Big River Packaging will expand

Posted on by
Reply

Clinton packaging company expands

By Natalie Conrad

Big River Packaging will expand its services with a possibility of adding jobs as it moves to a new facility. The company will make the move to the old Shopko building at 1905 Lincoln Way within the year, moving finished goods and shipping to the new location by the end of the month and moving manufacturing and raw materials by the end of the year.

“We’re very thrilled to move to the new location,” Vice President and Plant Manager John Huling said. “Right now we’re bulging at the seams at our current location.”

The facility is nearly three times the size of its current location at 823 S. Third St., according to Huling.

The local company specializes in making boxes for cakes, cupcakes, cookies, candy and other bakery goods.

“We help out everyone from a baker selling items out of their kitchen to major grocery chains,” Huling said.

Despite only being in business for seven years, the company has seen tremendous growth. It serviced a little more than 60,000 customers this past year and continues to draw in more customers. Connecting with customers far and wide is easy using their website, according to Huling. Those customers represent more than 28 different countries.

“With the amount of products we put out and the amount of customers, we have certainly outgrown this building,” Huling said.

With the new location, the company is hoping to expand their services by adding a bag line. This would include a wide array of bags from grocery bags to higher end bakery bags, according to Huling. The new line is expected to be added in one to two years, very likely resulting in more job opportunities.

“The bags could double our sales, which means more jobs,” Huling said.

The building that was previously a Jack’s department store before becoming Shopko, was most recently utilized as a parking space for employees at ADM. The company put in additional parking at the facility last fall to accommodate the employees, according to ADM Media Representative Jackie Anderson.

from clintonherald.com

Packaging or food ?

Posted on by
Reply

Time to eat the wrapper too!

Pouring milk and then eating the bottle sounds less than tempting, but edible packaging is being touted as food technology’s next big thing. However, it isn’t an entirely new concept. UK’s celebrity Chef Heston Blumenthal has been at it for years, wrapping palatable paper around packets of soup and  urging people to eat salted caramels wrapper.

Now, two US companies are vying to be the first to commercially exploit the “untapped market” for wrappers you can munch. Leading the way (in publicity terms, at least) is the Dumbledore of food technology, Harvard wizard Dr David Edwards, whose previous innovations include a “breathable” chocolate,  delightfully called Le Whif. He has now turned his attention to WikiCells — an edible membrane made from a biodegradable polymer and food particles — that can imitate “bottles” found in nature, such as grape skins.

So far, Dr Edwards and his team at Harvard’s Wyss Institute have created a tomato membrane containing gazpacho soup, an orange membrane filled with orange juice that can be sipped through a straw, a grape-like membrane holding wine and a chocolate membrane containing hot chocolate. Edwards believes pretty much any flavour is possible.

He recently told Harvard’s campus newspaper Harvard Crimson that his team was working on a prototype bottle that had an eggshell-like hard coating in addition to the membrane that could be peeled off or eaten whole.

Meanwhile, Indiana-based MonoSol is hot on Dr Edward’s heels. Its water-soluble casings are already widely used to make squidgy pods of washing detergent. The company has been developing tasty edible films that are strong enough to act as packaging until they come into contact with water and dissolve. Products in the pipeline include servings of hot chocolate and other drinks that you slip straight into cups, and single servings of flavoured porridge.

Leicester-based Pepceuticals last month won a 1.3 million pounds worth European research contract to develop an edible coating for fresh meat, which the company says could increase shelf life, reduce waste and do away with the need for oil-based plastic vacuum packs. It cites research that shows UK consumers spend more money on meat than any other food item, but waste an astonishing 570,000 tonnes each year.

“The potential to apply an antimicrobial film in the processing factory should significantly prevent the deterioration of the fresh meat product, and save waste. It will revolutionise the look and feel of the traditional meat counter,” the company claims.

The potential benefits of such food packaging are intriguing. According to latest figures, the food, drink and packaging waste in the UK supply chain is about 6.6million tonnes a year, and costs 5 billion pounds.

from hindustantimes.com

Sustainable Packaging Initiative for Hasbro

Posted on by
Reply

Hasbro Introduces Sustainable Packaging Initiative

Hasbro, Inc. announced plans to reduce materials used in product packaging for many of its global brands, including My Little Pony, Nerf and Play-Doh.

In a release, the company stated that this new initiative will result in an approximate 15 percent improvement in the average product-to-package ratio of brands and products included in the initiative, with retail availability of Hasbro products in the more environmentally-efficient packaging beginning this year.

Hasbro said that over the next two years, retailers and consumers will begin to see an even broader range of packaging efficiencies put in place, including redesigned disposable boxes and blister packs that use less material. As an example, a more efficient package design for the 2013 My Little Pony assortment pack is expected to reduce the size of shipping containers by 20 percent, creating transportation efficiencies.

