The KHS Group has been presented with the Green Star Packaging Award for its innovative packaging system Nature MultiPack™ at FachPack. The solution, which holds cans together with dots of adhesive, won in the product category.
“Winning this award is wonderful confirmation of the sustainability of our innovations,” says Christoph Georg von Aichinger, senior sales director of NMP Systems GmbH. “Developing environmentally-friendly products is very important to us. This is why we’re especially pleased to receive this award.”
The pioneering style of packaging combines innovation and sustainability. The Nature MultiPackTM marketed by NMP Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of KHS GmbH, groups beverage containers into a stable, easily ‘openable’ or separable pack using dots of adhesive rather than shrink film. In addition to the recent award-winning version for cans, which can be formed into multipacks of 1 x 3, 1 x 4, 2 x 2, 2 x 3 and 2 x 4, PET bottles can also be grouped in this way into packs of 2 x 2 and 2 x 3. A convenient carrying handle, which helps to keep the pack stable, and the individual alignment of the respective containers communicate effective marketing messages. The new packaging has also been designed to withstand transportation and marketing logistics while allowing the consumer to easily remove the individual containers from the multipack.
Compared to containers classically packed in film the Nature MultiPack™ not only saves on packaging materials but also on energy; the KHS packaging system requires up to 85% less material than the conventional multipack and reduces energy consumption during production by a maximum of 67%.
In 2016 the Nature MultiPack™ won the German Design Award for outstanding communication design and sustainable packaging. The KHS Group has also been presented with the German Sustainability Award for its packaging system. A further milestone was the European PET Bottle Platform issuing preliminary confirmation that the Nature MultiPack™ is fully recyclable. This means that the packaging system has no negative impact on the recycled material (rPET).
