Contribute to Sustainability with Packaging Sleeve

Recyclability and Reduced Waste

The Shift in Sentiment to Sustainable Packaging

Source: Grocery Gems

Sustainability and corporate responsibility are no more just a gimmick, meanwhile, environmental awareness among consumers has taken root and is evolving in the global market: Europe, the United States, and now in Asia.

With both governmental restrictions and consumers’ expectations to see products and packaging with further sustainability credentials, either food processing companies and machinery manufacturers are under pressure to adhere to such a prevailing trend in packaging.

And from the perspective of companies, improving sustainability with packaging is not only about environmental concerns, however, brings further challenges and opportunities to enhance the more conspicuous and attractive appearance of the products so as to achieve customers’ interests and even brand loyalty.

Companies Ditching Plastics in Favor of Cardboard Sleeve

Coors Light, a drinks and beverage company that used to use plastic rings for their multipack tins of drinks, estimates that around 1.7 million pounds of plastic waste are produced each year with it.

Plastic Rings on 6-Pack Drinks
Source: National Geographic

Meanwhile, Coca-Cola, in 2019, rolled out the announcement that they would call an end to shrink plastic wrapping for their multipack packaging and turn to cardboard sleeve packaging. The company expected to save up to 4,000 tons of plastic waste across Europe, one of their steps toward their goal in 2025 that they will achieve 100% with their packaging in terms of recyclability, reusability, and sustainability.

Stay Recyclable with Secondary Packaging

While primary packaging is the essential part and provides the most fundamental protection for the product against contamination and deterioration, adding extra secondary packaging to the products seems to be a subtle issue to handle, basically due to the mindset of striking a balance between taking avail of the packaging as an advertising and information carrier and environmental concerns that matter when further packaging is involved. In that sense, it is with the secondary packaging that there is much margin to tackle sustainability and recyclability.

An Example of a Ready Meal in Carton Sleeve

In the ready meal market where most of the meals are loaded in trays and then wrapped in cardboard sleeves. The common way companies adhere to environmental concerns is to adapt recyclable material for sleeves, for example, recycled waste paper, and some special materials, in the case of Heinz, the global food processing giant, that receives PEFC-certified CarrierKote paperboard from WestRock for carton sleeve packaging[1].

Packaging Sleeve: Ever Popular in the Ready Meals Market

Meal prep or ready meal business has till now been a large market in a modern fast-moving society.

A trendy business mode is that a ready meal company receives weekly menus from consumers all over the country and arranges delivery at door. The large demand from consumers, fast-paced lifestyle, and the company’s need to enhance the appetizing appearance of their products urge that the packaging should be of maximized space for advertisement and branding while it is easy to break down.

That is for which a majority of the ready meals in trays come housed by wraparound sleeve which has edge over other forms of packaging such as the carton box in terms of reduced printing and paper material and features of shelf performance.

Return the Sleeve for Reuse

Apart from adopting recyclable and environmentally friendly materials, some of the ready meal delivery service companies welcome their consumer to return any packaging to them so that they can reuse them again and again.

Variety of Packaging Sleeve for Ready Meals

Sleeves are flexible in terms of shapes, sizes and editions for packaging and may vary tremendously in appearance though, in accordance with the coverage, packs involved, closure and numbers of trays (sometimes plastic tubs or pots) the sleeve packaging may be categorized into several types.

Full Wraparound Sleeve

A tray or other plastic container is housed by a piece of cardboard or paperboard sleeve totally and fully from all sides that offers maximum space for advertisement and information carriage. The downside of such sleeve packaging is that it is the one that involves most printing and paper materials.

Eco Sleeve Packaging

The eco sleeve packaging is featured by the limited coverage with side panels and meanwhile, the front side is covered totally with the sleeve for advertisement and information display.

Strap Sleeve Packaging

The strap sleeve packaging is akin to banding in the sense that a narrow piece of long packaging sleeve covers a limited area of the total tray and leaves open partially the front side to offer a product view. This one is fine with material consumption yet still comes with excellent branding and advertising performance due to its conspicuous appearance.

Packaging Sleeve with Additional Base

The Packaging sleeve with additional base is featured by a lengthened glue flap that reaches beyond the basement to form an extra structure which makes it possible to place the tray in a horizontal position and also an extra surface for printing.

Double or Multiple Trays Packaging Sleeve

Trays of ready meal can also be stacked in one-over-another or in multiple pattern and then wrapped by the paperboard or cardboard sleeve.

Our Commitment to Wraparound Cartoner and Sleever

As per PPMA’s definition that packaging is the science, art, and technology of enclosing or protecting products for distribution, storage, sale, and use [2], in the case of packaging sleeve we strive to add further concerns to boost your effort to contribute more to sustainability and environmental mindset.

Our continuous effort to wrap-around sleeve automation has driven us to be the innovative manufacturer of wrap-around cartoner and sleever.

The ESTRENA Wrap-Around Sleever is the answer we offer to clients to boost production and automation with their sleeve packaging, an unparalleled carton sleeving automation features by advantages including:

• Speed up to 150 packages per minute
• Multi-Axis servo driven joined by SIEMENS SINAMICS V90 or Allen Bradley Kinetix
• Adjustable structure to cover various product sizes
• Robust and corrosion-resistant construction

References and Bibliography

• [1]. Heinz selects WestRock’s recyclable paperboard sleeve for multipack shrink wrap swap-out, Packaging Insights, 21 Sep 2021, https://www.packaginginsights.com/news/heinz-selects-westrocks-recyclable-paperboard-sleeve-for-multipack-shrink-wrap-swap-out.html
• [2]. Machinery Explained, PPMA, https://www.ppma.co.uk/ppma/machinery-finder/machinery-explained.html

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