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Flexible Machines for Sustainable Packaging
The requirements of the PPWR provide clear guidelines and show which sustainability requirements will become mandatory for packaging. How will this affect mechanical engineering? What precautions need to be taken? Packaging experts from KOCH Pac-Systeme provide insights from the practical experience of a special machine manufacturer.
“From the customers point of view and our experience in packaging machine construction, the PPWR sets guidelines and yet continues to create uncertainty,” says Hartmut Diehl, Director Consumer Products at KOCH Pac-Systeme, summarizing the situation. The portfolio of the FACHPACK exhibitor ranges from stand-alone machines to fully integrated packaging processes with a KOCH packaging line. According to Diehl, KOCH Pac-Systeme, which is part of the Uhlmann Group, is the world market leader in the packaging of contact lenses. Precision and product protection are particularly important for products in this category. Therefore recycling rates and new materials inevitably lead to challenges. Product protection also includes stability. Sustainable materials must have sufficient rigidity and still be easy to process, for example foldable.
Packaging as Advertising Space
Hartmut Diehl cites further examples. If monomaterials are used, for example, there is still a need to incorporate viewing windows for certain products such as toothbrushes. The clear visibility of the packaged product must be ensured, as must its protection. “We must continue to guarantee leak-tightness,” explains Diehl. After all, nobody wants a dusty toothbrush, he points out. Brand owners also need the packaging as a surface for branding and information.
Packaging Innovations as a Solution
Diehl has a fundamental opinion on the subject of recycling: “Recycled materials must be available and of consistent quality.” The experts at KOCH Pac-Systeme are not only familiar with the questions posed by the PPWR, but have also developed answers. “In order to offer the same benefits of plastic packaging with other materials, packaging innovations are often needed,” says Diehl.
Converting the machines to sustainable materials in accordance with PPWR specifications (hybrid solution: mono-fiber, mono-plastic) is feasible. The use of alternative materials and fixing methods can also be handled more flexibly. The efficient use of alternative packaging goes hand in hand with optimal carton blanks. Machine manufacturers should also focus on compatibility: processing different types of material must work on the machine.
“Despite the regulatory uncertainty surrounding design for recycling, we need investment decisions now,” says Diehl. Globally active companies such as KOCH Pac-Systeme are sometimes confronted with different national regulations, and the interpretation of the PPWR can also vary from country to country, explains Diehl. He is critical of the fact that the Design for Recycling requirements will not be finalized until 2028, but are to be implemented and established on the market by 2030. This makes long-term planning difficult and requires flexible machine solutions.
The in-house Packaging Competence Center (PCC) offers customers comprehensive advice and thus creates investment security. “We design, pilot and test innovative packaging solutions.” Every project begins with a detailed requirements analysis and comprehensive consultation at the PCC. Through material tests, resource-saving use of materials and clever packaging designs, KOCH Pac-Systeme helps to establish new and sustainable solutions on the market. For example, the machine experts support the conversion of PET plastic packaging with recycled or recyclable films. These are tested for possible applications on the machines and a wide variety of materials are evaluated, particularly regarding their environmental compatibility.
By Anna Ntemiris, editor
