The Pouch3 Cuboid design is a headspace-free, box-shaped pouch that uses up to 30% less material than traditional pouches, helping brands reduce packaging costs and extended producer responsibility fees.
- The Pouch3 Cuboid format uses up to 30% less material than flat-bottom or stand-up pouches of equivalent volume
- Made from recyclable LDPE in a single-web structure with customizable closure options
- Won two Gold awards from the Flexible Packaging Association for innovative design
- Reduces EPR fees directly by lowering packaging weight and volume in states with extended producer responsibility regulations
- Already adopted by multiple brands including Elementary Cold Pressed dog food and Lake Michigan Coffee Company
Catching our attention was a bag of Elementary Cold Pressed dog food that sat on display at HP's booth at Loupe Americas this week, in a package format that won two Gold awards from the Flexible Packaging Association earlier this year. PW briefly spoke to Brent Holloway, HP's category manager for flexible packaging and the 200K digital press, about the multi-stakeholder project.
The format is called Pouch3 Cuboid, made by pouch converter Sun Centre USA. FPA's citation describes it as headspace-free and box-shaped, using up to 30% less material than a flat-bottom or stand-up pouch of equivalent volume, built from recyclable LDPE in a single-web structure, and customizable with different closure types. It first won recognition on a coffee application for Lake Michigan Coffee Company and EDC Coffee.
Elementary's pouches in two sizes, both using the Pouch3 Cuboid format. A single web of LDPE formed into a box shape with six printable panels, plus a seventh space on the closure for additional branding or even to act as a retail hang tab. 
Holloway pointed to extended producer responsibility (EPR) fees as the reason this is spreading to new brands. Several U.S. states now charge producers based on the weight or volume of the packaging they put into the market, so a format using less material and no wasted headspace lowers that fee directly, on top of any savings in material and shipping costs.
Sun Centre's own framing, from a LinkedIn post by company president Jim Pease, makes the same case in stronger terms. He contrasts the format with stand-up and flat-bottom pouches, both designed decades ago, and calls Pouch3 "eco-modulation in practice," crediting Elementary's manufacturer with choosing 100% LDPE and the cuboid format to cut material and landfill waste.
