Transcript

Shannon- hello I’m Shannon Winans we have a special episode of “On the Pulse Packaging” today for Earth Day 2024 where the theme this year was “Planet Versus Plastic.” Plastic, something we can help companies either eliminate or move to better options.  Greg Berguig is our guest and he is thrilled to tell you more about these options. Hi Greg.

Greg-Hi Shannon

Shannon- So Greg, it’s Earth Day and with the theme for 2024, it’s “Planet Versus Plastic” and I thought this would give us a great opportunity to talk about some of our packaging solutions for those companies that might be ready to take the plunge to paper. Organizers are calling for a 60% reduction in the output of all plastics by 2040, then eventually going plastic free, if that ever happens. Well tell us what PAC Machinery can offer to those companies looking for an alternative to plastic.

Greg- You know there’s a lot of areas where you can down gauge so use thinner materials right? Sometimes we have customers who say like I need an 8mil poly bag and I’m like what are you doing with an 8 mil poly bag right? Like you could probably make that a 4 mil or a 3 mil by using us the right resin so that’s an important area to look at in your packaging. Like a lot of times you can go thinner and stronger by putting better materials in there so using less plastic you can use recycled content in many ways. Like I love recycled content going up to 100% recycled content you can use (PIR) post-industrial recycled, PCR Post-Consumer  Recycled right? Like those plastic bottles that you recycle, milk containers, that’s a huge, even what you call these Ocean-Bound or Ocean-Recovered Plastics. There’s a really great program that is typically in third world countries where they pay people to pick up plastics within 30 miles of the shoreline. That stuff is then recycled into pellets and used into all types of things like your grocery bags. We have some customers using it in their poly mailers for mailing so I think a lot around plastic that’s important.

Paper is another one and paper, I think, is really great from its curbside recyclability standpoint right? So a lot of plastics and single-use poly is recyclable but I got to bring it somewhere. I have to drop it off at the store for example I can’t put it in my recycling bin at home but with paper it’s curbside recyclable. We see a lot of people looking to transition from poly to paper. There’s some downsides to it right? You have to use more material. Plastic is really strong. At a certain thickness I have to use more paper. It’s more expensive but has that curbside recyclable nature to it which is it’s great. Many, many people love that and we’re seeing more people especially changing from going from a box to a paper right? So that’s another huge savings. Like how many times have you received something in a corrugated box it’s got maybe some air pillows or some craft stuff in there and it’s like literally like this (shows small item) right? Or like some hardware and you’re like why did you send this to me in a box? Like why? We don’t know what solutions are going to come out right?

So especially when you look at packaging automation and Investments like make sure you future proof that. Have solutions around sustainability that are flexible like our new Rollbag R3200. It’s dual use so it’ll run paper or poly or who knows what else I mean I got some seaweed-based films I was just testing. So, I think that’s most important is to future proof your investment.

Shannon- Yes also did you want to talk a little bit about our FW 650SI flow wrapper?

Greg- Yeah that’s another one the FW 650 SI flow wrapper that does run paper or it runs poly-based films as well. I like the flow wrapper solution because it uses flat rolls of film, which from a cost standpoint, like I can’t really get any less expensive than flat. It’s got a heat seal coating on it and measures the bag length.

So excited to be a part of Earth Day 2024 – we’ve got a lot of different solutions PAC Machinery does. So you know, let’s chat!

Shannon- Thank you for tuning in and Happy Earth Day! We hope you learned about better packaging solutions from bags to Machinery, we can help you with your sustainable packaging goals follow PAC Machinery on LinkedIn and subscribe to our e-newsletter to be the first to learn about new products.