle plastics into their molecular building blocks, enabling the production of new, virgin-quality resin.
“Kenvue has a complementary strategy that includes mechanical and advanced chemically recycled [ACR] materials,” explains Iyer. “One is not a replacement for the other, but certain products will require virgin-equivalent product aesthetics, performance, and safety, which makes ACR a good candidate.”
Designing recyclable or recycle-ready packaging starts with us, as brand owners and product innovators.
This approach enables Kenvue to maintain performance and compliance while continuing to reduce dependence on virgin fossilfuel plastics. The company is evaluating which applications are best suited for each recycling method.
Also a key area of interest are pulp- and fiber-based materials. These materials offer promise for reducing plastic use in secondary packaging and could eventually replace some rigid formats.
At the same time, Kenvue is investing in packaging that delivers enhanced consumer experiences. This includes formats optimized for e-commerce, with improved durability and tamper-evidence. It also includes dispensing systems that offer ease of use, hygiene, and reduced waste.
“It’s an incredibly exciting time to be in the field of consumer healthcare packaging,” says Iyer. “Consumer behaviors are changing, categories are converging, and new product experiences are being unlocked through reimagined packaging. Formats that offer a superior dispensing experience, improved e-commerce integrity, and on-thego choices will continue to advance as consumers look for new ways to take care of themselves, their loved ones, and their planet.” PW
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By adopting a thermoformed PET cap for its PET beverage bottle, new alkaline water brand Power Hydration brings consumers a fully recyclable bottle-and-cap solution.
By Anne Marie Mohan, Senior Editor
When new sustainably-focused health and wellness beverage brand Power Hydration introduced its alkaline water product to consumers in Southern California this summer, it assumed bragging rights for a firstof-its-kind closure that delivers enhanced aesthetics, improved recyclability, and better performance to the beverage industry. The closure, the PCO 1881 (28-mm) cap from Origin Materials, is the first commercially scalable PET cap for use with PET bottles, resulting in a fully recyclable, mono-material beverage package.
Says Power Hydration CEO Danny Helou, “We believe that what you drink should not only quench your thirst, but also fuel your body and support your lifestyle. As a forward-thinking wellness brand, we’re committed to innovation, sustainability, and transparency in everything we do, from our sourcing to our packaging.
“When I learned about the Origin PET closure, I was right on board because it aligned with our vision for the ‘ultimate in sustainability.’”
The new cap is the result of several years of R&D by Origin in the areas of PET cap and closure design and manufacturing, which Origin co-founder and co-CEO John Bissell says was undertaken to “help transition the world to more sustainable materials.”
Power Hydration debuted its new alkaline water product in May in a PET bottle with PET cap, for a fully recyclable beverage package.
PET has long been the resin of choice for beverage bottles, but caps have typically been made of polyolefins such as highdensity polyethylene or polypropylene. That difference has created complications for recyclers. When disposing of their beverage packaging, consumers are instructed to leave the caps on. As a result, HDPE and PP closures are often baled along with bottles after sorting at the MRF (municipal recycling facility). When the bottles are recycled, the caps typically separate out during the float-sink process, leaving material that is less likely to be reclaimed. PET caps, by contrast, add value to PET bales by remaining in the recycling stream.
“The cap is not a trivial part of the bottle weight. It can actually be
as much as 10, 15, or 20% of the total weight of the packaging system,” says Bissell. “So adding 5% economic value to that bale [with PET caps] can be really significant. That could easily double the margin of some of the players in the recycling stream.”
So why has it taken so long to get a PET cap to market? The answer lies in the material properties of PET and its behavior during processing. “If you use PET in the exact same way you’d use a polyolefin like polypropylene or polyethylene, it just doesn’t behave the same way,” explains Bissell. “Specifically with PET, it doesn’t want to flow the same way when it’s melted. You can have pretty significant difficulties when
using PET in injection-molding systems in getting the fine feature definition you want quickly for what is essentially a semi-precision part.
“With polyolefins, if they’re not flowing as fast as you want, you can just ramp up the temperature, and eventually they’ll do what you want as quickly as you want. For applications such as injection molding or compression molding, PET is a little bit more sensitive, and you’ve got to respect it a little more. So as a consequence, you don’t have that lever to force the issue with PET in those applications.”
Editor’s Note: In September, Australian company Nviro1 announced it had successfully created a prototype of an injection-molded 26-mm PET closure for water and CSD bottles. The company is currently seeking licensing and manufacturing partnerships; there were no commercial applications of the closure at press time.
To create a scalable, lightweight, and economic PET closure, Origin took a new approach. The company is using thermoforming to manufacture the caps. “Thermoforming was a way for us to get that fine feature definition and speed of processing without the limitations of PET in injection molding,” says Bissell. “In fact, the differential properties of PET in thermoforming are beneficial.”
To create the fine definition required of a beverage cap using PET means that the channels in the injection-molding tool must be larger, resulting in a thicker, heavier, and more costly closure.
The other characteristic of PET that makes it different from HDPE or PP is the performance of the cap itself. “What you get with PET is a much stronger and more rigid material, which has benefits, a lot of benefits, but it also means you need to design it differently,” adds Bissell.
Attempts to injection mold or compression mold PET caps date back at least a decade, but challenges around feature definition as well as cycle time and cap weight—both of which result in higher costs—prevented commercial success.
Thermoforming starts with a PET sheet that is heated and shaped into thin, resilient parts. According to Bissell, PET’s strength allows for thinner walls, which reduces weight—the caps are 1.5 to 1.8 g—without sacrificing performance. This approach also delivers faster cycle times. And, as Bissell explains, as cap sizes increase, the throughput advantage of thermoforming grows, with large-format PET caps produced at speeds unmatched by injection molding.
“Thermoforming gives you both a lighter cap and a much more quickly formed cap, both of which drive at the core economics of cap making,” says Bissell.
