Tetra Pak launches new green features in its packaging portfolio

Tetra Pak unveils four new features for its carton packaging portfolio at Anuga FoodTec in Cologne, aimed at strengthening the environmental attributes of several of its leading products.

The features, a separable top for the Tetra Evero™ Aseptic and three renewable polyethylene (PE) caps made from plant-based sources, underscore Tetra Pak’s commitment to develop sustainable packaging solutions for environmentally conscious consumers. Tetra Pak’s ambition is to add further environmental innovations to its product portfolio and continue to help customers achieve sustainable profitable growth.

Speaking at Anuga FoodTec Dennis Jönsson, Tetra Pak President and CEO said: “Today’s global consumer increasingly demands green packaging. Coupled with this, our customers seek products which support a sustainable business approach. Our new additions aim to help customers demonstrate their sustainable credentials to both consumers and their wider stakeholders.”

Green PE caps
In partnership with Braskem, Brazil’s largest petrochemical company, Tetra Pak was the first company in the global carton packaging industry to use green PE caps. Made from sugar cane derivatives, the new caps represent another step towards Tetra Pak’s ambition to offer packaging made entirely from renewable material.
Since July 2011, Nestle Brazil has been packing two of its popular milk brands (Ninho and Molico) in Tetra Brik® Aseptic packages using the green PE StreamCap™ 1000. This has provided Nestle with the opportunity to increase the environmental performance of their products, something which consumers increasingly care about and expect when it comes to packaging.

Based on this successful trial, Tetra Pak today launches the green alternatives of another three caps, DreamCap™ 26, LightCap™ 30 and Helicap™ 27. The green caps will be distinguished from the original caps by a leaf logo which will be carried on the cap.

Tetra Evero Aseptic Separable Top
Following the successful launch of the Tetra Evero Aseptic, the world’s first aseptic carton bottle for white milk, Tetra Pak has pioneered another industry first by developing the additional functionality of a separable top.

The Tetra Evero Aseptic Separable Top has a perforation in the cardboard which allows the separating of a polyethylene top from the carton sleeve, delivering improved environmental characteristics by making it easy for consumers to separate the top and carton sleeve and recycle them separately. At no additional cost, the package helps customers to strengthen their brand image and environmental profile in a highly competitive market place by addressing a consumer demand for ever better solutions to facilitate recycling.

At the same time, Tetra Evero Aseptic with the Separable Top delivers all of the benefits of the original Tetra Evero Aseptic, including outstanding visual appeal and functionality such as excellent opening, handling and pouring characteristics. The new package is entirely recyclable and made from FSC™ certified paperboard, thus creating an exciting proposition for customers and consumers alike.

View the Tetra Evero Aseptic Separable Top video (YouTube)

New innovation in flexographic inks

Flint Group introduces next generation of NC-based inks for future-oriented high quality flexo printing.

Presenting innovations in Flexo inks: FlexiStar MV and FlexiPrint MV.

FlexiStar MV and FlexiPrint MV, Flint Group’s next generation of Nitrocellulose-based inks, have been developed and optimised to meet the current and future demands of high quality flexo printing. The next generation flexo inks offer excellent ink transfer (- no build up on plates) and enable long production runs without plate cleaning. Printers benefit from the new automatic wash system: a quick job changeover is guaranteed, as additional manual cleaning of aniloxes during job change is no longer necessary in order to avoid ghosting.
The ink systems offer superb printability with clean shades, full dots (- reduced doughnut shape effect of print dots) and high colour strength. They are also suitable for very fine aniloxes (400 l/cm and more) for high quality flexo printing and free of migratable monomeric plasticizers.

“We are impressed with Flint Group’s next generation inks and rate them highly specifically for future-oriented high quality flexo printing”, says Frank Rudolph, Head of the Technology-Center at Fischer & Krecke. He adds,” the ink systems allow us to work more flexibly while achieving press stability at the same time”.

Be it as part of the FlexiStar MV system for surface print on polyolefin films or as the combination system FlexiPrint MV for surface print and lamination on PE, PP and chem. PET – the next generation fulfils tomorrow’s demands already today.

Flint Group’s inks will be live on press at the upcoming drupa 2012 in Düsseldorf, Germany. Visit the Fischer & Krecke stand – Hall 10, A04-1 to see the inks perform in action.

New online tool makes employees the ‘secret weapon’ against rising energy bills

Whitbread among first to sign up for new Carbon Trust tool targeting £500m savings on energy and waste.

