Thank you for tuning into this episode of “On the Pulse of Packaging.” I’m the host Shannon Winans and with me is Jessica Nick from the Bags and Materials Division of PAC Machinery. She’s a sales specialist with the Bags of Materials Division.

Welcome Jess.  Hi Shannon!

Jess we’re going to talk a little bit about sustainable packaging which is really one of the hottest topics in the packaging industry today. PAC Machinery, just to give some background, this year announced that our bags for any brand of automatic bagger would be made of at least 25% recycled resins, making most bags more environmentally-friendly with some exceptions for customers who may need pure resin bags. We also debuted bags produced with all the way up to 100% percent recycled resins and also new curbside recyclable paper bags that are for certain PAC Machinery Rollbag^® brand bagging machines.

Q- Let me start by asking you Jess. Have you seen an increase in the demand for sustainable packaging?

Absolutely that is by far the most common question customers have asked. Everybody’s looking for a way to lower their carbon footprint and finding a more sustainable plastic bag is definitely where they’re starting.

Q- What would you say the percentage of customers starting to ask more about that is  from your experience?

I would say it’s probably 75% of the questions I get in a day.

Q- Oh wow! What do you attribute that to?

Customers are asking for quite a variety of things but the biggest one is definitely something that fits within their budget and fits for what they need to package for their product.

Q- Have you had any feedback on the customers that have bought some of the sustainable bags?

I have and the most popular response is that number one, they can’t tell the difference between the Virgin material and the 25% recycled material. They’re also impressed with the quality. There’s no decrease in quality. It’s still the same quality product that they’ve always been getting from PAC Machinery.

Q- Do you have any stories that you can share about some of the customers?

I have a customer who’s looking for the most eco-friendly product we have available we’ve gone through quite a few different options with them. They looked at the impact and I’m really happy to say that we found something that worked for both their sustainability department and for what they need for their mailing needs. So we were able to merge the two together and it was great. I think we’ll be probably getting more business from companies desiring more sustainable options as it’s becoming I guess more popular with companies who are trying to reduce plastics in the environment. Definitely! People are looking for ways to reduce the plastics and the ways that they can make it easy for their customers to recycle them and enter them back into the recycling stream.

Q- Do you have any advice or any kind of information that you could share about companies that might be wanting to do this but maybe haven’t you know jumped into this new sustainable packaging or adopted this yet?

I think the first thing that they need to do is just reach out and ask. We have a lot of different blends available and there is definitely something here that will work for what they need and for the budget that they have allocated for this. There’s definitely a solution and there’s so many different varieties of recycled resins that we can use for them

Q- And these are for any brand of automatic bagger? Correct absolutely we guarantee our bags to run on all brands of automatic baggers.

Q- I don’t know if you want to touch upon a little bit about the new paper options that PAC Machinery has to offer?

Yes! These are new and we’re really excited about them. They are curbside recyclable bags, pre-opened bags that can run on some of our PAC Machinery baggers. They  seal just like a plastic bag would – heat sealable, pre-open and they’re ready to go and the best part is all your customer has to do is throw them in their curbside recycling bin.  They don’t have to take them, there’s no drop off. It’s really an easy way to keep more plastics out of the out of the landfills. It is you know, consumer friendly and Industry friendly. This is a bag made from Virgin resin. You can see it’s clear and perfect. This one is made from 25% recycled resins and as you can tell there’s no difference in the clarity. It is just as easy and clear as any other bag that we’ve ever produced. We’re also excited to show you that we have this bag that’s made from 100% recycled resins. Again very clear. No decrease in quality. The strength is still there. We also have bags made from 50% post-consumer material.  It is things like milk jugs that have been recycled into a pre-opened bag and again the strength and the quality are still there.  We’re also excited that we have a blend that is made from 90% recycled materials. This one is intended as mailer that I’m holding but it is made from 20% ocean-bound recycled material it is 90% recycled overall – 20% ocean-bound 20% post-consumer. The milk jugs I just mentioned and 50% post-industrial, so we’re really happy to be able to offer materials that may otherwise be going into the ocean. This is the paper that we just discussed – our Fiberflex^® paper as you can see is strong. It is thin. It is going to be great and it feels and looks just like paper and yet it’s still sealable on a bagger.

It’s crazy. Like I started getting those with Amazon orders so I think that paper is really catching on and I think you know as the trend moves more towards reducing plastic bagging that we could see an overall effort to go to 100% paper mailing. I love everything you showed us today and the samples. I think that gives people a really good idea of what they can expect when they call to get a quote and see what your bags are all about.

We’re proud of the work we’re doing and we’re really happy that the reception has been so positive.

Thank you for watching “On the Pulse of Packaging.” I’m Shannon Winans. See all of our episodes in our blog at https://www.pacmachinery.com/resources/pulseofpackaging/