Lots to be Thankful for in 2008!

Since September, I have been on assignment, so I have been negligent on my blogging. It has been a busy and great first year for me and my business. In March of 2008 I had an idea that maybe I could bring to design firms and consumer goods companies, the packaging philosophies and strategies that I developed while working at Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages as a packaging manager and CCL label as an art director. 

I spent the year going on press all over the country and managing color for design firms by helping with paperboard cartons, six-packs & 12-packs, paper, foil labels and corrugate trays. I even went to an aluminum can company for a beer can approval. When their design managers couldn't attend the press run, they called me and I travelled on very short notice with my wife Ava acting as my travel agent. 

I attended five packaging shows including the Packaging Summit, Eastpack, InnobevUS, HBA, and the PackExpo in Chicago. I also had the opportunity to attend OI's glass university. At these shows and conferences, I had the opportunity to talk to hundreds of people, companies and learn about packaging trends while focusing on sustainability issues. I joined the IOPP and am working towards becoming a CPP. (certified packaging professional) The goal is to stay current on packaging trends, materials and ideas. 

Since September as mentioned above, I have had the privilege to help a major cosmetics company with an important packaging project. 

The key here is that in this tough economy, there is still room for an individual with experience to make a difference with companies through outsourcing. I would like to take a moment here to thank all of my former colleagues at CSAB, the SBA and the design firms who have either hired me or given me advice to help me get my start. I would also like to thank my family who has been supportive through the transition from employee to business owner.

2009 will be an exciting year for me as I continue to build and, I hope that everyone reading this message has a safe, healthy and happy new year!

All the best,

Barry

 

Sustainablity at the HBA show

Last week I visited the 2008 HBA Global Expo at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in NYC. As always, I am on the lookout for interesting sustainable packaging and concepts. This is one of the main shows for the Health & Beauty (Cosmetics) industries and a great show to go to if you are searching for innovation and trends. 

Since I usually work in the food & beverage industry, it was a nice change of pace to see what is happening and as is expected, many companies were talking about sustainability. Here is another list of companies that I thought stood out:

At the top of my list is Mirel plastics. Apparently, Mirel is a biobased, biodegradable, compostable, bioplastic produced from corn. Well, I had heard of "biodegragable plastic" before and was quite sceptical because, hey what will this plastic degade into? Little bits of plastic? What makes Mirel different is that since it is corn based, it fully biodegrades in a short period of time when exposed to soil or a compost. I'm not clear on the science behind this, but the person that I spoke with at the show explained that the material is grown from microbes that convert sugar from corn somehow. Heavy stuff. However, from their literature, this material could replace polyolefin & polystyrene plastic. Their facility is due to be in production in 2009 an I think you should at least take a look at them. If you want to get some of it for yourself, pick up a gift card from Target as it is made from Mirel.  

Next is Monadnock Paper Mills in Bennington NH. They are a paper mill that has made it their policy to promote environmental awareness and invest in research to determine innovative ways to reduce waste and efficiently use natural resources. They say on their website that their plant gets up to 25% of its power directly from a local hydro electric source. They print a really well researched pamphlet that they will send you called, A Field Guide to Eco-Friendly, Efficient and Effective Print, which contains at-a-glance printing and paper information about important issues being faced by this industry.

Parallel Products is an environmental services company and North America's leader in unsaleable destruction and recycling. They specialize in the destruction and recycling of full case and bulk beverages, alcohol, health and beauty and bulk streams and will take your packaging wastes and convert it to useful byproducts such as fuel-grade ethanol. This is a direct assault on the waste stream and I like the idea that companies are emerging that offer innovative, environmental ways to recycle. 

Disc Graphics in Hauppauge, NY, a company that makes paperboard and high-end mini-flute boxes, offers an exclusive paperboard stock that is produced from a mineral and uses no trees or chemical breaching to produce. They offer a variety of post consumer waste boxes, and print with linseed-oil based inks. They are also part of the Forest Stewardship Council which plants a tree for every one that they cut down. 

My old friends at CCL Tube are marketing a post-consumer resin (PCR) tube that can be made of up to 70% PCR. They claim a three-layered process that isolates the product from the PCR material. In this manner the product does not come into contact with the recycled material, which insures integrity as recycled plastic materials pose a problem with the potential for inclusions. 

Note again that these observations are my own and I have no stake in any of the companies above nor can I prove that the claims they make are true.

Glass, Plastic or Can? continued

As a former packaging manager of a large beverage company, when it came to beverages I always wondered which was more environmentally friendly. Much like the old "Paper or Plastic" argument at the grocery store, which is better or is anything actually better for the environment? This is not an easy question to answer. Last time I wrote about sourcing, this week I want to pick up where I left off with manufacturing. Some of this info I am going to simplify a little, this is not a class!!

