The EastPack show this year featured a Green Manufacturing Expo sponsored by Design World Magazine. The pamphlet handed out features about 130 attending suppliers that have "identified themselves as offering energy efficient and/or Sustainable products or services." on the floor these vendors were further identified by a placard that said they were "Green".
Since I don't have the time or ability to verify any of their claims, I will just leave you on your own here, if you decide to use them for their environmental claims, make sure you get them to back it up with documentation & proof.
The most interesting product I saw was an odd-looking material displayed by ecovative called Greensulate & Ecocradle which is an alternative to foams and plastic internal shipping material and is made with natural composts & inert fungus. It is really compostable and looks different. The only possible negative to me is that it felt a lot heavier than the synthetics it's replacing which may affect shipping costs.
AM Packaging Incorporated, a litho box printing & packaging company has added a new very efficient printing press called a Komori Corp. Lithrone S 40P 8 color plus coater. With integral Computer-to-plate (CTP) technology & one-step register set up is reduced ten-fold. How is this possible? the plates are processed right on the press for nearly perfect fit. I have seen this technology and it works. Furthermore, AM claims that the press has reduced noise, energy & chemical consumption. These are all good reasons to invest in the latest technology and the fact that AM has found a creative way to promote the new equipment sets an example of how to market new technologies. Also new presses have the benefit of printing higher quality packaging.
I have been watching Bedford Industries for a couple of years now and they make a great product. It's an elastic hang tag that's becoming quite popular called Elastitag. The thing that makes these tags great is that they have an elastic band at the top which means that the tag itself can be used to hold together the product and eliminate the packaging altogether. (Think about using them to hold & identify a bunch of brocccoli) It has a die cut elastic band at the top and can be die-cut in almost any configuration and the tag itself can be a coupon book. I'm starting to see them everywhere I shop.
CWS Contract Packaging is a certified organic service to the food, retail and pharma markets. They are a socially conscious not-for-profit 501(c)(3) entity who provides co-packing using a diversified blend of community & dev. disabled workforce. They also offer PLA, RPETG & RPET packaging solutions. You can debate the merits of the new plastic solutions, but I think it is important to utilize community services like CWS, located in Norwich, NY.
Tucker Printers, a network of offset, digital printing, packaging & fulfillment companies now owned by Consolidated Graphics, claims in their hand-out to be, Powered by Wind Energy, Rainforest Alliance Certified, a member of the Forrest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the hand-out was printed with soy based ink. While I applaud that they have taken a stand for sustainability, I think it is really important to go the extra distance in their sales material to qualify what goals they have set and achieved such as, 45% of our power comes from wind, etc. Tucker Printers is located in Henrietta, NY.
XelaPack in Saline, MI has a product that I think is the future for many packaged goods that you now see in rigid bottles & tubes. They produce and co-pack a line of stock & custom paper stand-up packages with tear-off tops. Starting out as simple sample packages for hotels & spa's, their product line and fill weight has grown to include pharmaceuticals, beverages, & powders. According to their literature, the amount of packaging reduction is stunning. Something in the range of 93% less plastic when compared to similar sized bottles & tubes. Shipping reduction is also huge. As an added bonus, the entire package can be decorated. If you have an innovative new product, consider this package.
Ekan Concepts Inc. in Ontario, makes a cool premium wooden display box manufactured out of high quality veneers with different laser-etched or labelled decoration possibilities. I'm not sure how sustainable they really are as a company, but their product is made from 100% wood.
CardPack, a leader in custom engineered carded packaging designs located in Solon, OH, was passing out a nice folder which contained environmental printing awards from PrintAction, the Packaging Assoc. of Canada, the paperboard packaging Council as well as reprints from Brand Packaging & Green Packaging Magazines. Two of their products are called ClubPack & SustainPak are alternatives to clam-shell packaging. You can read more on their website, but the thing that stands out to me is their combination run printing service which I have never seen before publicly offered. Simply stated, they gang up your low-volume print job with other companies jobs on the same press set-up in gang quantities.
The disadvantage of this kind of printing might be that you get the color you get, but with computer to plate technologies, it's probably not a problem. This has to be one of the biggest behind the scene material wasters. Setting up all of these jobs on the same sheet has to offer amazing savings as opposed to having each job run separately. This is something that any printer could do.
Finally, for reference, at the show, I met with some folks from the Toxics in Packaging Clearinghouse (TPCH ormerly CONEG) made up of different State Environmental Agencies who were passing out literature such as QA considerations for Toxics in Packaging and Toxics in Packaging Fact Sheet. These interesting (to me!) documents outline what different states are doing and going to do to regulate toxics in packaging. If you produce, make or buy packaging you must be well-read in this area. These are the people that set the bar in states that have packaging laws.
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