Economic advantage is at the root of most, if not all, packaging choices.

When a beverage company elects to use a monolayer heat-set PET bottle rather than a multilayer container, it’s because the specification affords barrier and shelf life adequate to the product’s needs. Exceeding the product’s packaging needs is economically wasteful unless it can be justified by customer/retailer, distributor and consumer needs.

As packaging technologies have become more sophisticated, packaging managers have learned to nuance the values of their packaging choices so that the customer/retailer as well as the consumer are pleased with the results. Being pleased with a package is both a higher degree of economic harmony and acceptance than being satisfied with a package.

And it’s here, in the satisfaction/pleasure arena, where the economic choices packaging managers make, are scored.

Commercially compostable packaging film is something that isn’t yet fully rooted in the US. But, in the UK, the idea has widening appeal. One of the latest applications of such material is a flat-bottom bag for an organic cereal, said to decompose in six to twelve weeks. For now – and not until commercial composting facilities are widely available in America – the compostability of packaging materials will remain an afterthought in this market.

Why bottle water when you can drink it right out of the tap? Why waste precious petroleum resources to make bottles for water? Those are questions plaguing American potable water marketers. In the face of these environmental objections, two bottlers - Primo Water Corp. and Earthpure Organics - are making polylactide bottles the centerpiece of their market entries. It’s an idea that’s been tried before. That the company that tried it first went bankrupt isn’t necessarily an indictment of the concept.

With more than 10% of its 60,000 suppliers now entering data into its Sustainability Scorecard, Wal-Mart is advancing towards its packaging reduction goals. Just how close they’ve come - and what the next steps in the evolution of the giant retailer’s sustainability initiatives will be, will be outlined during PACK EXPO International by Amy Zettlemoyer-Lazar, Packaging Director of Sam’s Club and Co-Manager of Wal-Mart’s Sustainability Value Network. Zettlemoyer-Lazar will present a special keynote address on the opening day of PACK EXPO International, Sunday, November 9.

The five-day PACK EXPO International exposition (November 9-13) and four-day Conference at PACK EXPO (November 9-12) take place in Chicago’s McCormick Place.

Zettlemoyer-Lazar’s PACK EXPO keynote this year represents a fourth return to the PACK EXPO keynote platform for Wal-Mart. In 2006, Zettlemoyer-Lazar and Matt Kistler, now Wal-Mart Vice President of Sustainability, first unveiled the company’s packaging sustainability scorecard to the packaging community. In 2003, Simon Langford, then Wal-Mart’s Global Director, RFID, provided details on the company’s RFID deployment plans and in 2002, Ron Reed, then manager of packaging for the retailer participated in a panel discussion about Wal-Mart’s secondary packaging interests.

Details on Zettlemoyer-Lazar’s presentation - and the establishment of a Wal-Mart Sustainability Scorecard Information Center at PEI08 - are being worked out.

An engineered nanoscale material (ENM) is one "purposefully manipulated at the nanoscale [that’s in the tiny neighborhood of 1-100 nanometers] that exhibits novel properties and behaviors as a result." That definition is at the heart of an important new study from the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN) of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Grocery Manufacturers Association. The thrust of the study - that ENMs could revolutionize packaging but will have to leap over some high regulatory and legal hurdles on their way to becoming, paradoxically, "the next big thing" in packaging - must give eager adopters pause. Before ENMs have a shot at becoming packaging wonder materials they’re going to have to develop an enormous catalog of scientific evidence to assure regulators and, ultimately, the public that they are safe.

Anyone interested in exploring the packaging potential of ENMs will find the report on PEN/GMA’s study - "Assuring the Safety of Nanomaterials in Food Packaging: The Regulatory Process and Key Issues" - a fascinating summer read.

Trio of keynote speakers from Nestlé, Deloitte and Dow launch the Conference at PACK EXPO with presentations focused on packaging “Change, Innovation & Sustainability.”

Concurrent program of 58 presentations appears is now available for discount registration. Additional program, exhibition details will be released in coming weeks.

The pilot run of contour two liter bottles for Coke – presumably heavier than the straight walled 2L containers Coke has been using for that size – should remind us that even in these times when sustainability seems paramount, packaging has a number of fundamental roles. It must contain, protect, dispense, transport and merchandise the product. Fail at any of these fundamental requirements and no level of sustainability will save the package in the marketplace.

To be sure, we don’t know the whole sustainable story behind the new contoured 2L bottles. Perhaps they are blown from high levels of PCR PET…perhaps they are blowmolded, filled, labeled, capped, case packed, etc. on machines that need significantly less power and therefore emit a lot less greenhouse gas. Whether any of these things is true, the fact remains that sustainability is only one of the characteristics – and NOT the principal one – that drives packaging success in today’s marketplace, as “green” as it may be.

Method Products has been pushing the envelope of packaging innovation and creativity since its products first appeared on Target shelves some five years ago. They’re doing it again - this time figuring out a way to use 100% PCR PET to produce clear, trigger-spray bottles for its line of eco-friendly household cleaners. The market being what it is, Method is probably paying more for these bottles than the easier to produce-and-acquire virgin PET bottles that would be the default choice in the US. But, teaming up with Amcor, the company figured out a way - and is blazing a path that other green-leaning companies can follow.

From what we know, Method relies mostly on contract packagers to put up its products, and no one’s yet saying what changes, if any, to the packaging line, are being made in the interest of sustainability.

Another functional beverage line – this one in sleekly sheathed panel-less PET bottles – arrived in our inbox. Help us to better understand that these specialized drinks are what are in Asia, and were in an earlier age in America, called “tonics” or “elixirs” – drinks that purport to do something for you besides quench your thirst. The FUZE line is moving out of glass containers and into the PET bottles. Why? “…practicality, safety and convenience in today’s ‘grab-and- go’ culture,” says Bill Meissner, VP of Marketing for FUZE Beverage, LLC, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. The lightweight plastic bottle also makes it easier for the company to penetrate the airline market. Barely detectable horizontal ribs around the bottle’s base, midpoint and neck base help it resist paneling or ovalization as the hot filled liquids cool in the sealed bottles – a nice blend of design and engineering to serve the product’s marketing needs.

Hopefully for the kids, Y Water’s first lineup of formulas – bone, brain, immune and muscle – isn’t an indication of the flavors of these potable liquids, but rather a hint at just what parts of the human ectoplasm they’re designed to enhance. If fish is brain food and spinach builds muscles maybe it’s a good idea that Y Water isn’t being more direct about the flavors of its waters. Eye water from Y Water would presumably be carrot-flavored water…

For all the distinctive lines of the multipodal Y Water containers, the filling-labeling-capping-case packing of them is probably pretty straight forward, although we wish we could have been there to see the look on the face of the production manager when the marketing folks first excitedly revealed their packaging idea.