The PET platform also offers advantages that go beyond sustainability. PET provides a higher oxygen barrier than polyolefins, extending the
shelf life for oxygen-sensitive beverages like teas and juices. It also is a “better looking cap,” according to Bissell, and provides a crisp, satisfying opening experience.
“We say it looks better, it performs better, and it is better from a sustainability perspective,” Bissell shares. “So it’s aesthetics, performance, and sustainability.” He adds that he is not aware of any other company that offers thermoformed PET closures.
To bring the technology to scale, Origin assembled a group of machine partners that engineered the CapFormer system. German company Illig provides the thermoformers, PackSys Global, part of the Brueckner Group, adapted its slitting technology for PET, and IMDvista supplies optical inspection systems that check thousands of caps per minute. Origin contributed its own tooling designs and system integration.
Commercial production is underway in Reed City, Mich., where Origin partnered with Reed City Group to house its first CapFormer lines. In February, when the first line became operational, Bissell said, “Producing PET closures at commercial volumes on the first Origin CapFormer System in our production center in Michigan is just an awesome milestone. This first CapFormer line is meeting all of our expectations and is expected to produce hundreds of millions of PET caps each year.”
Origin is in the process of installing two more lines with additional lines planned for the near future. The company owns the equipment and has engineers on-site, while Reed City provides the space, the utili-
According to Origin Materials co-CEO John Bissell, the new Origin PCO 1881 cap ‘looks better, it performs better, and it is better from a sustainability perspective.’
ties, and the manufacturing expertise. Origin also recently announced a manufacturing partnership with Royal Hordijk in Europe, a company that is highly experienced with thermoforming and working with PET.
“So, by the end of the year, we should be capable of supplying regionally any brand, no matter the scale,” says Bissell. “Obviously, we’re not going to dedicate all our caps to a single brand. That’s not the expectation. But we have enough to make a difference, let’s put it that way.”
Power Hydration’s journey to become the first beverage company to adopt the thermoformed beverage cap began through a mutual contact. The use of the cap, Helou explains, aligned with both the company’s
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To differentiate its product from competitive alkaline waters, Power Hydration filters its pH water “way above industry micro standards,” just before entering the filler, says Helou. “The RO [reverse osmosis] system is beyond the capacity required to ensure the highest quality of water before converting to 9.5pH,” he adds. “Our pH concentrate is produced by a U.S. company located within 20 miles of our filling facility. We do not import finished concentrate from abroad; we know the source of our ingredients.”
For its packaging, the company uses a wash-off label on its beverage bottle to maximize the quality of the reclaimed PET during the recycling process and is trialing a recyclable bioplastic stretch film for its pallets. Helou says his vision is a 100% recyclable bottle, including the highest recycled content. “This is a very small part of the bigger picture,” he says. “We have other significant initiatives that are a bit too early to share.”
The cap used by Power Hydration is compatible with a PCO 1881 neck finish, which is a widely used closure for both still and carbonated beverages. According to Bissell, qualifying the cap for Power Hydration’s filling line was a simple process since “they weren’t locked into any particular cap setting.” Implementation of the PET cap on existing filling lines requires no changes in parts, just adjustments to operating parameters.
Power Hydration alkaline water is currently sold in more than 40 gas station and convenience stores in Southern California. By the end
of 2025, it will be in more than 300 locations, and by Q2-26, it will be in stores in Nevada and Arizona. “With great consumer feedback, Power Hydration is focusing on the right distributors for nationwide distribution,” says Helou.
Caps and closures represent a $65 billion global market. By unlocking PET for closures, Origin believes it can offer a mono-material solution for most beverage categories. “We think it’s pretty unlikely that there’s an application that you can’t use a PET cap for, or if there is, it’s a relatively small or niche application,” says Bissell.
The company is initially pursuing smaller, flat-water customers, then will follow with CSD brands, which take longer to qualify. After gaining proficiency in the 1881 cap, it plans to develop other closure formats. The current cap can be produced with virgin PET, rPET, or biobased PET and in a tethered style.
For now, Origin is excited to see the first launch of its PET caps with Power Hydration, a milestone that demonstrates how smaller, nimble brands can lead the way. As production expands and larger customers qualify the technology, PET caps could become a new standard in beverage packaging.
Says Bissell, “Origin’s 1881 closure and Power Hydration’s launch are emblematic of the industry’s transition toward mono-material PET packaging solutions offering full recyclability—including the cap—and beautiful transparency, made with PET from cap to bottom.” PW
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Impack overhauls its automation platform using tools to meet the demands of modern packaging, boosting speed, flexibility, and support across its folder-gluer peripherals.
By Matt Reynolds, Chief Editor
Impack is a Montreal-based engineering company that designs and manufactures folder-gluer peripherals for folding carton and corrugated box packaging producers. The OEM’s product range includes in-line window patchers, pre-feeders, box turners, packers, stackers, batch inverters, as well as counting and separating modules that are in use by both converters and brand owner end users who produce their own cartons and boxes on-site. The company’s leadership believes that its collaborative approach gives its clients tailored solutions that eliminate bottlenecks and optimize workflows.
The standardized home screen of Impack’s app user interface, shown here configured for a GenieCut, presents real-time production metrics, quick access to machine controls, and key production settings—all within a clean, ergonomic layout designed to empower operators with precision and performance insights.
With over 20 years of experience analyzing packaging production workflows and methods, the company says that its machines are meticulously engineered based on insights gained from thousands of client interactions. The company designs solutions that help operators and packing personnel work more ergonomically and efficiently to increase folder-gluer speed—and ultimately, production capacity.
At last year’s Drupa expo, Impack unveiled an all-new automation platform. Designed from the ground up using B&R’s Automation Studio and Mapp Technology, the team says this platform sets a new standard in operational efficiency for the Impack product portfolio, including the GenieCut In-line Window Patcher, MFA Batch Inverter, Virtuo Automatic Packer, Everio Automatic Stacker (Q2 2026), and the Intro batch counter. It has been developed with care to align with recognized industry standards such as Pack ML, PLCopen, and ISO 81346.
