Shapes and colors

As grocery shelves grow more crowded, innovative packages emerge to stand out. These unique designs, however, can be difficult to execute. Eastar copolyesters from Eastman (Eastman.com) enhance wall thickness for plastic packages to improve impact resistance. This allows brands to create unique shapes.

One such brand is Y Water, which offers a uniquely shaped beverage package targeted at children. The shape is meant to entice children and double as a toy after the beverage is gone. The Y Water bottles are extrusion blow molded from Eastar copolyester. The innovative material is easy to color, and strong enough to form distinctive shapes.The material complies with U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Japanese requirements for use in specified food contact applications. It is also manufactured without bisphenol-A (BPA).

Drink sustainably

Snoqualmie Winery produces organic wines and is committed to sustainability. Wanting their packaging to match that commitment, Snoqualmie has redesigned their wine bottles using lightweight ECO glass bottles. These bottles offer a 13% reduction in carbon emission and are made with 25% less glass than average wine bottles. As a result, they also require less fuel to transport.

Clearly canned

The shelf life and convenience of canned food make it a popular choice among consumers. Klear Can from Kortec (kortec.com) is a new innovation in canned food packaging. The multi-layer co-injected technology behind Klear Can allowed Kortec to produce clear polypropylene cans suitable for food packaging. The see-through cans offer an alternative to metal cans. Brand owners now have the opportunity to showcase their products in the see-through cans and allow consumers to see the quality and condition of the food products inside.

Additionally, the cans are BPA-free and feature a three-layer plastic construction with polypropylene as the inner and outer layers and an EVOH barrier in between. The simultaneous Kortec co-injection process works at the same cycle times as single-layer plastic injection. This provides the cans with a five-year shelf life. The plastic can be colored for additional branding, and standard labels can be applied to the cans along with an option for in-mold labels.

Mrs. Dash loses weight in all the right places

Sustainability is a major concern among consumers, brand owners and packaging manufacturers alike. Major spice brand, Mrs. Dash, recently underwent a sustainability makeover. Meredith-Springfield Associates, Inc. (meredithspringfield.com) has conducted experiments to reduce the amount of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) used in the Mrs. Dash packaging.

The process developed by Meredith-Springfield was able to reduce the weight of the bottle by over 25% and saves over 200,000 pounds of PET resin per year. The new extrusion blow molding machine takes the material from plastic pellets to finished bottles all on the same machine and provides a one-step process for making the specialty PET bottles instead of the two-step process used to make carbonated beverage bottles.