Sustainable packaging problems meet test and measurement solutions

The importance of maintaining the quality and standard of packaging, while ensuring the contents are protected, was identified by the majority of the 284 people who responded to the Industrial Physics ‘Obstacles and Opportunities in Packaging Manufacturing 2023’ survey. 

Our survey explored the views of packaging manufacturing decision makers across the consumer goods, food and beverage, and medical and pharmaceutical industries. We wanted a complete understanding of the current state of packaging innovation so we could tell our customers and the wider industry all about it!  

In this first of a series of expert blogs, our Global Product Line Director, Nash Lawson describes how rising consumer demand – plus stricter regulation – is driving the revolution in sustainable packaging. He explores how the push towards the use of more recycled raw materials is leading to quality concerns and how remodeled test and measurement approaches will solve them.

In the race to keep up with sustainable packaging trends and respond to market demand, a solid quality control process is essential to prove the efficacy of new designs and meet consumer expectations.

In every industry, no matter what product or packaging you make, it’s important to follow a rigorous approach to testing and measurement. Whichever raw materials you work with, our inspection devices help you thrive as you respond to market demand for eco-friendly packaging.  

Right now, we’re helping customers test environmentally friendly packaging options through permeation testing devices like the Systech OxySense 5250i, or crush testing machines such as the Crush Tester 17-56. We also make tools to support a combination of recycled packaging tests, such as our range of universal test machines from United Testing Systems. 

Significant sustainable packaging challenges

Quality and safety are integral to packaging manufacturers, but many customers are reporting significant challenges when responding to sustainable packaging trends. 

All over the world, organizations are examining every aspect of the way they package their products and the materials they use to do so. Yet, in their eagerness to offer sustainable packaging, many are discovering the hard way that it’s tough to match eco friendly ambitions with the practicalities of protecting precious goods. 

The results of our obstacles and opportunities in packaging manufacturing 2023 survey

Seventy percent of survey respondents told us that quality is the primary motivator for innovation in packaging, while 61% said ensuring safety is the key driver. 

As companies invent, or work with, more fresh, innovative sustainable packaging systems, they’re often entering uncharted territory. Effective quality control and testing will ensure integrity, establishing confidence that package contents remain safe from contamination, spoilage and spills. 

A shortage of testing equipment and expertise

Our survey showed that 36% of packaging professionals have encountered manufacturing and production complexities with the latest materials. The same percentage reported that the testing methods they’re familiar with aren’t applicable. Sometimes that’s because the materials they’ve selected aren’t fit for purpose, but it’s primarily due to a lack of appropriate testing equipment and in-house packaging and sustainability expertise. 

A total of 38% suggested that this expertise gap was a barrier, and 48% said that they just don’t have the inspection equipment to ensure the quality and safety of their new eco packaging designs. So, why don’t companies simply hire people to plug any knowledge gaps? The high cost involved was a major factor for 62% of respondents – when there’s a shortage of skilled people on the market, the top talent can command premium salaries. 

A trusted test and measurement partner

Using a trusted test and inspection partner will alleviate the lack of in-house and market capability when developing new testing methods and standards. Manufacturers can lean on the partner’s expertise to guide the testing process and ensure that any sustainable packaging designs meet the necessary quality and safety standards. 

We’re at the forefront of testing sustainable packaging. We support companies in choosing the right sustainable raw materials and test them comprehensively. Either by adapting their current testing methods or by suggesting entirely new approaches.  

Our expert advice enables organizations of all sizes to recognize their eco-friendly packaging ambitions, enjoy successful product launches…or even claw back massive costs after disastrous failed attempts! 

The customer is always right?

When you examine what the end user really wants, you may come to a frustrating conclusion: everyone wants everything! Quite often, consumers want to feel good about what they’re buying. While they don’t necessarily want to be bogged down with all the scientific details, they want to feel that they’re contributing towards an eco-friendly world. 

Balancing sustainable packaging trends

The customer who’s up in arms about the pollution of traditional packaging materials could well be the same one to complain when their potato chips go soggy faster. The battle to become greener while also ensuring quality is a tricky one. 

