Dow has announced the winners of this year’s Packaging Innovation Awards (PIA) which include heat-shrink labels created from recycled PET bottles, flat core repair tape said to improve transport efficiency by 112% and a “first of its kind” handwash pouch for the Indian FMCG industry.
The winners were announced at an awards ceremony held in conjunction with Tokyo Pack 2024, where the winning entries are due to be showcased from October 23rd-25th.
The company says that prior to the ceremony, an international jury of 18 experts from across the packaging value chain convened in Bangkok in June to evaluate the nominations. A shortlist of 28 winners were selected for their ability to demonstrate up to three critical criteria including technological advancement, sustainability, and enhanced user experience.
The following companies and products won in the PIA’s Diamond, Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Special Award categories:
Diamond Award:
Panasonic Energy and TOPPAN INFOMEDIA received the Diamond Award for their paper-based bag for dry batteries, said to reduce packaging material use by 38% to 60% depending on size and CO2 emissions by over 50%.
Platinum Award:
Winners in the Platinum Award category include Aptar (China) with its Star Drop squeeze bottle for liquid cosmetic products, featuring a recyclable silicone valve nozzle; CJ CheilJedang’s Hetbahn tray, made from 25% ISCC Plus certified bio-circular materials; and Gerdau Graphene’s packaging including Poly-G, the company’s first industrial-scale masterbatch of graphene, a nanocarbon material.
Paper-based winners in this category consist of Versafiller’s honeycomb structure by P&G China, that can be adjusted to match the form of the packaged product by pressing it against the cushion; Starprint’s macadamia nut box for Macada, which has Braille applied to the opening points, hoping to facilitate access for visually impaired people; and Flora Food Group (previously Upfield) with its paper tub for plant-based butter and spreads.
Gold Award:
Alltrista received the Gold Award for its 26mm lightweight water closure beverage cap and Aptar China for its Neo Dropper Autoload Design with a one-way silicone valve. Winning collaborations included Reckitt and Plastipak’s Bom Ar Spray de Ambientes aerosol bottle made from 100% GREEN PET-PCR resins, and MORINAGA MILK and TOPPAN’s DIY ice-cream packaging box.
In food and beverages, ITC’s outer paper bag for Sunfeast biscuits was a winner alongside Yili’s heat-shrink labels, apparently created from recycled light-blocking PET waste bottles from the company’s other product lines.
Other Gold recipients were Free Pack Net’s reusable transport packaging designed for large household appliances, Magnomer’s Magmark SS coatings for magnetization and infrared detection on flexible plastic and UFlex’s PET film for cold blister forming.
Silver Award:
The Silver Award winners included 3M’s multipurpose repair tape with a flat plate shaped core, said to improve transport efficiency by 112%; Henkel Guatemala’s 100% recyclable stand-up pouch for detergent liquid; SÜDPACK MEDICA’s recyclable blister packaging for pharmaceutical products; and Figmint paper-based packaging for kitchen products by Target Corporation.
Silver recipients for food and beverage packaging consisted of Yili’s Inikin ‘brew-on-demand’ tea beverage packaging with a twist opening cap, a fully recyclable Ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer (EVOH) bag for nuts by Packaging Industries Limited and TOPPAN’s ‘Tube Pouch’ plastic tube container with a 30% plastic reduction.
Special Award:
The Special Award winners included Nestlé Italiana Spa with its plastic bottle for Cioccoriso Perugina chocolate; Alico’s mono-material packaging for Reciplus’ Cafe Sello Rojo coffee and Amcor and Kjeldsberg’s AmPrima PE Plus ‘recycle-ready’ coffee packaging.
SB-Constantia was another Special Award recipient with its polyethylene-based fully recyclable pouches for breakfast cereals, and ITC Limited with its recyclable standup pouch for Fiama handwash, said to be the “first of its kind” within the Indian FMCG industry.
Further details of the winning entries can be found here.
Back in March, Dow and P&G announced a joint development agreement aiming to create a new recycling technology that converts hard-to-recycle plastic packaging into ‘near-virgin quality’ recycled polyethylene with a low greenhouse gas emissions footprint. It is anticipated that the resultant technology will produce high-quality post-consumer recycled polymer and reduce the greenhouse gas emissions footprint of fossil-based polyethylene.
In May, the company made an agreement with Freepoint Eco-Systems for an estimated 65,000 metric tonnes per year of ‘certified-circular, plastic waste-derived’ pyrolysis oil to produce new, virgin-grade equivalent plastics in Dow’s U.S. Gulf Coast operations. The two companies are building a recycling facility designed to process end-of-life plastic waste in the region, diverting it from landfills or incineration by converting the waste into recycled pyrolysis oil.
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