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Clearing Out the Notebook

After two years of all-virtual conferences and exceedingly rare travel, it seems (to me at least) like the dam has broken almost overnight.

Matt Reynolds, Chief Editor, Packaging World
Matt Reynolds, Chief Editor, Packaging World

I’ve noticed I’ve spent the last three Sundays at an airport, and I’m not alone—events in this industry are back in force. Here are a few notes from recent travels.

PACK EXPO East. As I type, I’m looking out over the show floor of Day Three at PACK EXPO East in Philadelphia. There are more specifics on page 13, but it has been bustling and the “energy is palpable,” (good description, Carl Melville of The Melville Group). Pharma is big here in the Northeast corridor, and I heard a lot about the trend toward personalized medicine. The upstream ripple effects for pharma producers and their OEM suppliers on the show floor have been more frequent changeovers and equipment that can accommodate. That trend butts up against the great resignation and scarce workforce, making simplified recipe switches and toolless changeovers key.

A regional show designed more for making connections than for big splash equipment rollouts, many of the OEMs are keeping their “all-new technology” powder dry until PACK EXPO International in October. “Wait ‘til Chicago,” I heard more than once when asking about what’s new. But things keep marching onward on the materials side. I saw a monomaterial, all PE pouch commercialized in P&G’s haircare brand Pantene in Japan, by supplier Zacros. It’s designed as a refill pouch to support a durable, refillable aluminum pack system, and it may include an integral spout that’s also PE, so the whole system is recyclable.

From Veritiv, there were some clever new paperboard cartons made of bagasse/sugar cane, plus a compostable, starch-based panel designed to line corrugated cases for food or meal kits among other markets. Used alongside durable/reusable refrigerants, the remainder of the pack system is curbside recyclable, while still maintaining the cold chain during transport. I assume these are both commercialized somewhere in the market, but I didn’t hear any brand names.

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