Sustainable Packaging

Wal-Mart scorecard going global: May 2007 update

More details were provided May 15 on the retailer's sustainable scorecard at the Packaging Summit.

May 17, 2007

Sustainability: Page 304

Flexibles

Responsible Sourcing and Usage of Paperboard-Based Materials

Editor’s Note: This article is the first in a three-part series from MeadWestvaco that looks at the entire lifecycle of paperboard-based packaging systems. The series begins with the issues of sourcing.

May 10, 2007

Sustainable Packaging

Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle

Hewlett-Packard, ranked 11th on the 2006 Fortune 500 list of largest American corporations, practices sustainability on a global scale. If you ask Jill Wollam, a packaging engineer and new product planner for HP’s LaserJet supplies, for insights on how a packaging organization can make sustainability actionable, you receive recommendations that any packager — on the Fortune 500 list or not — can immediately apply.

May 10, 2007

Sustainable Packaging

How to grow and innovate

The annual Executive Leadership Conference held by the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute is known for, among other things, its ability to attract some pretty terrific business session speakers.

April 24, 2007

Sustainability

New Plastics Data in the U.S. LCI Database

Within a matter of days, important new data sets will be available in the U.S. LCI (Life Cycle Inventory) Database. The data will include all steps from “cradle to resin” for nine common plastic resins (HDPE, LDPE, LLDPE, PP, HIPS, GPPS, PVC, ABS, PET) and two polyurethane polyols. These materials are commonly used in packaging systems as well as in durable products (for example, building products such as insulation).

April 17, 2007

Sustainable Packaging

April Sustainability News Digest

Important news items on Sustainability, April, 2007.

April 17, 2007

Flexibles

A Global Perspective on Sustainable Packaging from Kraft Foods

The recently redesigned PET-based bottles for Kraft’s Crystal Light and Fruit2O brands are 18 percent lighter than the bottles they are replacing. Following the completion of the phased introduction of the new bottles in the U.S., Kraft will reduce its PET usage by 8.7 million pounds per year.

April 17, 2007

Flexibles

Pulp-based film

Hutchinson Miller Sales has introduced a pulp-based film that combines the ease-of-use of paper and the durability and other performance qualities of film.

April 6, 2007

Flexibles

User-friendly blister

MTS Medication Technologies has developed an environmentally friendly, high-barrier blister to augment its medication compliance packaging consumables product line.

April 6, 2007

Sustainable Packaging

Packaging: A convenient truth

All too often it seems that packaging is portrayed as an environmental villain by the media.

April 4, 2007

Flexibles

Packaging environmental efficiency study released

A new 56-page study that takes a careful, measured look at environmental efficiency for various formats may be An Inconvenient Truth for packaging.

April 4, 2007

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Carbon footprints, carbon labeling--how warm should we be about these initiatives?

Scarcely a day goes by without a picture in the European news media showing a polar bear, victimized by the onslaught of global warming, clinging forlornly to a fast-melting ice floe. Joining the polar bears in media coverage are the chief executives of Europe’s major international retailers, who seem to be vying for the mantle of greatest green-ness. Consider:

April 3, 2007

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Proposed rules on gluten finish the thought on food allergens law

Under its proposed rule, FDA defines ‘gluten’ as proteins that occur naturally in a ‘prohibited grain’ and that may cause adverse health effects in those with celiac disease.”

April 3, 2007