News

Bright Innovations Place Pouches In Packaging Spotlight

June 4, 2019

John Kalkowski

Molson Coors Beer Bag Ices Pouch Competition
The Molson Coors 12-Pack Cooler received the Highest Achievement in this year’s Flexible Packaging Association awards. The Grab & Chill pouch was designed by Bemis Co. as a reusable cooler bag for Molson Coors, offering a fresh take on the ubiquitous beer carton.

The flexible bag delivers portable convenience with a pouch that expands into a larger, reusable bag providing additional convenience features. This innovative package features easy-carry handles and can go directly into the refrigerator or cooler. The film’s sturdy, high performance structure allows consumers to reuse the bag. Reusability provides brand benefits that communicate quality to brand-loyal consumers. Bemis produces the bag on a conventional pouch machine used to make pouches for applications in industries such as pet food or lawn and garden products.

The Grab & Chill bag offers many packaging conveniences, including the sensory and audible EASY-LOCK closure system by APLIX that allows consumers to fill the bag with ice and instantly reseal to keep beverages cold. It uses hook-to-hook technology makes it easy to open, with minimal pressure needed to reclose packages.

Nestlé Nesquik Hits Shelves In Recyclable Paper Pouch
Nestlé has launched a new Nesquik All Natural powder featuring a simplified, natural ingredients list marketed in a recyclable paper pouch. Nestlé has launched the Nesquik All Natural in five European markets. The new pouch is made of a coated paper that is recyclable in the paper stream. The paper is from sustainable sources, certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). The pouches have been extensively tested to make sure they keep the Nesquik powder in perfect condition during transport and storage. The Nesquik launch came less than two months after Nestlé committed to accelerate action tackling plastic waste. It is one of the first products to put that pledge into action, moving from recyclable plastic to recyclable paper packaging.

Yasser Abdul Malak, head of the dairy category for Europe, Middle East and North Africa, added: “The recyclable paper pouch is the first of its kind, one of our key initiatives towards providing more sustainable packaging across our product portfolio. Moving from plastic to paper is a big challenge, but an important step in designing the food packaging of the future. We have taken that step today to ensure we truly meet consumers’ demand for more natural and sustainable food.”

Hybrid Veggie Pouches Offer Multiple Benefits

To launch its frozen, spiralized vegetables, Green Giant turned to a hybrid PrimaPak pouch. This patented and versatile technology, produced by a joint venture, including Sonoco Flexible Packaging, acts as a bowl and allows consumers to blend ingredients, conveniently heat and serve without additional dishes. The semi-rigid, rectangular container with peel and reseal functionality limits waste through the use of less plastic compared to traditional trays.

“Green Giant was looking to capitalize on the new trend of frozen, spiralized vegetables, a healthier alternative to pasta. We worked with them from start to finish — designing a packaging solution that worked with their filling equipment, could withstand the rigors of distribution, lowered the overall carbon footprint, and created a truly unique retail presence — even adding value for the consumer by letting them microwave, blend, serve, and eat right from the original package,” says Jimmy Sanfilippo, president of Sonoco’s Elk Grove operation.

The graphics cover all six panels of the package, providing a vibrant billboard effect on the freezer shelf to catch the eye of the consumer. Resembling a folding carton, the package stands vertically for maximum branding. The flexible, stackable, resealable package is produced from a single roll of film on modified Ilapak vertical form-fill-seal machinery. PrimaPak rollstock can also incorporate renewable, plant-based plastics.

The Grab & Chill bag offers many packaging conveniences, including the sensory and audible EASY-LOCK by APLIX closure system that allows consumers to fill the bag with ice and instantly reseal to keep beverages cold. It uses hook-to-hook technology makes it easy to open, with minimal pressure needed to reclose packages.

Plant-Based Biopolymers Strengthen Plastics Usage
Plastics usage is under attack. To make plastic packaging more environmentally friendly, a number of companies are pursuing ways to make it safely recyclable, compostable and biodegradable. Among these companies is BioLogiQ, which aims to provide plant-based biopolymers.  
The company’s plasticized thermoplastic BioBlend resins offer functional and environmental benefits for packaging applications. The overall benefits of BioLogiQ’s BioBlend resins are to reduce the use of fossil fuel-based polyolefins and other plastics, reduce greenhouse gas generation and potentially improve strength, allowing significant downgauging especially in films. This allows a reduction in materials and greenhouse gasses.

According to Dale Brockman, sales vice president, when NuPlastiQ is blended with polyolefins, the Eco-Alloy BioBlend resins are at least as strong, and usually stronger, than the partner resins alone. They are recyclable as they are still commonly used films such as LLDPE, LDPE, HDPE, and polypropylene. In fact, he says the material is possibly more recyclable as the added strength provided by NuPlastiQ allows for more reprocessing and recycling cycles.