As part of our Sustainability Awards Finalist Interview series, we asked John West about its ECOTWIST aluminium foil stickers, used for the company’s multipack tuna cans. Said to reduce plastic waste and CO2 emissions, the entry is nominated in the Pre-Commercialized Recyclable Packaging category.
You’re a finalist in the Sustainability Awards 2024. Congratulations! To start off, could you summarize your entry, in less than 50 words?
The ECOTWIST multipack has replaced plastic wrap with fully recyclable aluminium Smartstrips that hold the cans together. This innovation reduces plastic waste, CO2 emissions, optimized transportation efficiency and supports our sustainability goals. The perforations in the Smartstrip allow easy opening of the pack with a simple ‘Twist & Pull’ action.
Why do you think the judges were impressed with your entry? Tell us about what is innovative about your project and/or about its impact on packaging sustainability.
ECOTWIST introduces a sustainable innovation with the Smartstrip, an aluminium foil sticker that replaces plastic shrink wrap and carton sleeves in packaging. The Smartstrip is strong enough to hold five steel cans together while being perforated for easy removal, addressing both customer convenience and environmental concerns.
We’ve optimized the can design by reducing the amount of metal from a “1/5th can” weighing 36g to a “1/6th can” weighing 32g, while maintaining the same amount of tuna. This adjustment reduces the volume of liquid carrier (such as sunflower oil, brine, or spring water) in the can, resulting in more efficient use of space and materials.
Importantly, this is not a “shrinkflation” initiative; the quantity of fish remains the same. The focus is on reducing waste, both in packaging and in unnecessary carrier liquid, providing a better solution for consumers compared to traditional PET shrink or carton sleeves.
Our projections indicate significant environmental and logistical benefits from the ECOTWIST project: the Smartstrip will eliminate the need for 65 tonnes of PET plastic shrinkwrap annually in the UK - if we had chosen carton packaging instead, it would have resulted in 300 tonnes of cardboard used.
The smaller cans will reduce shipments by 200 containers per year, while also cutting down the use of sunflower oil, brine, and spring water carriers by approximately 1,500 tonnes annually. We anticipate an annual reduction of 3,500 tonnes of CO2 equivalent (CO2e), and this figure has been verified and approved independently with LQRA who have audited our Carbon Footprint Tracker in line with ISO14067 standards.
The project offers CO2e savings of between 5% and 9% per can, depending on the carrier used, with sunflower oil variants providing the highest savings. The Smartstrip has been independently verified as fully recyclable (Class A certification) alongside the steel can within the UK’s kerbside recycling system, ensuring that consumers can easily recycle the entire package in one step.
This project underscores our commitment to sustainability, reducing waste, improving efficiency, and lowering greenhouse gas emissions and the product compromising product quality. In fact, as of a recent independent consumer testing with Wirral Sensory Studies in Aug 2023, our product outperformed competitors and ranks number one in the market.
Finally, can you tell us about the ongoing development of your project, e.g. how your innovation/initiative has been received by the industry, or what the next steps are in commercialization/product development?
ECOTWIST’s innovation has garnered strong interest from UK’s major retailers, who were all eager to be first to market as it aligns with their sustainability goals, particularly in reducing plastic waste. Moving forward, the ECOTWIST packaging will be expanded across the full product portfolio, with plans to launch globally through Thai Union’s markets.
The next steps include widely commercializing the Smartstrip, particularly in Europe, while supporting Thai Union’s 2025 target for fully recyclable packaging and Scope 3 greenhouse gas reduction. We anticipate that the ECOTWIST format will have applications across the wider canned goods sector.
The innovation has been developed over the last 4 years with extensive collaborative exploration and design with our partners, consumer validation and technical concept validation. The Smartstrip innovation is currently in ‘Patent Pending’ status, which highlights its unique approach to sustainable packaging while protecting its intellectual property.
The winners of the Sustainability Awards 2024 will be announced at the Sustainable Packaging Summit, taking place in Amsterdam on 12-13 November. The Summit mobilizes leaders of the FMCG value chain, policymakers, NGOs, recyclers and investors to collaborate, remove barriers and identify opportunities on the road to sustainable transformation.
To learn more or register, visit: https://www.packagingsummit.earth/2024
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