Glass (Bottles) 

Once the raw materials are mixed in the furnace (at 2800°) the materials are thermally mixed by carefully regulating the temperature to create convection currents. The molten glass then flows down a forehearth where it is carefully cooled before entering a feeder where it is cut into "gobs" (industry term) and these fall into an individual section (IS) machine and then the mold cavities. Most glass is formed in two stages, stage one is the formation of the parison and stage two is where the parison is transferred to the final cavity mold for container formation. Video

Once molded, the new, red-hot bottles move down a conveyer through an external & internal tin spray coating treatment (hot end coating: which increases container strength and helps with labelling) to an Annealing lehr where the glass temperature is raised up again to about 1050° and then cooled slowly to reduce internal stress caused by uneven cooling during the forming process. After all that, the containers are sent through a cold-end coating and given a water based spray to give the bottles lubricity and minimize glass checking. (chipping when traveling down a production line). Bottles are then QC'ed and palletized for shipping to the bottler. Here is a great video of the process from the Discovery Channel.

Aluminum (Cans)

Coils of aluminum are delivered to can factories by truck or rail. On average a coil is 15,000 linear feet, thickness is about .0108" Width is determined by the the die setting. It is important to note here that most beverage cans are made up of three parts: the body, the end and the tab. All three of these components are made of Aluminum, but go through different forming machines. 

On can bodies: the aluminum coils are QC'ed and placed on mandrel "uncoilers" where the aluminum is fed through lubricators and then a "Cupper" this is a die forming machine that stamps cups out of the sheet. These cups are distributed by a conveyer system to can making machines called "bodymakers" which draw and iron the cups into cans by punching them at high mechanical pressure into ironing dies. The aluminum is drawn through these dies making them thinner and longer. The bottom of the can is also formed at this point. The rough can is then ejected using air and sent to a trimmer where the end is cut off to a precision length. These trimmed cans which are oil coated are then washed and rinsed. Next stop decorating, (which I will talk about in a future post) Decorated cans are then internally coated necked and flanged in tools that give the cans their familiar reduced neck. Here is another great video again, from the discovery channel. Another from Ball Corporation.

Retained-Tab end manufacturing is much simpler. Most can ends go through a ten step forming process with the first couple of stages being similar to the body process but instead of punching "cups", the forming press makes shell blanks that are then "Curled". These curled ends then have a sealing compound applied that will help form a tight seal when the can is filled and capped. The curled are then formed further with the familiar score for the dispensing opening. At this point the can ends also might have relevant state refund information embossed. At the same time, the tab is also formed on a different machine and the two components are married until the end is fully converted. Can ends are considered a commodity, and it is really a good idea to use can ends made by the same company as the body.

PET beverage bottles: (Single layer)

The raw material is delivered to the plant in bins or boxed pallets sorted by color. This material is melted at 5-6oo° and the material is fed into molds at high pressure to create a "preform" preform molds are very expensive. Preforms are precision molded to assure plastic distribution throughout the container. It is interesting to note that the threaded neck is in its final form at this stage.

The preform is then heated again to nearly its melting point and sent into a reheat stretch-blow molder where it stretched and molded into its final shape. Often, preforms are produced and shipped to the filling plants and the bottle is molded on-site to save in shipping costs. Video, again from the discovery channel. 

So who wins manufacturing? Well, after viewing the three video's and reading my description, you should be able to see that even post sourcing, glass and aluminum can manufacturing are heavy industries. The energy costs to run glass furnaces & lehr's & aluminum die forming equipment and extruders has to be higher than the energy to heat and mold plastic bottles. The PET resin industry reports 52% less energy to produce PET over other containers. I am not biased towards plastic but I am trying to report physically and in plain terms what it takes to produce these containers/materials. I have been in glass, can and PET factories and I can tell you from experience that PET factories are far simpler and cleaner places. If anyone disagrees with me on this point please let me know. 

Scorecard: Glass = 0, Aluminum = 0, PET = 2

Up next labeling.

Glass, Plastic or Can?

As a former packaging manager of a large beverage company, when it came to beverages I always wondered which was more environmentally friendly. Much like the old "Paper or Plastic" argument at the grocery store, which is better or is anything actually better for the environment? This is not an easy question to answer. Since looking into this issue, I have decided to break it up into several posts.

The Sustainable Packaging Coalition defines four life cycle phases of key importance to determining how earth-friendly a package is: sourcing, manufacture, use and end-of-life.

I am going to try to avoid statistics as much as possible. While some statistics are probably OK, in the format of a blog, at a minimum they will put you to sleep and at worst, they are tools used by people trying to prove a point. As someone once said, there are three kinds of lies; lies, damned lies and statistics!

Raw Sourcing:

Glass (Bottles)

Glass is made up primarily of SiO2 or silicon dioxide. Also known as silica most commonly found in nature as sand or quartz. Silica is the most abundant mineral in the Earth's crustand the second most abundant element. Silica occurs commonly in nature as sandstone, silica sand or quartzite. It is the starting material for the production of silicate glasses and ceramics. It can exist in an amorphous form (vitreous silica) or in a variety of crystalline forms. Often it will occur as a non-crystalline oxidation product on the surface of silicon or silicon compounds.