Packaging that serves the dual purpose of long-term storage, such as game boxes, is not included in the initiative.

“Improving Hasbro’s product-to-package ratio underscores our long-standing commitment to environmental sustainability,” said Duncan Billing, Hasbro’s Global Chief Development Officer. “This initiative is designed to streamline our manufacturing processes and reduces our use of natural resources, providing consumers with more manageable and environmentally responsible packaging for our products.”

Reducing total packaging size is the most recent effort in a series of sustainable packaging initiatives by Hasbro, all of which are designed to minimize the environmental impact.

As described by the company, they include:

-Phase-out of PVC in packaging: In 2011, Hasbro announced plans to eliminate PVC from all new core toy and game packaging beginning in 2013.

-Elimination of wire ties: In 2011, Hasbro replaced all wire ties in its packages with ties made from paper rattan or bamboo mix to reduce environmental impact. The effort eliminated approximately 34,000 miles of wire ties – more than enough to wrap around the circumference of the Earth.

-Increasing recycled content: In 2011, Hasbro achieved its goal to derive at least 75 percent of paper and board packaging from recycled material, or from sources that practice sustainable forest management. By 2015, Hasbro plans to increase that target to 90 percent.

-Responsible paper sourcing policy: Hasbro implemented an aggressive paper sourcing policy in 2011, providing guidelines for suppliers regarding sustainable paper sourcing to help ensure that paper used in Hasbro products aligns with the company’s commitment to environmental sustainability. Among the policy’s key requirements is the expectation that suppliers will source paper with as much post-consumer recycled content as practical and financially viable. The company has communicated the policy to its suppliers, and has made it a part of its company-wide quality assurance procedures.

from waste-management-world.com

Active Electronic Media Packaging : new Apple patent

Posted on by
Reply

Apple patent suggests interactive packaging for devices on the shelves

By Tyler Lee

A patent filed by Apple and subsequently discovered by Apple Insider reveals the Cupertino company’s interest in providing wireless power to their devices on store shelves. What this means is that while iOS products are sitting on the shelves in their packaging, not only will they receive power that can charge them to be fully operational when taken out of the box or to be interacted with, but will also allow Apple store employees to provide firmware updates to devices within the store while the product is still sealed.

Dubbed “Active Electronic Media Packaging”, the patent describes an active packaging system that would replace labels and advertising typically found on the packaging of products. The goal would be to allow the product to sell itself by allowing users to interact with it while it is still within the confines of its packaging. According to the patent’s description:

“Although typical packaging for an electronic media device may be designed to adequately protect the device from shock or damage, the packaging is extremely limited in other respects [...] For example, the ability to fully view or interact with the electronic media device while still inside the packaging is severely limited in most packaging designs. Although unobtrusive packaging designs have been developed, these designs typically do not allow electronic media devices to be interacted with while inside the packaging.”

It certainly is a novel idea, but a bit odd considering that all Apple stores have plenty of demo units on the floor for customers to experiment with. Not to mention that iOS devices usually come with some battery left in them when taken out of the box. That should be enough for Apple retail staff to give prospective customers a brief demonstration of the product and its features.

Perhaps the most interesting feature here would be the ability to push firmware updates to products while still in the box.

from ubergizmo.com

Packaging Easter eggs

Posted on by
Reply

‘Too much packaging’ on Easter eggs

Easter egg manufacturers have not gone far enough to reduce packaging and improve recyclability, a report has concluded.

The annual survey by Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson found the percentage of Easter egg boxes taken up by chocolate was 38% – the same figure as last year.

The study found a number of manufacturers are not using widely recyclable materials for packaging, meaning much of it still ends up in landfill sites.

Luxury eggs from Thorntons, Baileys and Marks & Spencer continued to rely on plastic packaging that is not recyclable in most local authorities, leaving consumers confused as to what should be binned or recycled, according to the report.

It singled out a Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference chocolate egg for wrongly bearing the “widely recycled” symbol.

However the “big three” confectionery companies – Nestle, Mars and Cadbury – used packaging made from widely recyclable materials such as cardboard for their medium-sized eggs, with Nestle becoming the first major confectioner to make its full Easter range 100% recyclable.

Ms Swinson said: “Since launching this report in 2007 the main chocolate companies have acted to reduce their packaging and improve recyclability.
“However, there are still a number of companies who rely too much on plastic and are sitting on their laurels.

“Manufacturers know that their plastic boxes aren’t widely recycled and yet they continue to use them, despite other companies showing how Easter eggs can be packaged with a mind to efficiency and recyclability.

“Companies need to realise they haven’t gone far enough yet and still need to change the fact that so many Easter eggs are drowning in excess packaging.”