“Our collaboration with B&R has made a meaningful difference,” says Frédéric Boyadjian, head of automation at Impack. “Their comprehensive offer ensures seamless integration of all components within the Automation Studio programming environment. This allows us to concentrate on adding value to our products rather than troubleshoot compatibility issues.”
Impack designed the automation platform with its clients’ challenges in mind, addressing the needs of operators, maintenance personnel, and plant managers. These challenges include workforce shortages, rising operational costs, and the need for flexibility to maintain productivity on shorter runs. The license-free platform, equipped with a rich toolset, is built to reduce unplanned downtime and increase efficiency.
The Unit page of the GenieCut user interface offers a real-time overview of the machine and its submodules, showing operational states, current tasks, and production line data—providing a foundation for performance monitoring and diagnostics.
“We carefully analyzed the needs of various stakeholders interacting with the machine to enhance the user experience with our redesigned user interface,” says Boyadjian. “Our new framework gives our clients flexibility within a standardized environment. The UI provides intuitive access to a rich toolset and comprehensive data that meet the needs of modern packaging producers.”
Boyadjian emphasizes that the development gains made possible through B&R’s Mapp technology are significant. “B&R’s Mapp technology’s off-the-shelf libraries and solutions for common and advanced automation tasks allow us to reduce development time and reinvest this time in innovations.”
For equipment operators, the new platform offers an intuitive, straightforward user interface and a uniform user experience across all of the machines, accelerating training and onboarding. Operators
can work on multiple machines with a minimal learning curve, thanks to quick access to commonly used functions and a logically organized toolset. The UI includes on-screen indicators for setup guidance and clear, actionable alerts for troubleshooting.
Enhanced with Industry 4.0 capabilities, the Impack automation platform incorporates diagnostic tools accessible directly through the user interface that are designed with maintenance personnel in mind. An internet connection allows skilled Impack technicians to assist maintenance personnel in quickly identifying and resolving issues.
After months of development, Impack head of automation
Frédéric Boyadjian is pleased to deliver a tool that will improve the experience of operators on IMPACK solutions.
That remote assistance is aided by a central benefit of B&R’s control architecture. “B&R provides a single point of access to all control systems on a machine via the PLC—machine safety, motor control, user interface, etc. This centralized approach streamlines commissioning processes and facilitates remote assistance for our customers, enhancing overall efficiency and support capabilities,” Boyadjian explains. When it comes to production managers, the platform is designed to empower them with easy access to comprehensive data and performance metrics. This visibility into production and line efficiency can be segmented by day or shift, with the option to synchronize logs with the client’s database. This integration allows managers to use detailed data to drive operational improvements, as well as leverage data for business development opportunities.
Boyadjian also points to the value of B&R’s people and processes: “B&R’s local technical support team is both knowledgeable and readily accessible, offering prompt and expert assistance. Comprising dedicated and experienced professionals, this resource ensures an added layer of support to our machines, further enhancing their reliability and performance.”
He adds that the supplier’s transparency has helped Impack better manage project timelines. “B&R’s excellent visibility and communication regarding lead times and order deliveries has proven highly effective, ensuring smooth project management and facilitated operational efficiencies.”
Impack shipped its first machine equipped with the new automation platform in 2024—an Intro Batch Counter. The automation application debuted with a full feature set and has continued to gain additional functionality. More recently, the platform has been deployed on the GenieCut and MFA Batch Inverter for auto-bottom boxes. Development is currently underway for its integration into the Virtuo Automatic Packer.
“This comprehensive tool will give box packaging producers the ability to deliver high-quality products at a profitable price point. This automation platform will consolidate our position as a leader in the foldergluer peripheral solutions, enabling us to offer exponentially growing combinations of machines and optional modules,” concludes Mathieu Tremblay, managing director, Impack. PW
With a new rotary filler/rotary seamer at its heart, a nearly all-new packaging line is now humming along at 100 cans per minute. Future-proofing the line meant building in a lot more capacity than is needed—for now, at least.
By Matt Reynolds, Chief Editor
Spanning the range of familiar formats that constitute the craft brew universe—and all within a couple of walkable blocks in Cleveland—are Market Garden Breweries. Founded in 2010, Market Garden Brewery is a taphouse and gastropub that serves beer mostly on tap and has a full menu for in-person occasions. Its nearby Nano Brew Cleveland cousin is more of neighborhood bar and burger joint, but it’s also a specialty pilot brewery—a laboratory for mad scientist brewmasters. And most interesting to us at Packaging World, in a beautifully repurposed older building behind the main taphouse parking lot, Market Garden Craft Brewery represents the production wing of the business. In that facility, always-improving packaging lines provide the scale, speed, and volume to supply wide swaths of Northern Ohio, Central Ohio, and most recently, Western Pennsylvania. New equipment acquisitions, capped off by a new rotary filler/seamer, have the brewery growing its reach and business, even as the wider craft brew industry contracts around it.
Co-founder Andy Tveekrem’s auspicious beginnings as one of the nation’s pioneers in craft brew, and current status as an industry stalwart and advocate, have equipped Market Garden to navigate a changing and challenging landscape. Early in his career he was brewmaster at venerable craft brew trailblazers Great Lakes Brewing Co., then Frederick, then Dogfish Head, before coming home to Cleveland with Market Garden in 2010. Today, he’s past president of the Master Brewers Asso-
ciation (2021-2022) and active in their local District Midwest. For our purposes, in his role as brewmaster at Market Garden, Tveekrem has been active in improving packaging equipment.
Like so many other craft brewers in the past decade, Market Garden has lived through the shift away from bottles and toward aluminum cans as the predominant packaging format.
