Sustainability

'Hidden' payoffs through waste savings

Major southwest Coke franchise discovers that shifting to returnable trays for cans not only reduces landfill waste, it also improves productivity and cuts costs.

August 31, 1997

Drinks, nonalcoholic: Page 33

Conveying & accumulation

Ball inspects becausePepsi expects quality

On-line machine vision system helps Ball's Chino, CA, plant deliver high volumes of PET bottles to Pepsi-Cola's California bottlers.

August 31, 1997

Flexibles

PepsiCo tests canned snacks

Some Pepsi-Cola can vending machines are now offering consumers something to go along with their cold drink preference: Fritos and Doritos chips and Rold Gold pretzels.

August 31, 1997

Beverage

Plastic to outpace other materials

In the beverage industry, plastic will lead the growth of other materials at least through the year 2001, predicts a new study from industrial market research firm Freedonia Group (Cleveland, OH).

August 31, 1997

Flexibles

Cryogenic cooling of heat-set PET awaits patents

The technology's not commercial yet, and it certainly has its skeptics. Test results show that thermal and barrier properties are enhanced significantly by blowing PET into heated molds and cooling with LN2 delivered by a unique new system.

July 31, 1997

Conveying & accumulation

Coke 'airmails' bottles at 1,000 bpm

More than 6괌 feet of air conveyors at Jundiai, Brazil, carry contour PET Coca-Cola bottles from blow molders to labelers and then on to bottling lines some 220 yards away. U.S. technology keeps filling lines from having to wait for prelabeled bottles.

July 31, 1997

Sustainability

Recycled content: Is the loop broken?

Part two of our exclusive look at recycled-content plastic packaging reports how some packagers justify using recycled resin, even in down markets. Plus, evidence that the "closing the loop" issue won't go away soon.

June 30, 1997

Labels

Clearly redefined

When Clearly Canadian was introduced ten years ago, it stood apart from mainstream soft drinks on store shelves. Says Jonathon Cronin, vice president of marketing at Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: "When we first launched the brand, the slight blue tint to the glass bottles and the ACL decorating were almost revolutionary." Ten years later, shelves are flooded with eye-catching products, and the pioneering beverage company decided that its core brand needed a boost.

May 31, 1997

Sustainability

Return of the 'domino theory'

Even small increases in upstream investments to manage new ozone and VOC rules could aggregate into weighty packaging cost increases.

April 30, 1997

Flexibles

Plastics under seige in Massachusetts

A plastics recycling bill has been introduced in the Massachusetts state Senate that would, if passed, doom the sale of most plastic packaging. The bill bans plastic packaging for consumer products unless at least 80% of Massachusetts residents have access to plastics recycling facilities by December 31, 2000.

April 30, 1997

Flexibles

Getting noticed is now packaging mission #1

In today's market, there are more serious packaging developments than the emergence of beverage containers with walls purposefully bent out of shape.

April 30, 1997

Recycling

National bottle bill?

Sen. James Jeffords (R-VT) once again has introduced a bill requiring all beer, water and soft drink containers sold in the U.S. to carry a 10¢ deposit.

March 31, 1997

Containers

Packaging rediscovers the language of touch

New packages from Coca-Cola Co. (Atlanta, GA) and Matrix Essentials, Inc. (Solon, OH) provide dramatic evidence that the importance of a package's tactile quality is making a dramatic U.S.

March 31, 1997