Sustainable solutions

Flexible packaging accounts for more than 50% of packaging material usage and shows no signs of slowing down. Within this market, converters are being asked to provide shorter runs with efficient material management, all with increasingly stringent sustainable criteria. Converting Today speaks with some brand-owners to understand more about what is driving this market.

Flexible packaging is prized for its suitability for a range of products and its scope for cost-effective innovation. It is forecast to maintain its current growth rate, and perhaps even increase its market share.
A study of trends by market research firm Canadean suggests that flexible will be the fastest-growing sector of packaging between 2013 and 2018. A projected 4.5% rise in global volumes in that period would outstrip increases of 4.2% and 3.3% for rigid plastics and glass respectively. Flexible already accounts for over half of the total market share, and Canadean estimates that it will constitute 55% of the total market by 2018, up from 54.3% in 2013.
Flexible packaging offers numerous benefits to manufacturers, the first of which concerns weight; because of waste regulations, flexible offers the best weight to cost ratio. Then, there is the issue of speed; flexible packaging allows machines to run faster than is possible with other materials and formats. The last, and perhaps most important, advantage is cost; minimal weight and relatively easy conversion reduces the price of each pack.
In addition to the benefits of less material passing through the converting process, flexible provides benefits in printing as well; most recently being seen in the digital printing landscape where shorter runs are growing in number as consumers break away from the mass market and are becoming more interested in being engaged at a personal level.

Seal of approval
Packaging has had to adapt to the increased mobility of consumers. In the beverage market, we have seen a growing use of screw-top and sports closures, as people on the go want to be able to open and close bottles with one hand while multitasking. For flexible, resealable packaging has become more popular. While these seals must be able to protect a product, they must not be so strong as to be difficult to reopen. For this purpose, brands are continually selecting adhesive technology, zippers, and fold-and-seal techniques.
"From a food perspective, the main factor in the growth of flexible packaging is that it is an efficient material to protect products," says Thomas Delory, global category manager for secondary and tertiary packaging in the procurement division of Carlsberg Breweries.
"Ease of use is also important, as are the benefits in terms of transport, marketing and dispensing. It is quite a cheap way to achieve the same result as other materials.
"Now that oil prices are falling, cheaper resins are available. Carlsberg uses a range of materials, from solid board to shrink film, and finds that foil is very cost-effective, and that's always an important factor for fast-moving consumer goods."
The visual impact of packaging exerts a powerful influence on consumers' purchasing decisions.
"Flexible packaging provides many options for differentiating appearance, such as graphical execution, special effects and transparency, as well as form and shape," explains Kristian Berings, head of CSM Bakery Solutions' European packaging department. "It also has a low material-to-product weight ratio and provides several functional options, such as strength and barrier properties to extend shelf life, and is cost-effective, allowing for fast production in many applications, including bags, form fill seal, flow wrap, stretching and shrinking. Disposal is also simple.
"Overall, it has many convenience-enhancing features and attributes. In terms of providing the optimal products for customers, the most important factor is convenience, with easy-opening, reclosable, or smaller-sized packaging for single or on-the-go use," he adds.

Regulations for recycling
While cost-efficiency and versatility continue to increase the popularity of flexible packaging, there could a push in the other direction from regulators focusing on issues such as sustainability. The Waste and Resource Action Programme (WRAP) regulations and the EU packaging directives, for instance, decree the amount of plastics that should be recycled. Many businesses are therefore looking closely at the materials they use with a view to reducing weight or increasing recyclability.
"Regulations hinder and help flexible packaging," says Berings. "On the one hand, there is a ban on using plastic in shopping bags and, in some countries, an environmental tax on plastics. On the other hand, there are regulations that aim to improve food safety and limit food waste.
"We might see new regulations coming in and there is a lot of discussion in the European Union about the circular economy, which is a concept that we have embraced here at Carlsberg with our zero-waste concept," says Delory. "What you manufacture can get back into the biosphere or be reassembled into new products.
"There is a very long way to go, but regulators are discussing how to minimise the impact of packaging on the environment. The industries behind flexible packaging - mainly the oil and chemical companies - employ thousands of people, however, and regulators don't want to destroy them."

Consumer conduct
According to the Canadean research, there is noticeable transition from glass to rigid plastics and flexible packaging, which have a less positive environmental profile. Nevertheless, the study notes that many consumers show less concern for environmental characteristics than for factors such as cost. "A lot depends on consumer behaviour and, within a population that is conscious of sustainability, you can see a variety of different behaviours, depending on which aisle of a shop people are in," reveals Delory. "When in the beauty aisle, some may be conscious of the chemicals in products. They might choose Fairtrade coffee from the hot drinks section, but switch into party mode at the beer shelves, where shoppers are less conscious of environmental issues. Nevertheless, Carlsberg supports zero-waste and believes customers want sustainable products."
Flexible packaging's environmental profile is less clear-cut when viewed from a long-term perspective. "Shrink and plastic films have a negative environmental image, but it's not so bad when you look at the total lifecycle assessment (LCA) of these products, because film has a better protective element, and the biggest factor in food waste is the disposal of products that have passed their sell-by date," Delory points out. "Flexible packaging extends the sell-by date at a relatively low cost.
"LCA requires complex analysis. There are a lot of unknowns in terms of the impact of the material, although we are aware that flexible packaging cannot be recycled, so it is burned or sent to landfill. Environmental impact is a problem, as the material degrades into micro-particles that could re-enter the food chain. If food is not packaged well enough, though, it can get lost in the supply chain never reach the consumer, so there is a trade-off. The supply chain is usually very long, but flexible packaging would not necessarily be needed if it were short," he adds.

Changing the trend
To reduce the environmental impact of flexible packaging, many companies may decide to move away from laminated film to a recyclable, surface-printed LDPE film. Laminated flexible packs include glues and inks and are difficult to recycle, and can also be complicated to sort in the waste stream. Biodegradable materials made from recycled or plant-based plastic will, over time, help to minimise waste, and there is a noticeable shift towards polyolefins derived from natural substances such as sugar cane.
The push from innovative plastics manufacturing companies and converters towards biodegradable or compostable packaging is certain to continue, and the focus will be on making innovations as cost-effective as possible while ensuring that they perform as well as the materials used today. Lightweighting is also sure to be a top priority, but there will be equal emphasis on ensuring that customer convenience is constantly improved.
"I believe that more convenience features will be built into packaging in 2015," says Berings at CSM Bakery Solutions. "There will be new product launches for us, too, particularly in the form of pre-made pouch packaging."