“But when I looked at some of the canning equipment [available for small volumes] going back to 2014, I was mildly horrified at what I saw. That’s why got excited when I heard Pneumatic Scale Angelus (PSA) [a BW Packaging company] was coming out with the CB50 filler,” Tveekrem
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Depalletizing happens in the warehouse, where brightstock cans are single-filed and conveyed through a wall to the packaging hall.
says. “It’s a company that’s known for, and maybe invented, the double seam. I figured they’re going to engineer it correctly, and that seaming would not be an issue. They’ve taken the same seaming chucks and equipment that they use on their high-speed, 2,000 per minute lines, and applied them for the smaller brewer.”
absurd to have just half a room with this weird configuration. We had cobbled it together over the years, so it was really squeezed in tight.”
In a bid to future-proof production, Tveekrem and team designed the new line to accommodate speeds much higher than the incoming filler’s max line speed of 100 CPM, all the way to 300 CPM. The company will be ready if growth requires even newer, faster filling operations.
Market Garden enlisted Peter Viiberg, local integrator and owner of Vee-Pak, Inc. (VPI) to help specify the ancillary equipment that would surround his new filler, with an eye on buying locally when possible.
The first piece of equipment on the new line, from early 2023, was a full height depalletizer from GR-X, a local Michigan OEM recently acquired by Ska Fabricating. With space in the packaging hall at a premium, the machine resides in the adjoining warehouse, where cans are depalletized and single filed, then travel through a window into packaging operations on the other side of the wall. There, a GR-X lowerator takes cans down to operating height, around 40-in off the floor.
By 2018, the Market Garden was focusing on canning operations. For about a year, the brewery acted as a beta tester for the now-ubiquitous CB50, which is a 50 can-per-minute (CPM) six-head in-line filler with single-head in-line seamer.
“We’ve had a really good relationship ever since,” Tveekrem says. “We provide them a lot of data on how the equipment’s running, the oxygen content, and the fill heights. They would have their people come up [from the nearby Akron, Ohio area] to do test runs, and even have potential customers come by and look at it.”
The existing CB50 had been a workhorse, and PSA has been keeping it up with upgrades and improvements as they came to market. Before long, PSA brought a 100 CPM in-line filler to market. Soon after that, PSA set its sights on a newer version of the CB100, an isobarometric counterpressure rotary fill/rotary seam version. Market Garden once again volunteered to beta test the 100 CPM line, but Tveekrem had his heart set on that not-yet available dual-rotary CB100R, so he would have to wait for the first one to roll off the line. Just knowing that that CB100R was coming down the pike later in 2023, Market Garden began upgrading its upstream and downstream equipment earlier in the year.
“We had already gotten rid of the bottling line, but what we still had left was an older canning line with a half-high depalletizer,” Tveekrem says. “It was clunky and slow, and once we got rid of the bottling, it was
“It’s nice, with soft rubber fingers that gently convey the cans downward. We run mostly 12-, and some 16-ounce cans. It’s able to do 19.2-ounce cans, but we haven’t tried that—we’d have to make some adjustments first. In theory, we could even do slim or sleek cans, but we’d have to buy some downstream change parts that we don’t need quite yet,” Tveekrem says.
Single-filed, lowerated cans are then conveyed through another new set of equipment—an AFM shrink sleeve applicator and attendant steam shrink tunnel from the same OEM. Outside of a handful of mainstay beers, Market Garden tends to be a higher mix/lower volume operation, so shrink sleeving, both in-house and in-line, is an important new trick. Market Garden previously didn’t have shrink capabilities at all, much less in-line. Shrink sleeves had to be applied to bright cans elsewhere, then brought into inventory in the warehouse. That’s done in-line today, with rollstock supplied by local Blue Label Packaging Co., a Columbus, Ohio firm with digital printing capabilities.
Watch a brief video of the Market Garden canning line in action by scanning the QR code or visiting pwgo.to/8663.
“Also, we’re seeing a lot of direct-print cans. It’s now becoming more viable because the prices are steadily coming down,” Tveekrem adds. “So that’s promising too.”
Still, economics dictate the use of traditional printed cans when at all possible. Recently lowered minimum order quantities (MOQs) from can suppliers have Market Garden moving in that direction where it makes sense. When running printed cans, the shrink sleeve applicator
and heat tunnel can simply be turned off. Cans are conveyed through the equipment untouched and at speed.
“Our highest volume beer throughout the year is our Shandy, so last year we started getting printed Shandy cans,” Tveekrem says. “Now, since the volumes for the amounts that you have to commit to keep dropping, we’re looking at getting four more of our core brands in printed cans and backing off on the sleeves as much as possible. The sleeves look nice, but they’re just an extra burden to have to apply.” Shrink sleeving is just one more operation where mistakes and scrap can happen, and sleeve
Market Garden brought shrink sleeving operations in-house, allowing for flexible can decoration for lots of different SKUs of shorter run products where larger orders of printed cans don’t make sense.
a Keyence inkjet coding/marking station adds “best by” and “packaged on” date codes. Depending on the product, a third line of text is available for printing—possibly an ABV% to keep from surprising folks with, for instance, a 12% ABV barleywine product.
“The Keyence sales rep is also your application engineer, so when the ‘sales’ guy comes by to see how things are going, he can also make suggestions and get the thing working even better,” Tveekrem says.
rollstock is an additional input cost. “And then there’s the whole issue of not being able to recycle them, which is kind of a big thing,” he adds.
After the steam tunnel, roughly 400 cans’ worth of accumulation on a winding, double-backing length of Dorner lightweight conveyor helps build up some buffer in the system ahead of filling operations. Also prior to filling, a Carleton Helical Technologies inverter/reverter orients each can for an ionized air rinse, and while temporarily inverted,
Setting aside the canning line inputs, the beer itself is pressure piped into the packaging hall. Immediately before entering the filler, the beer is analyzed in-line via a nifty Anton Paar beverage analyzer. The equipment for dissolved oxygen (DO), CO2, liquid density, and calculates the precise alcohol by volume percentage. This isn’t a common step for craft breweries at Market Garden’s volume, demonstrating the company’s commitment to quality.
