Companies constantly innovate and redesign their packaging to boost performance, enhance sustainability and improve marketability. Here’s a look at three recent packaging product launches or revamps on Packaging Dive’s radar.
Mission impossible
Spanish candy brand Chupa Chups heard consumers’ gripes about its hard-to-open lollipop wrappers and is introducing a new wrapper — but first it’s making made some of them even harder to open.
As part of the “Chupa Chups Impossible” campaign launched in partnership with advertising agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty, 250 of the products with new easier-to-open wrappers are hidden inside “the world’s hardest-to-open lollipop” with a beefed up outer shell, BBH said on LinkedIn. They’re referring to it as “the final boss of confectionery,” referencing bosses in video games.
Each of these limited-edition lollipops with the new wrapper is encased in a carbon composite and aramid fibers, which are used to make bulletproof vests, and liquid rubber. The coating is flame-proof, blade-proof and can “withstand more than 1000kg before even making a slightest sign of a crack,” according to BBH, which bids users “good luck.”
The campaign also involves a “speed challenge” in which users can post on social media how quickly they’re able to open the new and improved wrappers.
Losing layers to lightweight
U.K.-based flexible packaging manufacturer Parkside added three new materials to its compostable films range, calling the move a “step-change” for its sustainable packaging offerings.
The cellulose-based films “address major challenges” with compostable packaging, including low barrier properties, heavier structures and reliance on industrial composting, the company said in a news release.
The films are made with fewer layers and therefore are lighter. They allow for home composting, with breakdown occurring in roughly 26 weeks, according to Parkside.
The films’ structures also allow for transparent or metallized finishes as well as high-barrier laminates. The products are accredited by Berlin-based Din Certo, the certification arm of TÜV Rheinland Group.
Scaling up
Nova Chemicals announced that it commercialized two new grades of recycled polyethylene material under its Syndigo brand.
The recycled linear low-density polyethylene resins are made from 100% postconsumer recycled films and are intended for non-food-grade applications, according to a news release. They’re suitable for applications such as can liners, protective packaging, carry out bags, overwrap and shrink film, according to the company.
The new products “have been testing tremendously with our customers over the last several months, and we are excited to make them widely available in commercial quantities,” said Alan Schrob, director of mechanical recycling at Nova, in the news release.
The products are manufactured at Nova’s inaugural mechanical film recycling plant, which opened last year in Connersville, Indiana, and is operated by partner Novolex. This year, the facility is expected to reach its full annual production capacity of over 100 million pounds. Also this year, Nova expects to launch a 100% recycled LLDPE for food-contact applications.
