Amcor Rigid Plastics, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of rigid plastic packaging for food, beverage, spirits, personal/home care and healthcare industries, has been recognized by the Grandes Cases de Embalagem, a Brazilian packaging award competition sponsored by Embalagem e Marca magazine, a leading trade magazine based in São Paulo. Amcor captured the packaging award for its innovative designs for Coca-Cola (carbonated soft drink bottle), Unilever (condiment bottle), and Johnson & Johnson (shampoo container).
The award presentation was made November 18 at Senac University Center, in São Paulo. The award ceremony brought together more than 450 attendees, including representatives of the user industry, converters, design agencies, and raw material manufacturers and equipment makers. The Grandes Cases de Embalagem design competition encourages and values the pursuit of excellence in Brazilian packaging. The competition honors those companies who excel in optimizing design packaging elements and deliver functionality and performance for the user company and the consumer. The entries are judged on key features and attributes including material reduction, online productivity, cost-cutting, innovation, value, design, environmental impact, performance at point of sale, and convenience.
“We are delighted to be recognized with this honor for our longstanding commitment to innovation,” said Juan Procel, commercial director of Amcor’s Brazil business unit. “We’re thrilled that we have developed game-changing packages that are highly functional, provide long-term production savings, and deliver major sustainability benefits.”
Amcor was recognized for its development of a 15-g polyethylene terephthalate (PET) preform for Coca-Cola’s 200ml Contour carbonated soft drink (CSD) bottle. Compared to the previous 20.6-gram preform, the new preform is approximately 33% lighter and exceeds CO2 loss requirements, maintaining a minimum shelf life of 63 days. Through extensive design enhancements, Amcor was able to optimize stress ratios and molecular orientation. Despite the weight reduction, functionality and performance were maintained. The material reduction also increases the bottle’s recyclability and reduces the energy needed for its production, dramatically decreasing the package’s environmental footprint. Cradle-to-gate greenhouse gas emissions and energy use are cut by over 25%, according to calculations performed using Amcor’s ASSET TM streamline life cycle assessment software.
Amcor was also honored for its development of ergonomically designed upside-down condiment containers for Unilever’s Hellmann’s brand products. The ambient-filled 350ml (21g preform) and 175ml (17g preform) bottles underwent preferential heating and indexing to optimize finish orientation. A major challenge was aligning the elliptical closure to the bottle shape. Amcor used finite element analysis (FEA) to adjust the preform and the overall design to enhance blowing and adaptability to the filling line. The bottles – which are targeted for ketchup, salad dressing, and mustard – are manufactured in-line at Unilever’s filling operation in Goiania, Goias.
Amcor was also cited for its conversion of Johnson & Johnson’s baby shampoo product to 50% post-consumer recycled (PCR) polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles. The 200ml bottles, originally in virgin resin, are the first PCR containers for J&J, which gained major sustainability benefits with the switch to PCR resin. By converting to 50% PCR resin, J&J reduced its PET packaging carbon footprint by 27%.
Amcor is a leader in advancing the use of PCR PET resin in a range of packaging. The company incorporates varying percentages of PCR for other customers throughout the Americas.
