Until the last few years, the flexible packaging converting industry pretty much operated on a country-by-country basis. Finished structures were sold in the countries where they were converted. In some instances, where geography made it fairly easy to get to multiple national markets in less than a four-day drive (Europe comes to mind), markets expanded beyond national borders.

But some time in the 1990s converted flexible packaging structures began to take to the sea and air to reach distant markets. The flexible packaging market today - like much of the packaging materials market - is a global one. A small organic snack food marketer in Hawaii locates a converter in the UK who can produce and deliver a unique biodegradable and home compostable film that fits the product needs and philosophy of the organic snack foods manufacturer.

And, as long as the customer devotes more than a "price check" interest in the distant supplier...as long as the composition and manufacturing quality of the delivered film meets the composition and performance specs of the customer, verified continuously by the customer’s quality control/quality assurance procedures, things should work well.

In one of the latest packaging sustainability initiatives in the CPG sector, Pepsi-Cola North America is lightweighting its non-carbonated beverage bottles.

Like most earlier packaging weight loss programs, the Pepsi push is focused exclusively on the container – its thinner walls, shorter/lighter neck finish, grams of resin not needed and energy that will be saved in the next year. And, like most of the earlier announcements, Pepsi doesn’t say whether the PROCESS behind the lightweighting is more or less resource conserving. Did the secondary packaging have to be beefed up in anyway to compensate for the loss of vertical compression strength? Pepsi points out that the bottles have 10% smaller labels and 5% less shrink film on the 12- and 24-count multipacks. The label size reduction was, no doubt, something the marketing folks did not give up easily; and presumably there was SOME cost to redesign the label graphics and copy and adjust the labeling system. The shrink film reduction is something the supply chain folks will be keeping a close eye on. Will less film mean more damage, higher unsaleables, more spilled product waste? Is more or less energy consumed for the “enhanced nitrogen dosing system” that gives the thinner-walled bottles the desired rigidity? Have provisions been made to eliminate the eruption/spilling/waste of liquid when the nitrogen-pumped bottles are opened? And, what adjustments/changes to the bottle blowing, filling, labeling, capping, casing equipment did the new, lighter spec require?

Packagers who enthusiastically point to their packages on the shelf and proudly proclaim the energy/resource savings of their “sustainable” packages without acknowledging that the savings that are visible on the shelf are not without costs on the production line – or impacts in the distribution chain – are walking a thin line here. Touting the savings without tallying the costs is an almost irresistible temptation for retailers to ask that the claimed savings be passed along to them.

And that, ultimately, is not a very sustainable business model.

The new pasta sauce pouches from Unilever are being marketed to consumers as more convenient than their glass jar predecessors. Yet, if you consider the energy required to produce, fill, seal, label, pack and transport the pouches its evident there is a huge sustainability play at work here. The energy needed to produce glass jars, metal vacuum caps and paper labels is significantly greater than that required to convert polypropylene and polyethylene terephthalate into printed flexible film and subsequently into stand-up pouches. And, the energy needed to ship a truckload of glass containers from wherever they were produced - we think they come from Mexico) to the facility where they're cleaned, filled, capped and labeled is very likely greater than that needed to convert the requisite raw materials into film, ship the rolls to wherever they're made (and probably filled and sealed) into pouches. The lighter shipments of pouches from point of filling to distribution centers and grocery outlets no doubt consumes less energy than that required to transport an equivalent volume of tomato sauce in glass jars. Traditionalists will see the switch from glass jars to flexible pouches as a decision made for marketing and economic reasons. What's sustainability got to do with it?, they might ask. But the truth of the matter is that anything you do to extend your ability to continue is a sustainability initiative. And Unilever's migration into flexible pouches for sauce is an effective sustainability packaging strategy. Whatever the motivation, the move to lighter packages will definitely be seen as a positive sustainability play.

Since the first Earth Day (April 22) in 1970, it's often passed almost without notice. Not this year. The flurry of announcements from consumer packaged goods companies, packaging converters, trade associations and others show what a strong increase there has been in concern about the environment. In fact, figures from the Grocery Manufacturers Association indicate 75% of consumer goods companies say that sustainable packaging is more important this year than last, 62% expect to change their packaging within the next year with sustainability being a key consideration.

Another telling indicator of the importance sustainable packaging has gained is the shift by DuPont to instruct judges of the 20th DuPont Awards for Packaging Innovation to select winners based solely on sustainability criteria. It appears to be time to go green.

Cosmetic eye masks aren't the first product that comes to mind when someone says "recloseable stand-up pouches" but that's a category breakthrough for aluminum foil, and probably the underlying reason for Quies Sarl's "Beauty Purse(R)" eye masks pouch being honored by the European Alumininium Foil Assocition with the 2008 EAFA Trophy. The pouches, and other winners in the annual competition will be on display at this week's Interpack show in Duesseldorf, Germany. If you're there, stop by the PMMI stand in Hall 12, F01. See you there!

For years now a sector of the US pharmaceutical industry has been promoting "regimen packs" for prescription drugs sold in the US. Such packages are the standard format for medications in other parts of the world. So far, despite market acceptance/preference for such packs in Europe and elsewhere, "unit-dose" or compliance packages have failed to get much traction here. Why? Among other things, some US doctors oppose them, believing that the packages would limit their ability to prescribe medications as they see fit. The Healthcare Compliance Packaging Council (HCPC), among the staunchest proponents of compliance packs, chooses to demonstrate - by choosing to honor and recognize creative unit dose packs with their Compliance Package of the Year Award - that compliance packs are in the best healthcare interest of patients. Will HCPC's efforts ever win over the medical establishment? Doubtful. But if enough patients recognize the benefits of regimen packs, they might prompt manufacturers to offer more such packages for medications.

A "packaging solution that has the potential to impact the productivity, profitability and sustainability initiatives of manufacturing and consumer products companies around the globe" is how Hartness International immodestly, but we believe accurately, describes its new, Uvaclear organic ink labeling and decorating process for glass and plastic containers.

This week, Hartness Inks, a division of Hartness International formed to realize the full container decorating potential of its Uvaclear inks, will start talking publicly about the first of a number of Uvaclear glass and plastic container decorating developments - a high speed, high-resolution, energy-conserving alternative to Applied Ceramic Labeling for direct to glass labeling/decorating.

Customer announcements are expected by mid-year, and additional Uvaclear developments - including one with the potential to dramatically simplify the recycling of all glass containers - are in the works. Stay tuned.

In the face of volatile economic conditions, pharmaceutical manufacturers are continuing to invest in technologies to enhance productivity, quality of pharmaceutical packaging operations and raise defenses against counterfeiting. Robots are being pressed into service to improve operating performance.

The landscape of packaging - particularly in the containerboard sector - will be dramatically transformed with International Paper's acquisition of the containerboard ops of Weyerhaeuser. A giant among giants emerges. How this will affect secondary and tertiary packaging markets, prices and technologies remains uncertain, though the consolidation is bound to alter all three. Stay with us and watch.

It's St. Patrick's day here in the States, but the only green being worn by the winners of the 2008 Flexible Packaging Achievement awards are the environmental/sustainability claims being cited in their supplier credits. This is an impressive array of innovative packages - some foreign to the American judges who chose them, others the latest lightweight architectures. For a complete lineup of this year's Flexible Packaging Association (FPA) winners, go to http://www.flexpack.org/ACHIEV/Winners/2008_winners.asp.