By Jesse Kraft
When it comes to food and consumer goods packaging, green is the clear winner.
This is not exactly breaking news. For several years, consumers have placed increasing emphasis on eco-friendly, or “green,” packaging as a key factor in their purchasing decisions. In fact, a recent survey of US residents by management consulting firm McKinsey & Company found that 61% of respondents consider packaging made of recycled or compostable materials to be either extremely important or very important.
If you’re looking to add sustainability options or expand your existing lineup of eco-friendly packaging solutions to reach that 61 percent, CL&D can help you see green.
We offer a wide range of environmentally conscious solutions for flexible packaging applications, shrink sleeves, and roll-fed labeling commonly used for products like protein powders, nutraceuticals, confections, and more.
Recyclable / Mono-Material Structures: Single-material packaging that supports polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyethylene (PE), or polypropylene (PP) is an important step toward creating more recycle-ready materials. PE, for example, is typically recyclable through store drop-off programs.
Post-Consumer Recycled Materials: Post-consumer recycled (PCR) materials repurpose waste from households and businesses. CL&D offers flexible materials and shrink options with up to 40% PCR content, even for challenging applications like small products or bar wraps.
Paper-Based Alternatives: Paper-based packaging uses renewable and recyclable materials such as cardboard and paper. It’s increasingly popular for pouches, bar wraps, and single-use wrappers.
When partnering with customers, our first step is to define their end goal – what they want to achieve by selecting an eco-friendly pouch. From there, we assess the product itself, its specifications, targeted shelf life, the machinery that will be running the film, desired speed, budget, and other key factors to fully understand the application.
Taking sustainability a step further, 80% of our raw materials are sourced domestically to reduce transportation emissions and improve supply chain efficiency.
As part of the ProMach family of brands, CL&D works closely with our form fill seal partners, HMC Products, Matrix and Bartelt, as well as Axon and its shrink sleeve applicators, to test materials from a quality-assurance standpoint.
A strong example of this collaboration is our work with Bartelt and its updated sealing bar technologies on its newer machines. These seal bars allow for pinpoint application of added heat (when necessary) at the seals to ensure proper pouch sealing integrity. Years of collaboration have built a high level of trust that ultimately benefits our customers.
Sustainable packaging matters to 61% of the country’s customers. CL&D can help your brands connect with them, and work toward winning over the remaining 39% as well.
Jesse Kraft is the Sales Director for CL&D. He can be reached at Jesse.Kraft@ProMachBuilt.com.
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CL&D is an award-winning industry leader in high-quality flexographic and digital printing for most unsupported film. Numerous companies have trusted CL&D to help build their brands through packaging including 3 and 4-sided seal pouches, cold and heat seal bar wraps, gusseted pouches, shrink sleeves, stick packs, roll-fed labels, and vertical and horizontal form fill seal pouches, with recyclable options available.