The production of glass dates to the Egypt, Mesopotamia & Roman empires. (Fifteenth century) Modern glass making dates back to the late 19th century; That is, glass made by machine. Simplified: glass is made up primarily of Sand (Silicone Oxide SiO2), Soda Ash, Limestone, Feldspar and minor ingredients: (Fining agents, decolorizers & colorizers) Glass is remarkable for its strength and being chemically inert. These ingredients are mixed together (Also known as fusion casting) in a large furnace that runs at about 2800°F.  Typical glass factory diagram. 

Aluminum (Cans)

The chief source of aluminum is bauxite ore is mined and refined into aluminum. Bauxite is combined with caustic soda, lime, and steam to produce a sodium aluminate liquor. Impurities are filtered or settled out of the liquor and alumina hydrate is precipitated out of the mixture. The alumina hydrate is calcined to remove moisture and drive off the bonded water.

The resulting alumina is ready for smelting into aluminum. Alumina is electrolytically reduced into molted aluminum. Aluminum's melting point is approximately 1221°F. This reaction occurs in Hall-Heroult reduction cells (called pots) where the bound oxygen in the alumina reacts with carbon electrodes to form carbon-dioxide gas and aluminum. Each ton of aluminum requires 0.4-.05 tons of carbon anodes. The resulting aluminum is formed into slab ingots that are up to 26 inches thick, 20 feet long, and weigh up to 20 tons each.

The aluminum is then rolled into sheets through the process of forming. The slab is heated in a furnace and rolled between powered rollers until the plate is approximately 1 inch thick. The plates are further reduced in finishing mills where they are hot rolled to a thickness of 0.25 - 0.4 inch. These sheets are rolled into large coils and graded for quality.

Aluminum is too reactive chemically to occur in nature as the free metal. Instead it is found combined in over 270 different minerals. Aluminum is also an abundant metal and the third most abundant after Silicone Oxide and makes up about 8% of the Earth's solid surface. Refined aluminum is remarkable for its ability to resist corrosion. 

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) 

PET is a thermoplastic polymer resin of the polyester family. Wikipedia. The raw materials are petrochemicals: crude oil, natural gas and ethylene glycol. PET is hydroscopic, meaning that it naturally absorbs water and it must have this moisture removed as much as possible before molding or extruding. Once molded, PET has a high resistance to moisture and is very strong.

Crude oil is a naturally occurring flammable liquid found in rock formations consisting on a complex mixture of hydrocarbons plus other organic compounds. Therefore, PET is an organic compound. PET was invented by DuPont chemists in the 40's during a search to make new textiles. The PET soda bottle was patented in 1973 and a two-piece 2 liter bottle was first used by Coca Cola in 1975. 

PET raw materials are either extruded or injection molded and chopped into pellets. PET has a melting point of approximately 480°F.  The raw pellets are packed in large pallet sized boxes.

So who wins raws sourcing? Since glass and aluminum are minerals and must be mined using equipment and refined in furnaces using extremely high temperatures, I have to vote for PET here. Sure, PET is refined directly from petroleum byproducts, however the energy costs used in the formation do not begin to add up to the amount of energy used to keep the mining equipment and furnaces running 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Energy that comes from Petrochemicals.

Scorecard: Glass = 0, Aluminum = 0, PET = 1

Up next: manufacturing

Glass, Plastic or Can? Which package is most "Sustainable"

It's been a busy July with a bunch of press approvals so I haven't been blogging as much as I should be. I have been thinking about this subject for a long time and talking to a bunch of container companies lately. In the next couple of weeks I will attempt to qualify which container is the most "Earth Friendly" from manufacturing through consumer disposal & recycling. I am going to limit myself to comparing containers that hold 12oz of beverage: a glass beer bottle, a common aluminum soda can and a PET bottle. The decoration, secondary and tertiary packaging will be considered to as well as the cap.

The bigger problem in this country is the real lack of recycling, the packaging material is just not getting where it needs to go to be recycled and there is no infrastructure to handle the waste stream. Not sure yet if I would support a national recycling law or support new deposit requirements.

If you are involved with this issue, please feel free to send me some information or make a comment. Thanks - Barry

On Press Again

I was at a paperboard company last week, on press to approve a box re-run for a client. It was especially critical because the first run had been rejected due to gross color variation. Why was it rejected? Because someone at the printing company miss-handled the WIP and shipped set-up material to the client. (This printer uses "set-up" material to get their die-cutter in registration.) When the item went into production, the packaging looked terrible and the entire job was returned to the printer for credit. 

While the job itself was not especially challenging, there were some things working against us from the start. There was a warm red and two special blacks used on these three items. The warm red on the proof was a build using 100% process M & Y.

1. The tone of the warm red was off giving the proof a blue cast.

2. The special blacks were not well-defined by the client. The way they were separated was not the way I would have done it, but it was already on-press.