“It’s a unit I found at an auction from Anheuser-Busch. It’s a pretty impressive cluster of in-line instruments and a display,” Tveekrem says. “We snapped it up for pretty good price and integrated it. Beyond the
In-line analytic instrumentation (left) monitors dissolved oxygen, CO2, liquid density, thus alcohol by volume (ABV) percentage ahead of the filler. Meanwhile, an offline QC station adjacent to the line allows for spot-check quality control (above).
primary metrics, you can also get calories and other fun details. It’s all the stuff you would want to have in your off-line analysis, but you also have it in-line.”
Speaking of off-line analysis, Market Garden does that, too. A QC station resides in the center of what’s lovingly called the line’s “horseshoe” central operating areas, surrounded three sides by the shrink sleeving, inverting/coding/marking operations, and filling/seaming operations, respectively. It’s used for off-line dissolved oxygen and CO2 checks via a Pentair Haffmans analyzer/piercer, and employs data entry and seam analysis via a OneVision seam inspection system.
By August of 2023, with the front of the packaging line fully updated, PSA’s latest CB100R—a 12-head rotary filler and three-head rotary seamer—was ready for integration. Market Garden’s machine was the first CB100R to exit the loading docks at PSA, as he had agreed to be the beta-test guinea pig for his OEM neighbors to the south.
“We really didn’t need a faster filler for the capacity,” Tveekrem says. “At our barrelage of around 8000 barrels per year, we could have gone along at 50 per minute for probably another decade. It was really a quality-improvement decision. With the linear, open atmosphere filling machines, there’s only so much you can do with them from [from a dissolved oxygen pickup standpoint]. Also, we wanted to get into counter
pressure and then getting it all rotary—on the seamer too—was a big plus. It’s where I think packaging should be; it’s certainly where we were with bottling back in the day. We wanted better dissolved oxygen (or complete lack of it), and better, more consistent fill heights across the all the filling heads. We knew this machine could deliver that. Running higher carbonation levels in various beers/ciders is also a big benefit for us. You can’t do that with in-line filling.”
Even though speed wasn’t a motivation, it has been a nice perk. It used to take a full week to run a full bright tank of shandy, now Market Garden can do that in two days of regular shifts, no extra hours.
“Being able to run at your rated speed consistently is a really nice thing,” he adds. “And as you can see, it’s just a beautiful piece of equipment with a nice Allen-Bradley HMI package.”
The Rockwell controls package includes logic to self-adjust if it detects that the system is under filling over a certain number of cycles. Volumetric fill information for each unit fill, taken at each filling head, is recorded in real time. That means automation can catch and correct for overs and unders, or operators can intervene and manually adjust a low-filling head to, for instance, add 2 mL to each fill.
“It’ll start ramping up and adjust itself, which is kind of cool,” Tveekrem says. “Also, it features what they call under-turret gassing, pushing inert gas through slots just at the point of the lid being indexed onto the can. A lot of lines will have an actual tunnel where the cans are coming through and they’re flooding that whole tunnel with gas. This is doing it right there at the point of the lid going on. That system is integrated into the CIP, so when we’re doing our cleaning cycle, that’s where cleaning solution can be introduced through those ports. We’re kind of crazy about CIP around here, which I think PSA likes about us. We can anticipate some cleaning issues other breweries probably don’t.”
Can handle application sped up from six- to 12-at-a-time ahead of manual tray packing into 24-count printed trays.
Immediately following filling, cans pass through a Hueft X-ray low-fill inspection/detection station as yet another means of QC. If you haven’t noticed, there’s a remarkable and rare amount of QC going on throughout the packaging line.
Upstream equipment improvements tend to push bottlenecks downstream, and this packaging line upgrade was no exception. After the new filler/seamer was dialed in, increased speeds necessitated an upgrade in can handle-application. A new applicator from Roberts PolyPro, a ProMach brand, now adds can handles at 12 at a time in a 2x6 configuration for two six-packs. With a few change parts, the equipment can also handle or 3x4 for three 16-oz. four-packs.
Meanwhile, an off-line Switchback tray erector in the warehouse uses hot-melt adhesive to erect printed 24-pack trays, sending them through another window in the wall via skate conveyor into the packaging hall. At an adjacent pack-out station, operators hand-pack the trays with multi-packs, or sometimes, with loose cans. Can handle multi-packs tend to go to retail, and loose cans, often 16-oz. formats, are frequently bound for sports stadiums and event arenas.
Tveekrem and Market Garden have been discussing two pieces of equipment—a pasteurizer and a cartoner. Pasteurization could expand the company’s regional reach, but the sheer size of the equipment makes it impractical for now. The cartoner idea, though, might have legs. Two factors have kept Tveekrem and Market Garden from pulling the trigger. The size of the equipment itself, and space the cartonboard inventory would consume, is one constraint. The one-time capital outlay for the equipment, plus the ongoing expense for a consumable like cartonboard, is the other.
Tray packing and palletizing is manual now, but look for Market Garden to move toward automated cartoning soon.
“And of course, every time you print something new, maybe for a new variety or format, there’s another printing plate, and there’s another cost,” Tveekrem says. Regardless, he’s pretty gung-ho on cartoning next.
“It’s great billboarding. You can build these nice little cubes or boxes, and it’s great branding out on the shelf that looks more professional,” he says. “But also, if you do multi-packs with three cans of four different beers, which we do, it could really help with that. We pack them all by hand right now. You can get the lanes situated such that one person’s filling this lane, and another person’s filling that lane—it’d be a whole heck of a lot easier to just run it into the machine and have it box it all up for you.”
And remember, even though the filler/seamer is still new and humming along at a cruising speed of 100 CPM, the line is really built for 300 CPM. Any new equipment, like a cartoner, would surely follow suit. While the brewery might not have much production space left to grow into, it still has plenty of runway in front of it to grow in terms of volume and throughput. That ace up Market Garden’s sleeve makes for a promising future. PW
A combination scale, bagger, checkweigher, and coding and marking operations accelerated packaging production efficiency to 300 parts per labor hour, up from 40 parts per labor hour.
