Grant Gerke

For the last 20 years, stand-up pouches have experienced tremendous growth in the flexible packaging segment, and now a German-based food producer is turning to a paper-based pouch format to meet crucial marketing objectives.

For consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies, 2020 was all about surviving, while this year is about piloting new packaging formats and sourcing alternative materials for these products.

We caught up with the authors to discuss current servo technology trends, today’s workforce challenges and new film properties as it relates to web handling.

Advanced recycling, or chemical recycling, is receiving a lot of attention from investors across the world as more companies explore commercialization. In the 2019 Closed Loop Ventures report, “Accelerating Circular Supply Chains for Plastics,” the findings revealed that 40 startups or companies are currently running commercial-scale recycling facilities in the U.S. or Canada, or have plans to do so in the next two years.

So many manufacturers are moving quickly to transition their operations and workforce to digital technology — such as sensors, data, enterprise software — and find efficiencies with the same workforce.

In late March, the Recycling Partnership in Falls Church, Va., announced a second round of grant funding through its Polypropylene Recycling Coalition, which will distribute around $1 million in catalytic grants to advance polypropylene recycling in the U.S.

DIC Graphics’ new water-based ink being used by Suntory relies on a revamped resin binder to prevent the ink’s high density from weakening during lamination and increase solubility of ink remaining. Image courtesy of DIC Graphics

The pandemic wreaked havoc on business development in 2021, and so many companies had to shift business objectives to meet the moment.

2020 was a transformational and challenging year in many ways, as flexible packaging companies, printers and converters met increased demand due to the pandemic’s push toward grocery and e-commerce channels.