PACK EXPO East: From the Floor

Did you miss PACK EXPO East? See what Packaging World Editor Matt Reynolds had to say in the “PACK EXPO Rewind Show Floor Findings” podcast with PMMI’s Sean Riley.

Matt Reynolds, Editor, Packaging World
Matt Reynolds, Editor, Packaging World

Content has been edited for space considerations.

Polyethylene

Sean Riley:

What jumped out at you? What are attendees talking about? Basically, what's the buzz?

Matt Reynolds:

The big thing right now in materials is the move to mono-materials, specifically polyethylene. One that I saw specifically here at the show is the Color Masters booth, a converter that does pouches and so on for various industries such as pet food and chicken. What previously existed as a multilayer material, specifically for chicken with barrier properties, now is available in an HDPE material that is easily recycled.

HDPE, unlike straight PE, will be recycled into the manufacturing industry. So, it's not going to be recycled back into other bags. It's just one example of the many that I've seen recently, of companies reaching these goals of mono-materials. They're not there yet in terms of accomplishing everything that everybody wants, but they're definitely moving in that direction.

Sustainability

Sean Riley:

What about sustainability or recyclability? I know that's been a hot topic forever, but the last time we talked that was something that we touched on. Is it something you're still seeing?

Matt Reynolds:

Yeah, it's omnipresent, it's everywhere. The materials are one side of it. Then for machinery we're talking about reducing power inputs and voltages and reducing waste. It's so omnipresent it’s hard to nail down one little thing because it really does affect, touch everything.

One example is in Europe frequently you'll find on store shelves beverages, whether it’s one liter or half liter beers packaged together in shrink film or shrink wrap.

We're seeing a move towards paperboard cartons as a replacement for plastic…bigger companies in Europe are making that move to paperboard for beverages and other packs that had been shrink wrapped.

Cannabis

Sean Riley:

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