By Pat Reynolds, Contributing Editor
Founded in 2017 by a group of cannabis entrepreneurs with the goal of creating a robust and efficient supply chain of legal cannabis throughout California, lbs. Distribution has lately been on an automation journey. In the early days, the West Sacramento, Calif.-based firm managed to manually fill and seal 300 pre-made bags per person per day. So with a team of five, that was about 1,500 units/day.
A significant improvement was made in 2020 when the firm installed a 14-bucket combination scale from High Tek. Operators held the premade bags beneath the discharge chute of the scale and manually put the bags through a heat-sealing system, an approach that got a team of five to 2,200 units per day.
Then in January of 2023, the firm installed a High Tek bagging machine. Integrated with the High Tek combination scale, it lets a team of two operators package nearly 6,000 units per day. The bagger uses vacuum pickup cups to pick a premade pouch from a magazine feed and place the pouch in a shuttle. The pouch is mechanically pinched to help open it. Then a puff station blows a burst of air into the pouch to fully open the bottom gusset. At this point the pouch is ready to receive product from the discharge funnel of the High Tek combination scale. Next is a station where the pouch is aggressively shaken to settle the product down into the bottom of the pouch.
Visit pwgo.to/8920, or scan the QR code to watch a video of the lbs Distribution packaging line in action.
Integrated with this combination scale, a new bagger lets a team of two operators package nearly 6,000 units per day. That’s 300 parts per labor hour, up from 40 parts per labor hour.
executed by a component made by High Tek. Finally, heat sealing jaws produce a heat seal above the zipper reclosure. Both 3.5- and 14-g sizes are produced on the weigher/bagger system. Director of Operations John Perrino says throughput is in the range of 10 pouches/ min. He calculates that with strictly hand packing one person could produce something like 40 units/hr. “Now we run a team of two and they knock out almost 600 parts/hr,” notes Perrino. “So that’s 300 parts per labor hour, up from 40 parts per labor hour.”
All that remains is a station where two wheels come together to pinch the zipper reclosure shut. The pouch then passes through checkweighing,
Perrino is greatly pleased by improvements like this, and he adds that one more upgrade is on the way: a Videojet thermal-transfer overprint unit for lot and date code information that will be integrated with the High Tek bagger. PW
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The Horizontal Switch from Stewart Systems is a robust, high-speed device that uses either pneumatic or electromechanical actuation to efficiently merge, divert, or reroute materials between conveyors without slowing production.
Stewart Systems pwgo.to/8915
The Domino N410 is a cost-effective digital LED inkjet label press that offers a compact, five-color printing solution with a 600 dpi resolution and an energy-efficient UV LED curing system, making it an accessible entry point into digital printing.
Domino Printing Sciences pwgo.to/8919
Bradman Lake’s compact WR6X features dual robotic arms operating in tandem to deliver precise, highspeed collation and case packing, simultaneously handling multiple SKUs to increase packaging capacity and operational flexibility. Bradman Lake pwgo.to/8900
Greiner Packaging’s
Click On and Click In sealing lids are mono-material packaging solutions designed to enhance sustainability and usability by eliminating the need for aluminum foil and ensuring resealability and recyclability for various products.
Greiner Packaging pwgo.to/8914
Cortec’s Eco Works 100, which contains 100% USDA-certified bio-based content and is an eco-friendly alternative to petroleumbased products, decomposes alongside organic waste at industrial composting facilities without ecotoxicity to the soil.
Cortec pwgo.to/8907
Volpak’s FlexoDose Light is a fully recyclable, lightweight, mono-material pouch with a spill-proof, controlleddispensing cap and an angled, wedgestyle design for a self-standing display, ideal for a wide range of products from food to personal care.
Volpak, a Coesia company pwgo.to/8906
delfort’s thinwrap transparent gloss HS is a recyclable and heat-sealable transparent paper that allows consumers to see products through their packaging while maintaining high-quality printing and product protection for food and non-food items.
delfort pwgo.to/8912
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Schwan Cosmetics’ FLX-TECHNOLOGY replaces styrene and ABS with recyclable PET and PP in their cosmetics pencil packaging, enabling beauty brands to meet upcoming EU regulations without sacrificing performance, aesthetics, or cost.
Schwan Cosmetics pwgo.to/8905
AFA Systems’ solution, which provides flexible and fast secondary packaging through advanced robotic collation and Sure-Load carton closing technology, loads various stick-pack configurations at speeds exceeding 150 cartons per minute.
AFA Systems Ltd. pwgo.to/8904
Hybrid Bagging
Sealed Air Corporation’s AUTOBAG 850HB Hybrid Bagging Machine is an automated system capable of running both poly and curbside recyclable paper mailers to provide greater flexibility, efficiency, and sustainability.
Sealed Air Corporation pwgo.to/8913
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CT Pack’s M01 offers food producers a high-speed, hygienic, and versatile packaging solution with a compact and easy-to-maintain design, adaptable sealing options, and extensive customization for diverse product lines.
CT Pack pwgo.to/8901
AstroNova’s AstroJet AJ-800, an entry-level digital direct-topackage printer engineered for professional packaging, paper bag, and corrugated box production, offers high-resolution output and adaptable feeder options for diverse industries.
AstroNova, Inc. pwgo.to/8902
PTSA’s technology for valve bagging systems leverages thermal imaging and AI to address the issues of product leaks, contamination risks, and costly downtime by analyzing the thermal signature of each bag’s seal against optimal examples.
Premier Tech Systems and Automation (PTSA) pwgo.to/8910
UPM and Royal Vaassen developed Barryrwrap, food-safe, recyclable fiber-based alternatives to plastic and aluminum packaging solutions that offer high-performance barriers against moisture and oxygen for products like coffee and chocolate.