3. Two of the items were running on different presses at the same time. 

4. The paperboard stock on press was not from the same mill as the proof. In this case the surface texture was way different. 

I decided that as a strategy we would get one up and running first on the older press and then match the second item to it on the newer, better press. I had to determine that we were not going to run a "special" magenta. Running special colors in the process stations can create as many problems as it solves. This practice is not that uncommon such as swapping out cyan for pro-blue, but when playing in the reds this can throw off the whole balance of the job. Plus; there were some process elements on this job that would be affected.

It took seven pulls to get it acceptable once we determined that the red wasn't going to get any better and the mottling wasn't going away on the black due to stock. On the other press, we got the color into the OK zone on the second pull. The third item was a quick changeover with a reset of the ink densities. 

If you are a printer, make sure you have a system set up that prevents shipping sub-quality material to your customer. When I was at CCL Label many years ago, one of our new CS agents sent labels they literally took out of a dumpster to the buyer at Clairol. The next day we almost lost that account. If you can't avoid setting up on the actual job, then quarantine it or have a quality agent approve the material. This stuff might seem like 101 to you, but the folks on the line may not have their head in the game.

On the artwork side, I am not 100% clear that the design firm, the client and the printer were in alignment as to how these jobs were going to print. Having this alignment would be beneficial to everyone in order to manage expectations. 

Fortunately, our client was happy with the job and hopefully the printer will remember this experence on future runs. . .    Have you ever had similar issues?

InnoBev US Beverage Entrepreneur Forum

On Thursday June 19th I spent the day in NYC attending the most important beverage conference of the 2008 in my opinion. The forum, held at the Le Parker Meridien Hotel, attracted ~200 serious business executives from around the world. The conference was put on by Zenith International and BevNet in association with Beverage Spectrum and Beverage Innovation Magazines. The Forum was also sponsored by Wild Flavors, Inc.

Download the full schedule for the day here.

Highlights for me included Peter van Stolk, former CEO and founder of Jones Soda Company talking about effective on-line strategies and how to target your audience. Peter is now the CEO of the Tree Fort Group, a marketing consulting firm.

Greg Steltenpohl, founder of Odwalla Inc. talked about his struggles of marketing a fresh squeezed product (with a three-day shelf life!) during the formative years and showed us many pictures of "Hippies"(his words) bottling and distributing his products on the west coast. He now runs Adena World Beat Beverages.

After lunch there was an innovator panel made up of beverage industry entreprenuers;

Bill Sipper - Senior Partner of Cascadia Consulting Group LLC

Mike Weinstein - CEO of Inov8 LLC

Tom First - CEO of O Water

James S Tonkin of Tonkin Consulting (link please)

Dr. Erik DonHowe, VP of Wild Flavors, Inc.

Each member of the panel spent 5-10 minutes talking about their unique experience and then took questions from the audience.

One of the most interesting parts of the day was the "Dragons Den" where three beverage executives got to pitch their young brands to a panel made up of major industry distributors. The distributors then had a moment to comment on each pitch and give advice.

The beverage executives were: 

Dr. Dan Ratner of Cell-Nique

TJ McIntyre, Founder and President of Pixie Maté

Brad Winter, CEO of SoNu Beverages

The beverage panelists were: 

Lewis Hershkowitz - COO of Big Geyser Inc.

Ken Davis, CFO of the Davis Beverage Group (link requested) 

Gerry Martin, VP of Marketing for Polar Beverages

Tim Sperry, President of The Sperry Group (link requested)

The process was very insightful. I applaud the three passionate officers & founders who stood in front of 200 or so people and told their story. It took fortitude and I am sure we will all be hearing more from these brands.

Finally there were some marketing briefs given about emerging growth opportunities, consumer trends and steps for securing finance. There was also plenty of new and unusual beverages to sample. If you are at all involved with the beverage industry, it would be wise to attend the InnoBev US forum next year. Make sure you log into BevNet to find out when the next one is. 

The best part of the evening for me was right at the end during cocktail hour where I had a chance to meet and talk with some of the beverage inventors and creative people. I also had the unique opportunity to watch Dr. Tzohar make "Diamond Water" or carbonated water from diamonds. This patented process involves placing a small diamond that has been heated to 2000° with a small torch into a vial of liquid oxygen.

The diamond then glows like a bright light for a minute or two and then vaporizes into carbon dioxide. The resulting gas is vented into a container of water. The Dr. claims that the resulting beverage is safe to drink. Video. The evening ended with a toast and a glass of diamond water which is the appropriate way to end a beverage entrepreneur forum. . . 

OI Glass University

Last week I attended the three day Glass University given by OI in Perrysburg, Ohio. This class is given four times a year. If you are at all involved with the purchasing of or creation of glass packaging, I highly recommend this class. 

 The first two days are all classroom, and the third day are spent visiting their glass plant in Charlotte, MI.

