Printers, trade shops and manufacturers alike are capturing accolades for their endeavors to protect planet, people and profession through smart production and collaborative partnerships.
FTA’s 2023 Sustainability Excellence Award winners are but four examples.
Their game-changing packaging processes/applications were engineered explicitly to tackle challenges of environmental responsibility, while working within existing infrastructure. Each continues to win praise, recognition, acceptability and adaptation within the package printing and converting community.
“Siegwerk’s entry tackles a sustainability challenge in a growing market… These are solutions that can help make a big difference.”
By their very nature, the processes and product lines increase recyclability, promote circularity and shrink carbon footprints. They encompass:
- Expanded gamut (EG) printing
- Recyclable and resealable flexible packaging
- Lamination-free monoweb films
- Printable and tunable light barrier coatings
Firms receiving the prestigious honor recognizing faithful stewardship of the environment—two process-based, two product-connected—list out as follows:
- RKW Finland Oy/Marvaco Oy: Winner, Sustainability Programs
- Sun Chemical Corp: Winner, Innovations in Sustainability
- AWT Labels & Packaging: Honorable Mention, Sustainability Programs
- Siegwerk: Honorable Mention, Innovations in Sustainability
On the plant or sustainability programs level, processes developed and implemented by Marvaco/RKW and AWT were deemed to have served to reduce the environmental impact of printing and simultaneously improve workers’ health/safety.
Innovations in sustainability distinctions highlighted Sun Chemical’s and Siegwerk’s inclusion of new technology, formulations or techniques, developed to mitigate printing’s effect on Earth’s ecosystem, as well as its contributions to bettering people’s physical well-being.
Siegwerk’s Honorable Mention
“Printable-Tunable Light Barrier Coatings”—Siegwerk’s entry—targeted elimination of hard-to-recycle (white/colored) plastics in favor of clearer, more sustainable alternatives, without compromising on light barrier performance.
From an environmental impact standpoint, using printable-tunable light barrier coatings achieved near-clear plastic packaging that was recycled easily and at a lower carbon footprint than hard-to-recycle plastics.
“Light-sensitive products need protection from UV and visible light. Today’s light block packaging solutions offered in the market are not recycle-friendly. Siegwerk’s patent-pending light block solution changes all of that by providing brands with a printable coating that can be tuned to achieve minimal light block sensitivity—all the way across the light spectrum to full coverage in the highest wavelengths,” said Zack Meister, global business development manager, flexible packaging.
In addition, printable-tunable light barrier coatings can be tailored to work with existing recycling streams, such as floatables (stay-on label inks), washable inks (deinkable shrink sleeves) and monomaterial films (MDO-PE).
Siegwerk’s innovative light barrier coating solution can be tuned to block up to 99.8 percent of light in the wavelength range of 200-nm. to 900-nm.
Rios commented, “Siegwerk’s entry tackles a sustainability challenge in a growing market.” In speaking to all winners collectively, he declared, “These are solutions that can help make a big difference.”
FTA congratulates this year’s winners on such outstanding accomplishments!