Special report: Produce packaging business updates
Fibre Box Association reports growth
The COVID-19 pandemic put the supply chain in the spotlight, and corrugated packaging “fulfilled its role as the system’s backbone,” said Rachel Kenyon, senior vice president of the Itaska, Ill.-based Fibre Box Association. In March 2020, corrugated box shipments grew by 9% above March 2019 shipments, she said.
Shipments in 2020 grew again year-over-year in June, July, and September, Kenyon said.
“With October and November shipments hitting record highs and putting the industry up 2.6% through 11 months of the year, the numbers show there is nothing more tried and truer to distribution and deliveries than corrugated packaging,” Kenyon said.
Heading into 2021, the industry expects “healthy living to continue to drive the quest for sustainable packaging like corrugated boxes,” she said. “The performance piece is a now a given — boxes are up to the challenge.”
Georgia-Pacific focuses on development
Farmers are looking for alternatives to wax boxes and plastic packaging for produce, and Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific is in the process of developing improved products to meet those needs, said Julie Davis, director of public affairs and communications.
“We hope to begin piloting some of the solutions in the near future,” Davis said.
Georgia-Pacific will soon be expanding an offering that will give produce growers more options to “customize their high-graphic packaging with improved turn-around time and reduced waste,” Davis said.
The company announced Jan. 27 the expansion of its Hummingbird digital print line with the purchase of an HP PageWide T1190 Press.
In a move to extend the reach of digital services across the U.S., the new 110-inch-wide web press for pre-print corrugated production will be installed later this year at a new Hummingbird site opening in Arizona, Georgia-Pacific announced.
Graphic Packaging adds to product lines
Atlanta-based Graphic Packaging International LLC, a paper-based packaging supplier, is working on new products, said Jackie D’Ambrosio, senior manager of new product development.
“Our product development work encompasses both new products and continuous improvements to our existing ranges to meet market demand,” she said.
Graphic Packaging currently is working on “further iterations” of its ProducePack, PaperSeal and pressed and parrot trays “to ensure that our solutions are best placed to serve the brands we work with in the produce sector,” D’Ambrosio said.
Graphic Packaging is investing $600 million in its Kalamazoo, Mich., facility, and the company also is working toward its Vision 2025, D’Ambrosio said.
Inline Plastics focuses on sustainability
Shelton, Conn-based Inline Plastics Corp. is intensifying its work on sustainability, said Cindy Blish, associate brand and communications manager.
“Inline has recently undergone a major innovation with regard to our increased sustainability efforts,” she said.
Inline now is manufacturing products with “new reborn post-consumer PET plastic, which is recycled at the molecular level — also called chemical or advanced recycling,” Blish said.
“This applies to all products and, of particular note, includes our tamper-evident product lines,” she said.
JSB Group draws sustainability support
The Greenfield, Mass.-based JSB Group LLC and its Salinas, Calif.-based QFresh Lab are getting more requests for assistance in helping produce suppliers grow their sustainability programs, said Jeffrey Brandenburg, CEO.
“Our level of support is rapidly growing in the sustainable resources we offer,” he said. “Companies have moved beyond just offering a sustainable packing solution to satisfy a marketing requirement to actually providing scientific solutions that have a true environmental impact.”
As such, JSB is getting more requests for researching, advising and designing “scientifically based sustainable packaging solutions that include the entire life cycle of the product,” he said.
“In other words our clients have moved past providing the appearance of sustainable packaging to asking us to guide them to real solutions,” he said.
Kwik Lok joins U.S. Plastics Pact
Union Gap, Wash.-based closure manufacturer Kwik Lok Corp. has joined the U.S. Plastics Pact, a collaborative initiative rooted in four goals intended to drive significant systems change by unifying diverse cross-sector approaches, setting a national strategy, “and creating scalable solutions to create a path forward toward a circular economy for plastics in the U.S. by 2025,” the company said in a news release.
The U.S. Pact is a collaboration led by The Recycling Partnership, World Wildlife Fund and Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Kwik Lok said.
As a member of the U.S. Pact, Kwik Lok joined more than 70 brands, retailers, NGOs and government agencies across the plastics value chain to bring one voice to U.S. packaging through coordinated initiatives and innovative solutions for rethinking products and business models.
The coalition’s four goals — all with 2025 deadlines — include eliminating “problematic” packaging; ensure that all plastic packaging is 100% reusable, recyclable or compostable; undertake “ambitious actions” to effectively recycle or compost 50% of plastic packaging; and increase recycled content of plastic packaging to an average of 30%.
To achieve its sustainability goals, Kwik Lok is working to reduce its portfolio-wide energy usage by 20% by 2025, the company said.
Sambrailo has new line of services
Watsonville, Calif.-based Sambrailo Packaging is offering a new suite of services that supports growers’ “end-to-end packaging operations,” said Sara Lozano, marketing and product development manager.
The new services help growers to “focus on what they do best — growing and selling their products,” while Sambrailo helps with inventory management, packaging operations, procurement of packaging, marketing/product development (branding/packaging design), quality assurance/control and traceability/compliance, Lozano said.
“All services are fully scalable and customizable solutions depending on where the needs are for each client,” Lozano said.
Sev-Rend touts sustainable materials
Collinsville, Ill.-based packaging manufacturer Sev-Rend Corp. says its new Bio-Able Solutions offering is helping clients take steps toward sustainability, said Jeff Watkin, graphic and marketing manager.
“Sev-Rend’s Bio-Able Solutions is the next steps for the sustainable front, and we are very excited about introducing this to the market,” Watkin said.
Bio-Able Solutions “directly addresses” the issue of plastic and food packaging sustainability, Watkin said.
“Enabled with bio-assimilation technology, our Bio-Able Solutions are 100% recyclable and uniquely formulated to fully degrade in both marine and terrestrial environments, leaving behind no micro-plastic waste,” he said, calling it “plastic packaging in a responsible format.”