I learned that glass in this country, is grossly under-recycled and according to OI, for every 10% of recycled glass that makes it back into the furnace, energy use drops 2-3%. This is important because the furnaces run at about 2800° 24 hours a day, seven days a week!

During the glass they reviewed new Product development, Sustainability issues, Raw Materials & Furnace Operations, the Forming Process, Surface treatments, strength, inspection and Handling requirements. Alot of materials for three days. 

Glass does certainly have weight, breakage and other issues, but the purity of glass and its unique ability to protect the product and not impart any flavors into the product can not be ignored. Also - Glass is still #1 in premium perception with consumers. I see glass coming back in a big way and the folks in Charlotte are very proud of their newly designed glass baby bottle in that will be hitting the market soon.

The only thing I would have liked is more time at the factory. They took us to the furnaces, allowed us to look inside (through a welding mask), then the glass forming machines and right down the line right to the end where they ship product. Here is a video from the Discovery Channel showing a quick overview of the glass making process. (Not sure if it is an OI location)

If you have any interest in attending the OI Glass school contact Karen.Harwood@us.o-i.com

Why Brand Managers shouldn't go on press. . .

In my 14 years working first as an art director for CCL label, and then as packaging manager for Snapple Beverage Group/Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages (now called Dr Pepper/Snapple Group) on brands such as Mistic, Nantucket Nectars, Mott's, Stewart's Root beer, Orangina and Yoo-hoo Chocolate Drink, I have found that most design firms need a helping hand once they get to the mechanical phase of artwork development.

Design firms bring a broad scope of creative talent and skills to the early and middle phases of design. This would include materials for focus groups, senior management sell-in and then finally into mechanical development, but not the actual mechanicals. Why is this the case? Because; the talent and artists are focused more on great design rather than packaging execution. Not only that, a “mechanical” means something different to a designer than to a printer.

Packaging, as we all know, consists of vastly different processes for the production of the various components: registered shrink sleeve, aluminum can and bottle, pressure sensitive and cut-and-stack label, closure, paperboard and direct or preprint corrugate development.

Each kind of packaging brings with it the baggage of the printing process it is tied to: traditional offset litho, dry offset, flexography, letterpress, narrow web screen printing, roto-gravure and even digital printing.

While the design firm can get the art 'finalized' by submitting the file with the high res files, the color builds are usually off or the die line might not be in the final development stages. The printer might need to deploy a special color build for a match because there may be less color stations available on the press than the job was specified with. 

Even the best design firms struggle with the ability to achieve color, traps and printing effects and this is compounded by the Brand Managers lack of printing experience and prepress. No one likes to get the call from the printer in the final stages of production that an effect can not be achieved or worse, that the press is down the results of which cause delays, scrapped material and at worst, a delayed launch-to-market.

One solution is to employ a central engraver to provided proofs and work directly with the printer and design firm to tie the two goals together. Alternatively the print vendor knows their equipment and they may have in-house prepress that can be utilized to get the job done.

Just make sure to always ask for your files back after the job is complete for future alterations. The communication between the design firm and the printers is critical to great design and great, uninterrupted production. The earlier this communication can happen the better for everyone. 

Have you ever experienced these issues with your packaging?

More Sustainability Ideas from the East Pack NYC show

I just got back from the East Pack show in NY, the show is very big, but is more like six shows combined, Medical Design & Manufacturing, East Pack, Atlantic Design & Manufacturing, Automation Technology Expo, PlastTec East and the Green Manufacturing Expo.

More and more companies are offering sustainability solutions; to compete in the marketplace, companies everywhere are going to have to assess their role moving forward or be left behind. Companies that offer real solutions and not just window-dressing will survive.

Sustainability starts with design and D2M has a system they use to choose the right materials for product development and mechanical engineering. They are geared more towards the electronic and medical markets.

Akeena Solar has residential and commercial solar panel solutions. Solar technology has advanced since the days of President Carter. They will do an audit and again, checking off "yes" in the solar box if you are doing business with the big box stores will get you on the top of their vendor list.

Lime Energy located in South Gate, California offer tools that will meet your sustainability goals by monitoring your facilities HVAC and lighting systems. 

Morrison Container Handling Solutions can come in and audit your filling line and make changes that will reduce the energy used for production of your product.

Tech Container Corp located in MA makes custom engineered reusable plastic storage boxes and claims that by using these boxes as part of your business plan, helps to drive down "pollutants, solid waste and green house gases by 70%". They will audit your corrugate usage and come up with reusable box/tray solutions. The boxes can also come with RFID tags so you can track your inventory. The boxes themselves use no glue to assemble and are 100% recyclable.

UFP's Molded Fiber division is the leading manufacturer of interior packaging solutions made from 100% recycled paper. They can design and engineer a solution for your product. I happen to like this material as a substitute for styrofoam. 

