We have noticed an increasing trend toward outsourcing manufacturing of consumer products. Major consumer products companies are increasingly viewing themselves as brand managers. They want oversight and quality control on their products but are using private label manufacturers to produce their products. Grocery stores have been stocked for years with private label or house brand [...]

Engineers, manufacturers and shippers know that shrink wrapped packages use 20% more film than overwrapped packages and some of them know that switching from shrink wrap to overwrap saves them at least half their current energy costs. Consumers are becoming savvy about packaging, too. Consumers have been environmentally conscious for decades, but never has “reduce, [...]

In honor of Earth Day, I was reading Anton Steeman’s blog on Earth Day and the Future of Packaging. Steeman thinks (rightly in my opinion) that Extended Producer Responsibility is coming to more countries. (it is in 30 countries now.)  EPR will make the manufacturer responsible for disposing of the leftover product and packaging. Steeman [...]

Last week I attended a packaging sustainability conference in Houston. One speaker was from Coca Cola and I finally learned what they mean by the Plant Bottle.  As you probably know, most soda, water and juice bottles are made from PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) – try saying that 3 times fast and you know what it [...]

Clear messaging about packaging sustainability will resonate with hurried consumers, if done properly.

A certain percent of consumers prefer to buy their frozen vegetables in boxes rather than bags. The process calls for using waxed paper to wrap the boxes. Today we did a run off for a company looking to do a classic wrap: frozen vegetables in a box wrapped in waxed paper. They plan to run [...]

USADA Certification for use of biobased materials in products and packaging is coming of age.

Creation of custom wrapping machinery has a lot more in common with the creative food process than one would expect.

Calculating total cost of ownership is encouraging manufacturers to bring production back to the US. Higher productivity and increasing costs overseas are only 2 factors at work.

Food and candy entrepreneurs approach us daily to learn more about automating their wrapping process.  In most cases they are either using pre-made packaging that they seal or they are packaging by hand. Sometime the packaging process has a festive atmosphere, as in those who invite friends over for wine and wrapping. At some point [...]