Friday, March 06, 2009

Global Packaging Alliance Holds Annual Meeting in the Americas

Rochester, NY – The Global Packaging Alliance (GPA) held its annual meeting in the United States and Mexico during the week of January 19, 2009. With members convening from all over the world, the yearly event was a much-anticipated chance to discuss strategies and goals for the upcoming year.

GPA members spent the first half of the week at Diamond Packaging’s facility in Rochester, NY. Members shared the latest developments in their packaging operations, including new equipment, technical advancements, materials, and productivity improvements. The meeting also provided an ideal forum for members to discuss trends in their respective markets, with special consideration given to the current state of the global economy.

“Packaging is an essential part of life, and remains relevant despite the vagaries of economic cycles,” said Alex Commins, managing director of Colorpak Limited and secretary of the GPA. “The GPA continues to focus on ways and means of building greater operational efficiencies into our business through techniques such as lean manufacturing. Now more than ever our customers rely on us to be at maximum efficiency. Furthermore, our ability to share our local experiences and benchmark on a global basis is an advantage shared by few peers of our size. The end result being that our customers benefit from dealing with organizations that are focused, flexible, and world class in their outputs.” more

Dennis Bacchetta
Diamond's greenbox initiative

Monday, March 02, 2009

New Study Confirms the Recyclability and Repulpability of Foil-Decorated Paperboard

The Foil & Specialty Effects Association (FSEA) has released a new study confirming the recyclability and repulpability of foil-decorated paperboard.

Pira International, Surrey, UK, a third party research firm, was commissioned by the FSEA to conduct the study and produce the findings, which have been compiled in a nine-page report.

To conduct the study, foil stamped paperboard was utilized from both the more traditional hot foil stamping process and also the cold foil process. The evaluation included foil decorated product that represented 25 percent post consumer waste up to 100 percent post consumer waste, meeting levels that far exceed normal conditions.

“It has become quite apparent that this study is extremely important to the long-term health of our industry and association,” stated FSEA Executive Director Jeff Peterson. “We are very excited with the positive findings of the study and are making every effort to communicate these findings to the graphic arts and packaging industries as quickly as possible.”

Along with the findings, the study describes the pulping and screening methods used in the research, and provides a complete analysis of the reporting results from the testing methods. The main conclusion from the study validates the recyclability of paper products decorated by both the traditional hot stamp and new cold foil processes. In addition, the study finds that neither hot nor cold foil-decorated products would give rise to problems found in other decorating processes that may render the decorated paper products unsuitable for recycling. more

Dennis Bacchetta
Diamond's greenbox initiative