Occasionally, I get boxes filled with this product and I love it. Milex makes a super all natural, biodegradable 100% grain protein based loose-fill Styrofoam substitute. There are no petrochemicals or corn used in the manufacturing process so they expect the price to remain constant. They can even lease you the equipment to manufacture their product in your facility saving trucking costs.

Another company to watch is Orbis Corporation that makes plastic pallets, totes and containers. According to their literature, you will save 7000 gallons of water if you eliminate 800 corrugate boxes. Almost enough to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool. They also have a handy website with a "Green Calculator" that allows you to do quick calculations on your paper and pallet usage to calculate savings. 

The Gem Gravure company makes printers and ink-jet and gravure inks that eliminate VOC's

Here is something really unique: Green Club Inc. makes a product called Addiflex. When added to polyolefin, the additive renders the plastic biodegradable. If this interests you, check out their site. 

I would like to add again that these are my own observations and I have no interest in the above companies or am being paid for my comments!!

Bisphenol A (BPA) in Packaging

Last Week, I was watched a repeat of the US Senate Committee's hearing on Plastic Additives in Consumer Products (see previous link for video) My gut reaction from having worked in the beverage industry is that plastic packaging is GRAS. I am putting this post together to provide some quick links to get you up to speed if you don't have the time to google all this. 

1. Wikipedia

2. USA Today

3. DRAFT National Toxicology Program BPA Brief

4. American Chemistry Council

5. National Geographic "Green Guide"

6. medicinenet.com

The containers in question are made of polycarbonate which are food containers, tableware, clear water bottles and baby bottles. PET is the plastic If you want to avoid this kind of packaging look for "7" or PC. There are also polymer liner coatings used in food cans. PET bottles used for beverages do not contain BPA and are considered safe although the plastic has been known to leech very small amounts of acetaldehyde (ethanol).

According to the research so far, (and the jury is still out) studies have shown some concerning fetal and infant brain development and affects to the male prostate gland as well as, mammary gland, earlier age for puberty in females. The problem is compounded when hot liquids are heated or placed in these containers. Exactly what you do to infants formulas or when sterilizing these bottles for use. Scary stuff indeed. Not only that, but the manufacturers are removing these bottles from the shelves on their own. 

If you really watch the two hour Senate video, you will Senator Charles E. Schumer talk about the bill that he is sponsoring; The "BPA Free Kids Act of 2008" (S 2928)  banning detectable amounts of  BPA in Childrens products.

Dr. Norris Alderson, Associate Commissioner for Science, FDA and Dr. Marylin Wind, Deputy Associate Executive Director for Health Sciences, Consumer Product Safety commission came under heavy scrutiny from the Senate committee. 

Dr. Alderson who also Chairs the BPA task force said that BPA used in food contact substances is regulated under FDA title 21 but is in "very low" parts per billion range. By the way a part per billion is one part per 1,000,000,000 parts. He did go on to say that a large body of evidence currently available shows that these products are safe. (27:00) He stated his case and seemed a little defensive while he fielded questions from Senator Nelson and Kerry. In my opinion, he did not stand up to the Senators' questioning very well.

One high part for me was when Senator Nelson held up a sports bottle that you would find in any sporting goods store and demanded that Dr Alderson tell him if the bottle as safe to drink from. (1:02:20)

Later, Senator Kerry began to tongue lash both Doctors starting around 1:20 directly comparing this chemical to flame retardant children's pajamas, cribs that kill and the Chevy Corvair. Then the Senator went off on a tangent asking about hair care products that contain estrogen.  Senator Kerry went so far as to quote his book around 1:25:50. 

The frenzy over this issue reminds me of the Saccharin ban. Saccharin as you may remember, was to be banned in 1977 also based on a Canadian study, however under public pressure, Congress delayed the ban by requiring anything with this ingredient carry a warning label. This ban was lifted in 2001 by the Clinton Administration and is no longer considered a threat. . . although there are experts who still advise to avoid this chemical.

My thoughts are that this is about risk: There are risks every day when you walk out the door. What is the risk to drinking from a bottle that contains BPA. Very-very low if any. If you are a manufacturer of glass containers thinking that this will be good for your industry, there are risks to drinking and feeding your children from glass too with regards to glass fragments in the product.

Now with the readily available internet, you can find risk to nearly every single packaging component, chemical, food or food additive,  sugar, even  water. If you want to play along, enter your item and then the word "risk" after it in a google search.

Don't think that today's focus on BPA won't be tomorrows Senate hearing on a chemical found in your container or product. There is no industry that can stand up to this kind of scrutiny. Be ready in advance with the studies that prove your case. Please feel free to give me your comments on this issue.

I was at the Packaging Summit in Chicago last week . .

and here are a few highlights from the show which is presented by the IOPP. If you have never attended the Packaging Summit, this is their fourth year. I would have to say that the show is well attended by a nice cross section of contract packagers, label and container companies, plastic molders and design firms. While not a big show, it's worth attending and there are conferences too; enough to keep you busy for a day or two. Here are some companies that I thought stood out at the show for whatever reason.

