How innovation is enhancing packaging in your home, every day

For as long as people have moved and traded goods, they have needed packaging. Today, it helps to extend shelf-life and protect the quality of food, keep medical equipment sterile, and deliver products from source to consumer.

Packaging plays a vital and multi-functional role in our modern lives.

Every day, Amcor experts are further enhancing packaging so that it’s better for people and for the planet. That means innovating to improve the consumer experience, and the safety and environmental performance of packaging in ways that might not be immediately visible.

Kitchen

From your morning coffee to a glass of wine at the end of a long day, packaging is improving the way you use and store products in your kitchen.

Barista quality coffee at home

Why the change?
Growing demand for at-home café experiences means consumer expectation is high and the growth opportunity for coffee brands is huge.

A recent Nielsen study found that sustainability matters to consumers when they are choosing products, so much so that products that can make sustainability claims generally outperform the growth rate of total products in their categories. Coffee brands can stand out in a saturated market by using more sustainable packaging and including those credentials on-pack.

Amcor’s coffee solutions
Earlier this year, Amcor launched AmLite Ultra Recyclable. Not only does it give brands the opportunity to use vibrant coffee packaging design, but replacing a polyester (PET) layer with a high-barrier oriented polypropylene (OPP) film reduces carbon footprint by up to 64%. Coffee quality is protected and its packaging can be recycled in the polyolefin stream.

Amcor’s Vento coffee packaging is made with an integrated degassing feature, eliminating the need to apply hard valves to coffee packs, reducing complexity in the filling process and driving down the weight and carbon footprint of the product.

Related read: Metal-free coffee packaging that’s better for the planet

Fresh ingredients at your fingertips

Why the change?
With online FMCG sales growing four times faster than brick-and-mortar, it’s clear that the modern grocery shopper loves to shop online. And they expect speedy delivery and undamaged goods.

Amcor’s solution
Amcor has a range of flexible pouches and plastic jars and bottles for a wide range of foods, beverages and ingredients, including sauces. This convenient packaging maintains taste and protects products on the journey from retail store or warehouse to home.

Brands can stand out in crowded supermarket aisles and online with eye-catching designs that appeal to shoppers. And both PET containers and flexible pouches are often better for the environment thanks to their light weight, which reduces carbon emissions from transportation, and their resilience, which prevents product loss.

Amcor’s ‘Mason Jar’ flexible pouch for the South American brand Sacciali

Safe and easy food preparation

Why the change?
While we help brands move to flexible and rigid plastic container, Amcor innovation is improving safety and reducing the weight of aluminum can packaging too.

Amcor’s solution
Many of our best innovations come from partnerships with leading brands and manufacturers. One example is Peelfit™, designed by Crown Holdings Inc. using Amcor’s CanSeal Pro to contain dry foods such as powdered drinks and cooking ingredients.

Amcor’s peelable aluminium membrane seals directly to the aluminium canister, removing the need for an additional ring. This packaging is easier to open, avoids sharp edges, reduces product weight, and increases protection thanks to excellent seal integrity.

Simple solutions for super snackers

Why the change?
Between work, play and other commitments it can be tough to find time for a sit-down meal. Snacking is the new normal and people want packaging that helps them to eat on-the-go.

Amcor’s solution
The Evolution® Cup preserves flavor and color, enables portability and portion control, and has easy-open lidding. It’s the ideal choice for yogurt, fruit purees, dips and guacamole.

Nuts and dried fruits are other easy snack and are growing in popularity. Nuts have a high fat content, which can go rancid, so many types lose quality and taste if exposed to oxygen. Dried fruits, meanwhile, change moisture content and change texture unless protected by a water vapor barrier. Amcor has a wide variety of high-barrier packaging which can be tailored to different snacks to achieve consistent taste and freshness.

Related Read: How ecommerce is changing snacking behaviors

A glass of wine at the end of the day

Why the change?
Two things guaranteed to frustrate: hard to open bottles and tainted wine. We work with wine makers to achieve a premium look and a practical alternative to cork bottle stoppers.

