With consumers calling for more sustainable products, the flexible packaging industry has been brought into the spotlight. Flexible packaging consists of any package, or part of a package, whose shape can be readily changed when filled during use. The product is cost-effective, lightweight, and durable, especially when compared to rigid packaging, such as bottles or jars.
While it’s becoming an ever-increasing option for manufacturers, there are still concerns for the flexible packaging industry. Those include recycling difficulties, increasing collaboration between packaging material manufacturers and OEMs, and the role of automation in reducing labor costs all while increasing efficiency in packaging processes.
To break down these topics, Tom Dunn joined Packaging OEM for an exclusive webinar. Dunn, a veteran developer of flexible packaging products for food, previously managed product development and food safety for 30 years at Printpack. Currently, he consults with producers and users of flexible packaging for food and medical products as the managing director of FlexPacknology.
Behind the push for flexible packaging
The demand for more flexible packaging is largely driven by consumer demand for more environmentally friendly products, with 70% of US consumers willing to pay more for a sustainable package. Flexible packaging can include bags, plastic pouches, liners, wraps, and rollstock.
When compared to rigid packaging, flexible formats use 77% less plastic by weight, consume 78% less fossil fuel to produce, and account for 74% less landfill waste. Click here to read more about a flexible future and the shelf-ready revolution.
Recycling difficulties and sustainability
Flexible packaging is created by recycling mono-materials, or products made from a single type of material, like plastic, glass, paper, fabric, or even metal. These materials are designed to be easily recycled to start a second life as flexible packaging, such as polyethylene or polypropylene. However, once flexible packaging is created, it can become difficult to recycle.
“Mono-material, flexible packaging structures, packages, if you will, is a necessary component of a recyclable, flexible packaging economy,” said Dunn. “But it’s far from sufficient.”
Dunn emphasized the need for integrated systems between consumer-packaged goods (CPG) companies and municipal solid waste management to improve recyclability.
“You’ve seen some commercial applications now that claim they’re flexible package materials are in fact mono-materials and recyclable, but the fact of the matter is even if that mono-material is high density, number two, in the resin identification code system of the plastic industry society, and the Global Standards Institute, high-density in those flexible packaging solutions is not the same as the high density in the big detergent containers and high-density milk cartons of the detergent and dairy industries. So even though they’re high-density resins, coated correctly in the marketplace, they’re not recyclable in that collection sortation and recycling system,” said Dunn.
Plastics make up between 70% to 80% of the total flexible packaging market. Only 14% of all plastic packaging is collected for recycling globally, and only 2% is recycled into the same or similar quality applications.
To keep up with consumer demand for sustainable products, large brands are updating their environmental and packaging goals. Just this month, the Coca-Cola Company said it aims to use 35% to 40% of recycled material in primary packaging, including increasing recycled plastic use 30% to 35% globally.
To be part of the solution, Dunn is urging CPG companies to implement recycling opportunities to get these materials into the next generation of packaging.
“There’s going to be a lot of the present status quo mapped into the future, particularly for flexible packaging, which is so hard to sort and recycle in the existing world of municipal solid waste management,” said Dunn.
Collaboration between manufacturers and OEMs
To keep up with speed and change over time, Dunn highlighted the importance of machine builders working alongside CPG manufacturers while highlighting some of the potential pitfalls.
“The voices of the CPG universe are varied and divergent in some respects, so it’s a bit of a marketing challenge for the OEM world to listen carefully to what it is that’s coming back to them when they ask questions, and to consider the source, if you will, in the world of what’s really driving the success factors of those CPG companies,” said Dunn.
He also added that OEMs can provide success for both their company and consumer by serving as an operational focus.
Improving efficiency
Companies facing an employee skills shortage calls for increased production of flexible packaging — and automation. A new generation of automation has propelled the packaging industry to a point where smart machines can solve companies’ problems quickly, and with less manpower.
“I think there’s been a major reinvestment in packaging machinery associated with efficiency…where you don’t have a lot to setup or adjustments from one kind of packaging challenge to the other,” said Dunn.
Additionally, Dunn provided a roadmap for OEMs to approach their existing customers with a push towards new technology.
“It’s a value sell for the OEM to go to a customer and say if you’ll invest your capital in new equipment, you will pay for it with reduced labor costs and higher output in a matter of months, if not years,” said Dunn. “You’ve got to prove your value to the marketplace before you’re going to get them to open their checkbooks.”
Webinar
For more on how OEMs can keep up with flexible packaging, view the entire webinar for free and on-demand: click here to join.