Unless you have been living under a rock, the magic word in packaging is Sustainability and I learned that this word has different meanings to different people. If you are into plastic molding, I guess that molding components in a plastic that degrades faster in a landfill is somehow better than regular plastic that degrades slower. Degrading into what? The bottom line is that I saw the "S" word in nearly each and every booth.

An honorable mention goes to The Drake Company who developed a way to reduce the amount of plastic is in packaging in their new Lite-Pak. I would have liked to have seen a smaller footprint on the actual pack and there have been environmental disposal issues with the compact fluorescent light bulbs they were using as a packaging example.  

MeadWestVaco was there displaying a similar product called "Natralock", but with a goldfish instead of the light bulb in the package. Their literature is full of the new math that will get you props at Wal-Mart. (See my blog from April 10)

By far the coolest thing that I saw at the show was a device (actually pictures of the device) made by Recycletech that grinds up and melts down styrofoam waste 90:1. Here is a video of it in action. I know that styrofoam is a huge problem in landfills and I took the brochure to my local recycling center for consideration. 

Another company that had a neat product was KW Plastics that makes paint containers directly from recycled plastic drinking containers. 

MonoSol makes hot and cold water soluable bags that are edible. (Or may be edible in the near future, I didn't get a clear answer). This is a really a cool innovation. Imagine dropping a sealed teabag into hot water or some kind of iced tea mix directly into your beverage. then you drink it all. If I see this in the market in three years, I want 5%! Even the non edible bags are being used right now for dishwashing soap. The best packaging is packaging you don't throw away, no?

Something that I really never considered was having a company build a leased packaging plant right next door to your factory. What's sustainable about that? Well, zero trucking for one and less factory waste. Also, you could design this new factory to be energy efficient from the beginning and help the local economy to boot. Aldelano Packaging Corporation Can do just that. 

Mold-Rite plastics makes a really clever (and patented) medicine bottle cap that has a pointer on top that advances every time you open the bottle called the Dial Vial. While this isn't actually sustainable, It might help you sustain yourself if you forgot whether you took your heart medication today.

The Outlook Group (a label printer) was showing pressure sensitive labels that are supplied on a ultra thin "microliner" This liner is claimed to be 100% recyclable and allows the label roll to hold up to 30% more labels. Since the label liner is wasted 100% after application, this is a good way to minimize this waste stream. 

SunChemical was also at the show showing some James Bond style printed security products that glow or change color depending on if you rub them or expose them to certain kinds of light. Since counterfeiting is such a big trend nowadays, they can help you with a conventionally printed solution. 

Note that these observations are my own and I have no stake in any of the companies above nor can I prove that the claims they make are true. For some reason, typing this makes me feel better.

One last thing: Pushing the envelope; the Coollid company was there offering a patented "Revolution in Coffee lids." that has a temperature reducing chamber in the lid which I thought was clever, but seemed to me overly complex and used at least twice the plastic as compared to a standard coffee lid. 

Unfortunately, the booth was unmanned when I walked by, so I was not able to try their product. If you want a chuckle, their home page has an infomercial-like movie on it complete with people burning themselves and dumping coffee on their laptops. 

And the future of packaging is...Drum Roll Please!

A friend of mine who works at Kimberly Clark sent me this link to make my own tissue box. Not that I always wanted a custom tissue box or even thought for one minute about designing my own tissue box, but this might be the future of packaging or at least be a cool way to differentiate yourself from the competition. Jones Soda has been doing the same thing for years, but at $29.99 plus S&H for a twelve pack, that would put me over $100 for both parents and my wife. Call me cheap!

Several years ago I had the opportunity to see an Indigo printer (now HP) at a trade show print custom potato chip bags with attendee pictures as part of the graphic. My thoughts at the time were "cool, but how would that work in the real world?" Well, clearly the answer is to offer it up at a premium via the web the way these two above consumer companies are. There are now even entire printing companies based on the digital model who have invested in this kind of printing: Lightning Label in Denver is one of them and the first "All-Digital" printing company. 

Well, getting back to my boxes, Kimberly Clark has obviously put some time into the interface because it seems pretty idiot proof. You get twenty or so background colors, the ability to add as many photos as you like and frame images as well as a message. My first thoughts were to put an influenza image on the box, but no, I ended up putting up a couple of photos of my kids instead. The cost is $4.99 each which is little more than a standard box of tissues costs. Hopefully will be sent in time for Mothers day. 

Can you think of a way to make your product that custom? 

Who's managing your Packaging?

I was just at a container vendor with a client and I wanted to share a couple of observations with you. When we first saw the new graphics it was clear that there were some separation mistakes made to the art. There was a big disconnect between the design files and the plates. 

Looking at the proofs it was clear that the printouts that the container manufacturer made were correct but the film supplier had incorrectly trapped some of the elements in the logo when they output their films. Unfortunately for us, the plate-maker with the problem films was located several states away. We also only had PDF prints and did not have color keys (remember those!?) on hand made from the actual films.

