….the global packaging industry rewards the packages that will help face the challenges of the third millennium. Top Italian products in a market worth € 800 billion
Opening a sweetener sachet with only one hand is possible, easy, and more importantly it helps the elderly and disabled. They too, along with many others, would like milk packages to be easier to use and recycle. Not to mention safety: drugs should always be kept away from children, but… if they do get their hands on a drug package, it will not open for them.
On 19 May in Milan, these and many other innovative packages from around the world will receive the World Star Packaging 2015 award during Ipack-Ima and its related exhibitions – a trade event gathering over 2000 international exhibitors, taking place three weeks after the inauguration of the EXPO 2015 just a few steps away and with a direct connection between the fairgrounds and the village of the great Universal Exposition.
“We strongly wished for the World Packaging Organization, the global association of the packaging industry, to hold the award giving ceremony for its international prize in Milan – says Guido Corbella, CEO, Ipack-Ima spa. This is an industry where Italy plays a leading technological and economic role and which could supply the answers to upcoming challenges over the next few years, from renewable resources to efficiency, from the rights of the underprivileged to the needs of SMEs”.
Out of 265 candidates, already winners of local prizes in their respective countries, as many as 148 products have been nominated for the prestigious World Star Packaging Award and will receive it during Ipack-Ima; additional nominations include the President’s prize, the Sustainability prize and the Marketing Prize. In the meantime, one can leaf through a rich catalogue of new products and find out about smart packages capable of making life easier, avoiding waste and adding pleasure to food consumption.
FOOD: OPEN AND DOSE WITH TWO FINGERS
The group of designated winners attending the event includes Turkish honey Balparmak Snap & Squeeze relies on an all-Italian technology. It’s a small, business-card-size flexible sachet containing a monodose of honey. It opens by folding the two short sides between the thumb and index: the sachet bends opening a small hole. The honey pours into tea, coffee, herb tea or whatever beverage needs sweetening. The magical sachet that can be opened with just one hand and makes dosing very easy is manufactured by a Bologna-based company specializing in automated packaging machinery – an industry sector where Italy is a leading country generating over € 5 billion in revenues, most of which on foreign markets (85%).
FOOD: HURRAY FOR CONVENIENCE
Norway brings us pre-sliced salami in a space-saving package. We are all used to the traditional plastic tray, which however takes up a lot of horizontal space both in the fridge and on the table: inconvenient, bulky and rarely resealable. Manufacturer Grilstad chose a very convenient, compact system to package the typically round salami slices: a plastic cup with a screw-on cap.
FOOD: LOOKS GOOD, TASTES GOOD
From the USA and about to walk the red carpet at Ipack-Ima is Schwan’s Soft Serve, a cup-shaped sachet containing soft serve to store in the fridge. All one needs to do is squeeze its content in a bowl and the specially designed dispenser will pour a creamy dose of soft serve complete with the typical swirl. A fun-to-use disposable pastry bag to serve ice cream with a touch of elegance.
BEVERAGES: CHARM AND ELEGANCE
A spirit is the star of the gift box by Spanish manufacturer Miguel Torres. Seen from the outside, it seems to herald the intense tobacco aromas of Latin-American cigars. In their place appear three glass cigars – transparent phials of amber-colored brandy, artfully designed by agency Savia Design to look like the cigars often accompanying refined liquor in tastings.
BEVERAGES: MADE IN ITALY IS SAFE
A significant contribution to our wine industry, increasingly focused on exports, is the smart anti-shock box for fragile products designed by German company Klingele Papierwerke for postal and courier shipping. It’s a single package developed for valuable bottles – ideal for the e-commerce business of winemakers producing top wines. This is how it works: imagine a long, narrow one-bottle box, then think of another box identical to the first one placed inside it, only rotated by 45° along the same axis. There you have it! The bottle goes into the second box. It can take any shock on any of the four sides – the bottle will only bump against soft corrugated cardboard walls surrounded by the empty space of the first box.
ENVIRONMENT: SEPARATE WASTE COLLECTION
Italy brings yet another smart solution, winner of awards by both the Italian Packaging Institute and the WPO: introducing the Tetra Top Separable, a milk and beverage carton whose plastic top with screw-on cap can be removed to recycle plastic and cardboard separately. A simple gesture even for children made possible by an even simpler modification in the preparation of cardboard reels used to make packages and adopted by an increasing number of companies worldwide. It’s an additional contribution to salvaging and recycling cardboard packages, which in Italy has reached 50% of the total amount marketed.
ENVIRONMENT: SAFETY
The Dutch company Ecobliss came up with Locked4Kids, a new patent turning a simple medication package into an unsolvable puzzle for children but quite simple for adults. Blister strips containing pills are placed inside a transparent plastic tray: the side flap of the box can be opened, but just try and get the tray out. It won’t because it cannot slide inside the box: its borders lock into reliefs acting as hooks. To release the tray one needs to press the box in two places at the same time, which are too far apart for small children’s hands. In addition, the box is tear-resistant. No chance!
THE FUTURE IS 1000
These are just some of the 148 packages marking the state of the art, the evolution, performance and technology of the near future. There will be no shortage of prototypes and projects: the award ceremony held during Ipack-Ima will also include 3 of them by young inventors. The World Star Student Award will go to a Turkish, a Chinese and a South African participant, selected with much difficulty among dozens of young inventors and creative students from schools around the world. Special mentions will also be announced for dozens of students mainly from emerging countries, especially China followed by Turkey, Middle East, India and Brazil. Asian packages also abounded among the 148 winners of the WorldStar Packaging Award. It’s a mirror of the times: out of a € 800 billion market value, Asia’s share is 34.81% followed by North America (22.16%) and Europe (19.84%). The 1,000 billion notch is near, sure to be reached by 2020.
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