Sometimes you can give the customer everything they want, sometimes you simply can’t. You can’t take a new paper product, start making pharmaceutical packaging out of it, and expect your drugs and medicines not to absorb moisture or break down completely. 

Some of your customers may be unhappy about pork chops wrapped in plastic. But if they want them to remain edible for a week, then it’s almost impossible with the new eco friendly packaging materials on offer. So, it’s about identifying and presenting possible tradeoffs. Would biodegradable, emulsified polymer coated paper work instead? If it will retard moisture and the ingress of oxygen to keep the food fresh for three days? 

A natural sustainable packaging conundrum

When you’re working with tried and tested raw materials, you can be sure about the way they’ll react and enjoy confidence in testing outcomes. With heavily engineered, man-made plastics and polymers, for example, you can tinker around at a molecular level to gain complete control over the final product; you can accurately plan for all kinds of end use applications. 

When you’re relying on nature, you’re constricted by what’s available. Nature gives us a broad distribution of properties. One of the first challenges for environmentally friendly packaging is the uniformity of the properties of the raw material. So, you have to test a lot more, through every stage of the process. 

Eco packaging: science meets nature

When you have inconsistency in your raw materials – you often need to create processes that can be adjusted relatively quickly and efficiently. Once melted down, the viscosity of your product could be very different than it was last week. So how can you adapt your process accordingly? Maybe you can add some chemistry to make it flow better- but what are the ramifications of doing so? In making it easier to process – how does that change the final properties? Any of the changes you make can propagate throughout the product. 

When you’re making eco-friendly packaging, you need to have the tools to understand how changes to the process impact the final product… if they leave the final product acceptable at all! 

Sustainable packaging considerations

It’s said that “you can’t please all the people all the time” and many packaging manufacturers would agree. That’s where many companies are struggling right now – with pressure coming from all sides: from consumer to shareholder and legislator. 

Currently, people want to see the packaging they are used to in terms of shape and functionality, made from the latest sustainable materials. But the tried and tested materials out there have been engineered and refined over many years – often in ways that the customer doesn’t appreciate. 

Many companies want to work with recyclable packaging and move in a greener direction, but first they have to understand how to match, or get closer to, the performance of complex and highly engineered polymer and petroleum-based products. 

Competing with polymer packaging performance

Think about the packaging of foodstuffs in controlled CAP and MAP environments for a moment. You can find film packaging featuring three to seven barrier layers of laminated structures. It looks like a single piece of film, but cut it and inspect under a microscope, and you’ll see the complexity and functionality. A product engineered to enable the right gas and moisture transfer process. It can do impressive stuff – like allow moisture to go out one way without coming back in the other – or let the CO2 escape and allow oxygen to come back in. 

People often don’t appreciate that the piece of plastic their food is wrapped in, or the blister pack they pop their pill out of, has undergone a huge amount of engineering. A lay person may see a piece of plastic film, whereas to those working in the field it’s actually a biaxially oriented polypropylene. 

The impact of switching raw materials

When you make profound changes to raw materials, they don’t act the same. In fact, the whole process of making that product can differ: the way you squeeze the materials through an injection molding device, the manner in which you blow the film; how you stress it during manufacturing; or how you carry out the extrusion process to strengthen against breaks and tears. 

Then there’s your company’s overall processes to consider – you know that the raw materials you have can be made into a viable product with acceptable properties, but your factory is built around making the same product out of completely different materials. Many companies find that they can’t force their new raw materials into existing processes. This creates a ‘scaling up’ issue. 

Our environmentally friendly packaging solutions

At Industrial Physics, we have years of experience helping organizations replace their traditional packaging solutions with sustainable packaging alternatives, without making unacceptable sacrifices. 

In going green, it’s likely there will be some tradeoffs. We will help you measure and quantify the impact of making planet-friendly choices on the performance of your products and your bottom line.  

Industrial Physics can help you better understand the candidate sustainable raw materials you want to work with and how to build them into effective, suitably protective sustainable packaging systems.   

Contact us – Industrial Physics