We weren't going to be able to recover from their mistake and potentially missed the fill date at the bottler. Does this sound familiar? 

It is critical to follow the Artwork all the way through the process from design, separations to the printer. The design files must match the mechanicals and then the plates. It is the customers job to sign off on each of the stages.

If the plates are generated using films it is always a good idea to have the printers supply match-prints or even keys if they have the capability so they can be matched back to the original art. This should be done well in advance of the press run. Had this been done we wouldn't have been is such a bind and would have made the filling schedule. . . . Looking at the art for the first time when you are at the printers is too late!

Wal-Mart Stores - Package Modeling

Well, it was bound to happen: Wal-Mart wants your company to 'go green' and the way they are going to make you do it is through Package Modeling, or having you compare your products with your peers. This is part of Wal-Mart's effort to reduce overall packaging by a minimum of five percent by the year 2013. This is a summary of what I learned in the seminar, and I am in no way connected with any of this, but I find this stuff interesting. No matter what your feelings are about Wal-Mart, this will have an impact on your packaging for years to come. 

They have teamed up with ECRM Software (ECRM stands for Electronic Customer Relationship Management or "Efficient Collaborative Retail Marketing" according to their website.) and  Thumbprint LTD

Last week, I took the webcast to get a feeling on where this is going to take all of us. There are four modules:

1. Retail Link- Developed by Wal-Mart to manage key elements of the buyer-seller relationships.

2. Sustainable Packaging Scorecard- Developed by Wal-Mart with leading public and private experts and as an extension of Retail Link to evaluate packaging.

3. Wal-Mart Package Modeling- Developed to help manufacturers find sustainability improvements in their packaging

4. MarketGate™- Developed by ECRM to help manufacturers network with packaging Suppliers. 

Wal-Mart is encouraging all of their suppliers to enter all of their packaging SKU's into #2 and is currently part of their purchasing process. Once your packaging is entered, it will be compared with everyone else's packaging and given a score. You will get to see how your packaging does against your competitors packaging. Not only that, you can run 'what-ifs' to see how changes affect your score. Although you won't be able to see who your competition is, obviously Wal-Mart will be able to review this info to make more informed purchasing decisions. 

Basically, you will have to divide the product volume by the selling LxWxH. Then multiply that out by the transport cube volume. Then those figures will be applied along with nine material metrics weighted by product category. Some of these categories have nothing to do with the packaging at all. The nine metrics are: Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Material Health & Safety, Average Distance to Transport Materials, Package to Product Ratio, Cube Utilization, Recycled Content, Recovery, Renewable Energy, Innovation Different from Energy Standards. 

No good or bad scores, but higher scores are better and make note that their buyers bonuses will be partly dependent on purchasing products with sustainable packaging!

Before you make any decisions on what your company is going to do about this I encourage you to take the seminar and ask questions. While I applaud Wal-Marts efforts, the burden of this will be placed firmly on the supplier.  You are going to have to have engineers and/or people schooled in how to do this to enter your SKU's. I have no idea how this will affect the industry, but I suspect that the packaging will continue to get smaller/thinner until the pallets all but disappear and the product hits the floor. This might also encourage green-washing. Feel free to leave your comments. 

Packaging Differentiation

Years ago when I was having lunch at a small deli I went to grab a root beer. I noticed a two Stewart's Root Beer glass bottles in the cooler, one had a white label and the other had an orange label. I bought & picked up the orange and took a large swig. . .ew, it was diet. I took a closer look at the label and over the orange logo was the word "DIET". Somehow I missed it.

One of the most important things you can do to help your brand is look at differentiation within your category and then within your flavors & SKU's. When you look at your brand next to the competition, does your packaging stand out? Are the key benefits clearly communicated? Do your customers know which one to choose and are their flavor expectations being met? 

When looking at flavor differentiation, line up the consumer selling units on a shelf and cover up the flavor name. If you can't tell the regular flavors from the diet flavors and the strawberry from the cherry, then you have a problem. 

Fortunately, I became the packaging manager for the Stewart's Root Beer brand, Triarc had just purchased the brand from Cable Car Beverages in Denver. Working with Hughes Design, we were able to correct this oversight during a brand redesign. I flipped the regular and diet communication for the brand on the packaging. We came up with a full-calorie/diet system that would work across any flavor. Because Stewart's had 14 SKU's, flavor communication was extremely important to the look of the brand and had to be communicated across the single bottles, as well as the 4-packs and cases.

Wal-Mart encourages sustainability packaging

Walmart recently announced that they want their vendors to think differently about how they package their products and are investing $500 million to encourage the change. They have come up with a Packaging Scorecard for their vendors to take to "rate Suppliers". This move will most likely cost consumer goods companies millions as they re-tool their factories to comply. Can sustainability initiatives like these work, or will they encourage companies to Greenwash their products? Next week I will take the free seminar and report back. Stay tuned. . .