PFFC - March 2009 - (Page 16) PACKAGE CONVERTING Sustainability in Today’s Economy are complaining of difficulty in pouring the milk and are turned off by the jug’s poor ergonomics. Another example is consumer backlash over the reduction (by one-third) of 16-oz. water-bottle wall thickness. Advertised as an “effort to save the planet,” the water bottle almost collapses in the consumer’s hand when an attempt is made to drink the contents. There are many more examples. How much time and energy was expended in developing a coffee flex-pack using a polylactic acid (PLA) film as a By Stanley Sacharow substitute for a nylon layer? This effort toward the Contributing Editor development of a sustainable coffee package makes absolutely no sense. Using nylon is infinitely superior to PLA in virtually all areas of usage. Good package development inherently incorThe crew of one truck was peeling big packing sheets porates sustainability principles. Using as few plys off what appeared to be even bigger plasma television as possible in a flex-pack structure in order to adscreens brought in to brighten the festival proceedings. equately protect the package contents is intrinsic to The foam packing would seem to offset more than a good development. Minimizing package material few of the plastic water bottles festival sponsors hope usage for a product is also an essential cure to good to eliminate with a new program by the Brita and package design. It seems that instead of staffing Nalgene companies, which are providing reusable and organizing separate corporate sustainability debottles to be filled at “ hydration stations.” partments, management should consider strengthening their package development personnel. This But all this simplistic view is slowly morphing is when packages will appear that are, by their very into a more realistic view of sustainability. Today’s nature, sustainable and also consumer friendly. financial meltdown and poor economy are the Bottles will pour, flexible constructions will funcmain drivers behind this change. Slowly and with tion, and shelf life will be respected. little fanfare, industry is adapting to harder times While packaging pundits argue about the value by reverting back to the basics of good business. of sustainability, let’s remember that the eruption We seem to have forgotten that the “business of of Mount Kraetoa in 1883 spewed more pollution America is business” (Calvin Coolidge, 1925). into the atmosphere than anything packaging ever Forced to adopt to this new economic climate, did. This natural disaster caused weather fluctuasustainability proponents now are facing a recycling tion for years following the eruption, populations industry that has dried up with no demand for shifted, and islands disappeard. Certainly this their product. Biopolymers—hailed as the green caused more problems than sustainability would alternative to fossil-based polymers—has decreased hope to accomplish. Add to this the unmanageable in industrial interest. Problems in application, cost, pollution by Third World nations and hard-toand performance have raised questions to their fucontrol nations such as China, and it’s absolutely ture use. And there has been widespread criticism clear we should make good package design a major over new package designs that have been goal in the overall framework of profitable business poorly received by consumers. practice. Let’s leave sustainability alone, and let the The adoption of Sam’s Club’s consumer decide! squareless milk jug packaging is an P.S. If readers think the opinions expressed here example of a sustainable concept are radical or unusual, just think back to the late that violates the very essence of 1980s when the packaging industry was infatugood packaging. Although not re- ated with “green.” At that time, “green was in” and PACKAGE quiring crates or racks for shipping natural-based polymers were the rage; polyvinyl CONVERTING and storage, the designing of a flat chloride (PVC) was almost banned; and all packagwww.pffc-online.com “spout” makes the pouring of milk a ing had to be recycled. A few years later, this was virtual impossibility. Many consumers all forgotten. We’ve gone full circle once more! rovoked by a bustling economy and a misplaced sense of social conscience, sustainability has become part and parcel of our industry’s lexicon. All this has led to the creation by most large (and many small) corporations of huge sustainability departments staffed by managers and workers ill-versed as to “how and why” sustainability fits into the entire packaging mix. It is this staff that issues all sorts of lofty sustainability documents that are “hell bent” on serving our planet from the “creeping tide of packaging waste.” It has affected consumer thinking to a degree that makes absolutely no sense. For example, a New York Times (January 18 edition) article commented on the Sundance Festival and its setup: P MORE ONLINE! Package converting expert Stanley Sacharow has been in the flexible packaging industry for more than 35 years. Contact him at 732-636-0885; univpac@aol.com. 16 | MARCH 2009 WWW.PFFC-ONLINE.COM http://www.pffc-online.com http://WWW.PFFC-ONLINE.COM
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