UPM Specialty Papers | Royal Vaassen pwgo.to/8911
The Flex Fill 120 is a high-speed, fully automatic hot melt lling system designed by ProSys Fill’s partner, Pendergraph Machines, that ef ciently lls deodorant sticks and other large containers with high precision and minimal manual labor. ProSys Fill LLC pwgo.to/8908
MP Global Packaging’s Chillin’ Liners—made from 100% post-industrial recycled cardboard bers and fully curbside recyclable—provide consistent temperature protection for cold-chain shipping as an alternative to foam and plastic insulation.
MP Global Packaging pwgo.to/8918
PakTech’s PakLock, a certi ed child-resistant security cap speci cally designed for hemp, CBD, and THC-infused beverage cans, is made from 100% recycled plastic and fully recyclable after use.
PakTech pwgo.to/8909
Validation for a career path. Trust-building, credibility and connection within collaborative partnerships. A catalyst for personal and professional growth. These are some reasons why packaging professionals say that becoming a Certified Packaging Professional (CPP) through the Institute of Packaging Professionals (IoPP) is a smart career investment.
“ For me, the real value of being a CPP and staying involved with IoPP has been the ripple effect it’s created across my career,” says Rob Kaszubowski, CPPL, Principal and Practice Leader, Packaging Optimization at NTT Data. “ It demonstrates a passion for lifelong learning and a lasting commitment to the craft and the industry.”
CPP, operated by and administered through IoPP, is the packaging industry’s most globally acclaimed mark of excellence for packaging professionals. The CPP mark is earned by the individual and holds importance for both individuals and companies.
• For the packaging professional, CPP demonstrates possession of a body of knowledge—and that you can apply it.
• For companies, CPP allows hiring managers to define and attract the right professionals based on verified knowledge, skills and industry contributions.
“ IoPP has active CPPs in approximately 30 countries, and our program is recognized by the World Packaging Organisation,” says Jane Chase, CPPL, IoPP ’s Executive Director. “Some companies tell us they look for the CPP mark after an individual ’s name when hiring from outside. While not a requirement, it can give a candidate an edge when hiring decisions are made.”
How to earn CPP
To be eligible for CPP, the applicant must have a minimum of six years of experience in packaging (a university packaging degree counts as four). Those with less than six years can enter IoPP ’s CPIT (Certified Professional in Training) program, leading to CPP.
The program comprises several components. The applicant needs to join IoPP at an appropriate membership level. If necessary, they can take IoPP ’s Fundamentals of Packaging Technology course, on which the CPP exam is based. They can also prep for the exam with IoPP ’s “ Fundamentals of Packaging Technology, 6th Edition.”
Other steps are passing a comprehensive online exam and then either answering three narrative essay questions—the answers are reviewed by a panel of IoPP experts—or completing a Resume of Activities awarding points for industry accomplishments and participation. After securing certification, membership must be maintained to keep the CPP designation. Recertification is required three times to become Lifetime Certified (CPPL).
The value of CPP
CPP has proved invaluable for many with university degrees in other fields, such as mechanical engineering, chemistry or marketing. Careers in these areas at some point often intersect with packaging, and CPP (and IoPP training) can launch crossover careers into packaging. For Barbara Ekerdt, Senior Scientist, Packaging Developer and Department Sustainability Lead at Clorox, certification provides the legitimacy she sought for her packaging role to complement her degree in Chemical Engineering and PhD in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Her CPP has made her background more robust.
“ Now I can take a more holistic approach to projects and goals,” Ekerdt explains. “This adds to my credentials to be able to discuss packaging with others in the industry.”
Jason Fields earned his CPP through a partnership between IoPP and the Australian Institute of Packaging. This achievement marked Fields’ first formal packaging qualification since he earned a degree in applied chemistry nearly 30 years earlier. Today, he is Director of Purchasing Director at Sealed Air Corp.
“ Whenever I see other people with the designation, I know I am talking with someone with strong technical industry knowledge of all packaging materials and understands how primary, secondary and tertiary packaging materials work as a total package,” Fields says.
You may be asking yourself: If I already have a university packaging degree, why would I also want to become a CPP? Kaszubowski, who earned a B.S. in Packaging, said he began fulfilling the requirements for CPP shortly after graduation.
“ Over the past 20 years in packaging, it’s opened doors to new opportunities and reinforced my credibility,” Kaszubowski says. “ Earning the CPP helped me gain a broader understanding of the many disciplines within packaging, giving context well beyond my day-to-day engineering responsibilities and accelerating my career growth early on.”
Kaszubowski offers this advice:
“Think of the CPP as an investment in yourself, one that pays dividends over the long term. It validates your current expertise and helps set you apart when new opportunities arise, especially in leadership or cross-functional roles.”
Siegwerk acquires Allinova, a Dutch specialty chemicals company specializing in water-based dispersions and functional coatings, to offer more sustainable packaging solutions.
A B Graphic International (ABG) launches ABG Flex Pack, a division in partnership with Galaxy Packtech that offers complete, end-to-end flexible packaging solutions.
Packsize partners with Bastian Solutions to provide smart automated packaging solutions that enhance operational efficiency and reduce waste.
LEIBINGER partners with ID Technology to expand the distribution of its IQJET coding and marking solution in North America.
Charter Next Generation and NOVA Chemicals partner to supply high-quality recycled polyethylene (rPE) for flexible packaging, using post-consumer recycled materials to reduce reliance on virgin plastics.
NuMove Robotics & Vision opens its new Center of Excellence in Montreal to provide a live, operational setting for demonstrations and research in warehouse automation systems.
Lorenz Pan is expanding its operations in the U.S. by adding three new technical positions to provide more direct sales, service, and support for its palletizing solutions.
Origin Materials partners with Hybrid Packaging Supplier Berlin Packaging to provide sustainable PET bottle caps for distribution to Berlin’s customers, including major beverage companies.
