With consumers’ growing interest in environmental concerns, retailers and suppliers are searching for innovative secondary packaging that reduces waste while enhancing marketability. Wal-Mart is one retailer encouraging this push toward sustainability. The chain implemented its packaging scorecard in February, rating suppliers’ packaging. Wal-Mart buyers use the scorecard when making purchasing decisions, intending to reduce packaging by 5 percent by 2013.

ITW Hi-Cone (Itasca, Ill., USA) took advantage of billboard branding while responding to the need for sustainable packaging by creating BrandPak, a printed sleeve that goes over a multipack with an ITW Hi-Cone carrier and top-lift handle. The decorative sleeve is a minimal amount of packaging, and the ring carrier is both minimal and photodegradable, which means the material degrades with exposure to the sun if it’s improperly discarded.

BrandPak was originally tested by FruitSimple Fruit Smoothies and was a runner up for an award at Pack Expo Las Vegas this past October. Miller is now using BrandPak with high speed applications on its alcohol energy drink, Sparks, while Lewis & Clark Brewing Co. introduced BrandPak via its slow speed line.

Another new option that reduces packaging even further is ITW Hi-Cone’s multipack orientation system, a machine that automatically faces the containers and applies the company’s carrier to secure the bottles or cans for merchandizing.

“With creative design on the labels of bottles and cans, it offers the potential of a billboard effect while using minimal packaging,” says George McClory, marketing manager, North America, ITW Hi-Cone. “Compared to other alternatives, we take best advantage of the branding that’s offered by the primary container. It’s a significant new technology.”

In keeping with this minimalist trend, PakTech (Eugene, Ore., USA) recently developed handles that can replace cardboard and shrink bundles. The over-the-top handle is designed so cans “nest and stack” tightly to create a snug pallet configuration. A few companies are testing the nest and stack handles now and more will be receiving handles this month for in-store testing.

“Our recyclable handles reduce cost and waste—about 60 pounds of secondary packaging material per pallet,” says Amie Thomas, marketing manager for PakTech.

When it comes to paperboard packaging for multipacks, cutouts allow consumers to directly see the product. Cincinnati, Ohio, USA-based Zumbiel Packaging’s Z-View multipack results in at least 10 percent less paperboard because of the cutouts, says the company. Within the energy drink category, Amp Energy Drink is now using Z-View, as well as Starbucks DoubleShot.

“You get the best of both worlds: you can see the high-resolution graphics on the primary packages, but you also get the billboard effect,” says Tom Zumbiel Jr., marketing director, Zumbiel Packaging.

With an eye toward the Wal-Mart scorecard, Zumbiel is also acquiring special paperboard from overseas that is lighter yet just as strong. Suppliers can reduce their package weight 10 percent by switching over. Zumbiel Packaging also is the first paperboard packaging producer in the US beverage industry to achieve Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification, acquiring paper from well-managed forests that harvest trees in a way that is environmentally responsible.

From Beverage World March 15, 2008