Amcor’s solution
With our industry-leading aluminium screwcaps, capsules and plastic closures, consumers can be confident that their beverages are well protected. Amcor’s Stelvin range has been an industry-leader since the 1960s and we continue to innovate new capsules – including Easypeel, which uses a one-piece aluminium capsule engineered to open along a clean line.

And PET wine bottles are ideal for a concert in the park. PET is resilient, allowing wine drinkers to enjoy safely and in areas where glass is prohibited.

*Amcor’s EASYPEEL *

Laundry room

While many consumers are increasingly aware of the importance of more sustainable packaging in their kitchens, home- and personal-care products are changing too.

Lightening the load with an easy to use laundry bottle

Why the change?
Laundry liquid is big business, and the range of products and formats is only set to grow; for seniors and singles who need lighter-weight packaging for smaller loads to large families who buy liquid in bulk.

Amcor’s solution
Amcor has a range of attractive, ergonomically designed containers to meet these varying needs. One example is the partnership with Method, which led to the industry’s first liquid laundry detergent made of 100% post-consumer recycled PET. This lowers carbon footprint by 35% and reduces energy consumption by 78% compared to a virgin PET alternative.

The new bottle can be stretch blow-molded with a consumer-friendly hand grip, making pouring more comfortable, and grabbing consumer attention thanks to its distinctive "shelf appeal". Amcor also makes refill pouches for PET bottles so more bottles can be reused.

Amcor’s 100% Post-Consumer Recycled Content bottle for Method

Spring cleaning made more sustainable with 100% PCR

Why the change?
Consumers are increasingly attracted to products that help keep bathrooms and kitchens clean, that smell great, and have lower carbon footprints thanks to their innovative packaging.

Amcor’s solution
To meet the needs of increasingly conscious consumers, Amcor recently developed another PET bottle using 100% post-consumer recycled content for Target’s household essentials brand, Everspring. Packaging for the range, which includes laundry detergent, dish soap, essential oils, candles and hand soap, uses bio-based or recycled materials.

Amcor’s 100% Post-Consumer Recycled Content bottle for Target

Bathroom

Safe and accessible medicine

Why the change?
While conventional blister packs offer on-the-go convenience to patients, they don't always guarantee product protection in challenging climates. For a product as important as medicine, it was imperative that a better packaging solution was developed – and one that could be streamlined, without the need for silica gel sachets or pellets, for example, to absorb moisture.

Amcor’s solution
Amcor partnered with GlaxoSmithKline to develop the Formpack® Dessiflex Ultra blister for their Augmentin® product in the Pakistan market, which provides extra protection by absorbing moisture before it enters the cavity. The new blister system replaced the previous packaging of a glass bottle with desiccant sachet. This improved the patient experience by allowing them to access each individual tablet, while improving patient safety by maintaining shelf-life and protecting against humid conditions.

Related read: New blister packaging technology developed for GSK

Better protecting the planet with every hand wash

Why the change?
For a commonplace product as liquid soap, ensuring the packaging is more sustainable and as efficient as possible has very positive repercussions – even if you don’t notice a visible change to the hand soap in your bathroom.

How Amcor has enhanced the packaging
In Amcor’s Rigid Packaging business in North America, its Amcor 360 group uses LiquiForm® technology to form and fill bottles in one step. This creates supply chain efficiencies, improves sustainability performance, and achieves “shelf impact” with attractive, custom designed containers.

Amcor used this process to create a bottle with 50% post-consumer recycled content for Nature’s Promise hand wash. LiquiForm technology reduces the carbon footprint associated with filling and packaging by making use of the product instead of compressed air to hydraulically form and fill the container. The forming of bottles using LiquiForm means less energy is required to make the container.

So, there you have it – a round-up of just some of the packaging innovations that are making their way into your home. Have you noticed any products transform around your home?

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