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Downgauging Plastic Packaging
The easiest first step to better sustainability is reducing the amount of your current plastic usage by downgauging your plastic films. Downgauging plastic can be done for single web films, but also for laminates and if you aren’t sure where to start, we can help!
Why not book one of our FREE Environmental Audits?
Our Technical Engineers will visit your factory and review, assess, and audit your current packaging. Talking to your team, we will gain an understanding of exactly what your environmental targets are. From this, we will suggest alternatives and explain how we can help you get there.
Often our customers say they want to be ‘greener’. The problem is, that statement means widely different things to different people. So, we ask for details on exactly what it is you are trying to achieve. The best summary of this is a question posed by Kevin Vyse, the UK Government Packaging Advisor.
“Trying to keep the customer happy whilst doing the practical, scientific thing has become almost impossible. Switch to paper, card, metal or glass and all the time you are adding carbon. I guess the question is: what problem are you trying to solve?”
96% of audits carried out have offered opportunities for reducing the amount of plastic used by downgauging, or offering alternative materials which, for example, could be recyclable.
So what exactly is downgauging plastic packages?
Downgauging packaging means reducing the thickness of the plastic film to reduce the weight of packaging used, establishing the minimum operational thickness. The minimum thickness means that the pack still retains its integrity through the packing, storage, transport, store display, carrying home and storage at home. The important thing here is that the shelf life is still achieved and the consumer gets to enjoy your product at its best.
A couple of examples of downgauging packaging are:
- Using 25mic polypropylene to wrap morning goods. By reducing to 20mic you save 20% of the packaging thickness
- Using 12mic polyester laminated to 50mic PE to pack pulses. By reducing the PE layer to 40mic offers a 16% reduction in packaging thickness
Provided the new downgauged films are trialled thoroughly, a large saving can be made. Not just environmentally, but in cost, as you will achieve more packs per kilo of film as the linear metreage will remain the same, but the amount of film per pack reduces.
Historically, food manufacturers have been reluctant to downgauge as they thought that the end user would notice the difference and think that the pack felt flimsy or give the impression of lower quality product.
This is changing as the consumer becomes more aware. Now it can be used as a marketing message.
Another brilliant way to reduce the amount of packaging used is to check the amount of film you use to pack an item. Often machine operators prefer to keep the same width film on to pack different products. However, this can cause excess film in the back seals which looks unsightly, causing inconsistent sealing and affecting shelf life, but also wasting film and money.
The length of the pack can also be checked. Often we err on the side of caution, making a pack longer than needed to ‘make sure’ it wraps properly. Packing product in unprinted film can give an indication on pack length, but its not the same as running film with an eyemark. We can supply eyemark trial reels for you to run your product through to tweak the repeat length to its optimum.
Our engineers are happy to do a pack audit to check the amount of film used is at its optimum for each of your product lines.
Our customers now cumulatively save in excess of £3 million per annum in cost of material after using our audit service.
Want to know more?
Please contact Scott McEvoy for more information.
E: scott@nationalflexible.net
T: 01274 6855 66