Under a commercial agreement, Shell Polymers supplies ISCC PLUS-certified circular polyethylene for Charter Next Generation to use in high-performance flexible packaging.
The Recycling Partnership, with support from PepsiCo and Kraft Heinz, awards a $4.25 million grant to FCC Environmental Services to retrofit its Houston materials recovery facility with advanced technology to improve the recycling of film and flexible packaging.
Xampla secures a $14 million investment to replace 10 billion units of single-use plastic with alternatives made from plants over the next five years.
Robatech AG, which started with five employees and now has a presence in over 80 countries, celebrates its 50th anniversary of developing adhesive application systems.
Adam Martin is appointed CEO of Rovema North America, succeeding John Panaseny
Selig Group appoints Shyam Kotak as vice president and general manager, Americas, and expands the roles of Andre Oliveira to include global procurement and safety and David Griffin to include global quality, product safety, and global solutions development.
High Tek USA promotes Jeremy Peterson to applications engineer and senior technical manager, Brent Hodge to service manager, and Greg Power to business development officer.
AMERIPEN appoints Danielle Waterfield as policy director and general counsel.
OFS (Operations Feedback Systems) appoints Zach Gates as general manager, North America.
CAS Holdings names Patrick McDermott chief revenue officer and president.
Duravant appoints Dean Ekkaia as director of product management for optical sorting.
PPG promotes Meghan Barrera to global strategic marketing director, Packaging Coatings.
Dustin Dayton is appointed sales manager of Rychiger.
Dart Controls hires Brandon Faulkner as its Eastern U.S. sales manager.
Hai Robotics appoints Adrian Stoch as CEO Americas to drive U.S. expansion.
Domino hires Tom Tripp as the digital printing sales manager for corrugated.
Stäubli appoints Adrien Brouillard as executive president of its robotics division.
Rob Knapp returns to Currier as business development manager.
Parkside appoints Joe Strathearn as global sales director.
Change Parts names Chris Brandt as its regional sales manager for the Midwest.
By Todd Bukowski, Principal of PTIS
The packaging industry stands at a pivotal moment, shaped by two decades of evolving sustainability demands. Extended producer responsibility (EPR) and the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) are no longer emerging concepts but powerful forces rede ning global supply chains. As we stand in 2025, re ecting on past predictions and current realities offers critical insights into the path ahead. To shape a sustainable future by 2035, we must learn from history and act decisively.
In 2004, PTIS’s Future of Packaging program gathered industry leaders to project the state of packaging a decade later. Our forecast was clear: sustainability would disrupt the global industry. Early signals were evident—escalating pollution and litter challenges in BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China), where rapid urbanization strained waste management, and the expansion of EPR from Germany to places like Canada, holding producers accountable for packaging’s end-of-life. These weren’t abstract theories, they were harbingers of a paradigm shift toward accountability and circularity.
Yet, the response was tepid. That inertia broke the following year when Walmart’s then-CEO Lee Scott unveiled the retail giant’s ambitious sustainability agenda. This declaration sent shockwaves through the sector. Suddenly, environmental stewardship wasn’t optional; it was a competitive imperative. By the late 2000s, most major corporations had embedded sustainability into their core strategies with aggressive goals for packaging reduction.
across fragmented supply chains, and smaller companies struggle with understanding their packaging material selection impacts and the financial burden of compliance. In the U.S., over a dozen states are implementing or exploring EPR laws, each with unique requirements. In Europe, PPWR’s harmonized rules aim to streamline the regulations, but implementation varies by member state, exacerbating costs for multinational firms. The result? Billions in investments for infrastructure upgrades that are needed to drive a circular economy, but a challenge for firms without optimized specifications and data collection.
Looking ahead to 2035, an optimistic vision offers hope. Generative AI could revolutionize data management, seamlessly integrating datasets and automating LCAs to ensure real-time compliance. Product development would pivot to a circular economy, prioritizing reusable and recyclable designs. Investments in advanced recycling infrastructure and depositreturn systems would be widespread, supported by public-private partnerships. Consumer compliance would rise, driven by education and incentives, making waste reduction a cultural norm. Innovations like bio-based materials and smart tracking technologies could transform packaging into a regenerative asset for reusable packaging, closing the loop on waste.
Today, the landscape is markedly different. In North America, EPR is proliferating, with states like California, Colorado, and Oregon leading the charge by mandating producers to fund and manage packaging recycling. In Europe, the PPWR imposes stringent targets for recyclability, reuse, and waste reduction by 2030. Companies worldwide are setting aggressive environmental goals: 100% recyclable materials, net-zero emissions tied to their operations along with reuse or compostable packaging pilots.
However, achieving these goals is fraught with challenges. Compliance with diverse local, regional, and national regulations demands precise data collection—tracking everything from material composition to recovery rates. Tools like standardized Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) software help quantify carbon emissions, water usage, and waste generation. But the process is complex. Data silos persist
Conversely, a pessimistic scenario looms if collaboration falters, something seen recently with the lack of an agreed upon UN Plastics Treaty. Without unified action, waste could surge as population growth and consumerism outpace our ability to capture waste. Infrastructure funding doesn’t reach the developing world, where it is most needed. Inconsistent enforcement of EPR and PPWR could lead to greenwashing, regulatory loopholes, and public distrust. Landfills would overflow, oceans would choke on microplastics, and the industry could face economic and reputational crises.
The future is not predetermined—it’s co-designed. Governments, businesses, academia, NGOs, and nonprofits must work together to bridge gaps. Collaborative efforts, like shared data platforms or joint R&D for sustainable materials, can amplify impact. Smart policies from governments that incentivize reuse models, along with recycled and bio-based content can help set the agenda and drive everyone to take action. The question is: Will we act on the warnings of 2004 and build a circular future, or repeat past inaction? The packaging industry’s next decade depends on our collective resolve. PW
No Routine Maintenance
