Plastics & Rubber World - May/June 2019 - 27

RIGID PACKAGING

plastic trays for the company's own range
of toys and games, in 1986 the decision
was made to diversify into the food packaging market. Since then, that has grown
to become the core product.
As with LVF, Charpak currently produces a variety of seasonal items, including
packaging for chocolates and luxury gifts,
together with chilled and ambient baked
goods. "We produce a lot of seasonal
packaging for Valentine's Day, Easter,
Halloween and Christmas, together with
standardised, oﬀ-the-shelf high-volume
packaging which we produce year round,,"
says managing director, Paul Smith.
Smith points out that this variety of
products and general seasonality is a
double-edged sword. "I've known companies which were producing 95% of their
output for a single customer. It's a highrisk strategy, they lost that contract and
almost immediately they're out of business," he says.
Justin Kempson, director of sales and innovation at Charpak, says long-term plans
will see the company expand into other
markets, creating a more robust business
model. "We've invested in new machinery
over the past 18 months and added a second warehouse and distribution facility.
Up-to-date, fast-running equipment and
new stacking lines will support higher-volume, year-round production."
To kick oﬀ that that growth trajectory,
the company introduced its new Twist-Loc
product (pictured at the start of this feature) at this year's Packaging Innovations
show in Birmingham.
"We didn't attend the packaging show
for a few years," says Kempson. "If you're
not taking innovation, why go? But we had
a strong presence this year. We sponsored
the Ecopack stage and launched Twist-Loc,
which addresses packaging sustainability
and oﬀers real-world solutions."
The new PET packaging solution is a
vacuum-formed plastic container which
features a recloseable twist-oﬀ lid. But the
real party trick of this new design is the
patented tamper evidence feature. With
a market launch due in late May, the new
packaging is intended to replace existing
injection-moulded polypropylene packs.
"About 10 years ago, I came up with
the idea to make this product," explains
Kempson. "Six years ago the company
had grown to where we could purchase
the machinery with the capability to produce the products. The screw lid is made
using a thermoforming process that's never been done before. Then we developed
the lid clip, which we believe is the only
thermoformed tamper evidence lock of
its kind."
He continues by explaining why this
new PET packaging is an improvement
over the existing PP product. "PP cannot
be recycled for use with food, you can't
guarantee it's not been contaminated.
Then there's the tab. That's diﬃcult to
break - even I struggle to open those pots
- and that small piece of plastic comes oﬀ

Meat products in packaging produced by LVF
and will probably never make it into the
recycling bin.
"There has been a lot of time, eﬀort
and skill gone into creating Twist-Loc as
a packaging solution. After the machinery
was developed that could make these features, it still took another ﬁve years to get
a product that was ready to go to market,"
he says.

RECYCLING MESSAGE

The base of the Twist-Loc package features this simple, yet important message:
'Made from recycled materials. Please recycle me again'. "That was our idea," says
Justin Kempson. "I suspect that it will become the norm for most plastics."
There are two key points to highlight
in the message. First, that the package is
made from 90% recycled materials. "To
source that material we have created a
local circular economy, working in collaboration with the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Waste Partnership (RECAP)," says
Kempson.
In practise, the waste collection contractor collects from households and
municipal locations. That is taken to a
materials recovery facility (MRF) in Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire, for sorting. Between 45 and 50 tonnes of PET bottles,
tubs and trays are collected each week.
When that is reprocessed, it results in
between 25 and 30 tonnes of reusable
PET. That plastic goes on to be extruded and Charpak buys the sheet to use in
production. Lids and other packaging are
recycled separately.
"In the past, the waste contractor has
sold that material to the highest bidder,
meaning it was sometimes shipped out
of the country," says Kempson. "Instead,
Charpak oﬀers a guaranteed value over
a year-long, renewable contract. That
keeps the value of that plastic in the UK
and drives recyclate values." In addition,
the local authority receives 50% of that
value, a much-needed source of guaranteed income.
As for the 'Please recycle me again',
Kempson says promotes continuation of
the plastics moving around the circular
economy. "The Twist-Loc packaging contains 90% recycled material, 10% virgin.

Charpak plans to supplement seasonal
packaging, such as mince pies, with
year-round products

There's a big diﬀerence
between marking a
package as 'recyclable'
and 'recycled'
Justin Kempson, Charpak

›› Continued on page 28
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