Sirane outlines a future for packaging

Sirane last week showed a forum of leading food industry players how the positive future for the packaging sector might be in compostable and environmentally-friendly packaging

'Thanks to developments in bio-polymers there are plenty of excellent materials about, that have helpful and innovative properties,' said Sirane Director, Simon Balderson.

'So why not take these current opportunities, wherever appropriate, to simply redesign much of our packaging in the service of the environment.

It's what our retailers and their customers want.

Compostable packaging, for example, uses the same environmental mantra - reduce, re-use, recycle - accepted everywhere - and these materials can be made to do the job better, and with a much lower carbon footprint overall.

We determined wherever possible to apply all of the 3 Rs in the service of our clients,' said Balderson.

'All of them to the widest definition and all of them to the greatest extent - whether the materials used are compostable or not'.

Balderson was careful to point out that not all packaging systems are straightaway appropriate for compostable materials and also that - in terms of achieving light weight, lowest gauge size and pack reduction - significant progress in packaging all varieties of food can take a number of years.

However, through a series of closely worked examples, Balderson showed how the newly trademarked and compostable Sirane Resolve packaging is making inroads and delivering all kinds of benefits through all parts of the supply chain to the fresh meat, fish, convenience foods and soft fruit sectors.

The Balderson presentation to the Packaging News Food Packaging Forum in London on Nov 21 showed that compostable systems brought many more benefits to producer and user than mere compostability alone, including; permeability of bio-polymer films; excellent seal combinations with biopolymers and cellulose; rigidity of bio-polymer coated cellulose boards and other factors apparent in use and in transit.

In creating Resolve, Sirane has succeeded in:.

- Defining a framework for the development of compostable packaging for all applications.

- Developing and launching specific packaging systems according to this framework.

- Defining a brand - Resolve - aimed at transforming consumer attitues towards packaging.

The Sirane presentation also showed that much of traditional packaging production is intrinsically over-produced because of the supplier's need to recoup heavy investments in tooling, production lines and production for mass markets.

Hence, tailor-made packaging, flexibility of size and stackability of packs was often not possible or available to many customers because of these committed factors.

The consequence was that the industry tended to overpackaging and a raised carbon footprint.

Balderson stressed that the entire compostable packaging offering at Sirane had arisen specifically through customer demand: 'Our success in offering flexiblilty, creativity and variety in packaging production - in whatever shape or form our client desires - has been the key to our work and growth - and has created our compostable expertise - almost as a side issue.

In my personal view,' says Balderson, 'the bigger environmental picture could and should contain many other options as appropriate, including the thermal recovery of waste, the life cycle analysis of bio-polymers and many other elements which can be scientifically measured and tested'.

Balderson acknowledges that compostability also currently leaves a number of issues unanswered in the public domain - in particular; a campaign to educate and instruct the consumer and another to develop the technology and the infrastructure of the home composting and municipal composting waste streams.

'Once these are committed to and in place I believe that compostability will take its place as a significant part of the mix,' he says.

Since its foundation in 2003 the Sirane turnover has more than doubled through every year and the trend is set to continue through 2007.

Sirane has recentlly successfully returned from exhibiting its products and expertise at this year's largest food and beverage exhibition in Chicago, USA and will be represented at the London Food Packaging Forum later this month and at the European Bioplastics Conference in Paris at the same time.

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