Employees could save UK businesses and public bodies £500m and two million tonnes of CO2 – equivalent to the annual carbon emissions of all the households in Birmingham – thanks to a new, online office tool called ‘Carbon Trust Empower™' launched by the Carbon Trust.
By engaging employees in cutting energy use, paper waste and travel, Carbon Trust Empower has the potential to save a typical small business over 15% of their energy bill or more than £6K per year – equivalent to powering 3.5km of street lights for a year. Larger businesses* that base their approach on this tool could save £150K and over 500 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually.
Each individual employee’s efforts can amount to carbon emissions reductions (220kgCO2) equivalent to heating the average household for a month**.
Whitbread and Oxford City Council have already signed their staff up to use the online tool that enables employees to make practical commitments through an interactive animated tour of a typical workplace, and which can provide the springboard for larger organisations to raise the bar through ambitious internal behavioural change programmes.
Employees are able to explore energy saving opportunities throughout their office – starting by considering how they arrive for work, with options to join a company carpool or travel by public transport, before moving on to their desk, where they can commit to switch off their PC when not in use, print double-sided, and teleconference rather than travel. The virtual journey also helps staff cut energy waste in other parts of the office, such as the reception area, kitchen, corridors and toilets.
As well as helping individuals create and keep track of personal action plans, Empower provides a wealth of engaging workplace facts and enables office managers to view the sum of their employees’ individual energy savings.

Richard Rugg, Director of Carbon Trust Programmes, said:
“Companies often struggle to harness the huge energy savings that an effectively engaged workforce can help deliver. Part of the problem employers face is making actions practical, fun and sustained. By creating a virtual tour entirely from an employee’s viewpoint, every aspect of Empower has been designed with the end-user in mind.”
He added: “Employees are a critical ally in cutting energy waste. Get them onboard and reap the rewards in lower bills and reduced carbon emissions.”
Chris George, Head of Energy & Environment, Whitbread Hotels & Restaurants, commented:
“Whitbread has a clear target to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 26% by 2020. To get there we have embedded sustainability into the heart of our business and we are working closely with our teams and business partners to reduce energy and water consumption.

We believe that Empower is a strong learning platform which will help our teams to understand how we can work together to reduce energy consumption within our portfolio of buildings in the UK. It is a straightforward and user-friendly tool, which is easily accessible online and may lead to tonnes of CO2 emissions being saved across our business.
It also demonstrates that as we save energy, we also save money, bringing real commercial benefits to the bottom line.”
Paul Robinson, Team Leader, Energy and Climate Change at Oxford City Council, said:
"Oxford City Council is committed to tackling climate change, and engaging and empowering employees is a critical way for us to make significant carbon and financial savings. The new Empower tool is great fun to use and we intend to roll this out to all our staff in the near future as part of our commitment to reduce our operational carbon emissions by 28% by the end of March 2012, relative to the 05/06 baseline emissions. We will also encourage our Low Carbon Oxford partners to use it with their staff too."
 

Companies can encourage their employees to sign up to energy saving at www.carbontrust.co.uk/empower.

By following the Carbon Trust’s top tips for office energy efficiency, companies could make annual savings of over £200 per employee:
Turning off your PC and monitor in the evening could save £39/yr per person
Keeping blinds open and turning off lights when there is enough daylight, or when areas are unoccupied could save more than £10/yr per person
Accepting a slightly (1°C) reduced temperature in the workplace could save over £4/yr per person
Using the phone or video conferencing to avoid four car journeys could save £150/yr
Reducing paper use by only printing when needed, and printing double sided could save £20/yr each per person

Univar Establishes Operations in Romania

Univar Inc., a leading global chemical distributor, announced its legal entity in Romania is fully operational. The business trades under the name Univar South-East Europe Srl. from its newly opened office in Bucharest.

Univar has been expanding its strategic network throughout Central and Eastern Europe in recent years. Romania has experienced good GDP growth, driven by both a rise in consumer spending and industrial production over the last decade with forecasts to achieve 4 percent GDP growth in 2012 . This creates a promising opportunity for Univar to engage its global network with local expertise, especially in the coatings market where only 65 percent of the customers are served by local producers.

“Romania is a country with enormous growth opportunities for our business. Industry and agriculture contribute nearly half the country’s GDP, which plays very well into Univar’s portfolio,” explains Balazs Kiss, Univar’s Country Manager - Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. “Also, the domestic chemicals market is currently quite fragmented, so customers will benefit from Univar’s presence, can trust in our global supply reliability, and depend on our market insight so that they have the benefit of a global network with local level expertise.”