WASHINGTON — The Flexible Packaging Association has awarded its 1998 top packaging awards to seven companies for their achievement in flexible packaging.
The packages represent innovations in technology, closures, substrates and source reduction. The winners improved product protection, reduced costs and materials, opened new markets to flexible packaging and delivered innovations to the consumer, lawn and garden and pet food industries.
``More than ever before, customers are realizing good things come in less packaging,'' Glenn Braswell, president of FPA, said in a news release. ``The 1998 Top Packaging Awards winners prove that flexible packages can offer the strength and durability of rigid, while increasing convenience and material and transportation cost savings.''
Flexicon Inc. of Cary, Ill., garnered the Green Globe Award for its Suet bird-food package. The package uses a forming web made from PVC and polyethylene and a top web of PET. The combination provides a hermetically sealed package to prevent the oil-based suet cake from leaking.
The product uses 30 percent less material than the previous package, a 20-mil PET preformed tray.
The other winning packages:
A Rotated Patch TBG bag made by Cryovac/Sealed Air Corp. of Duncan, S.C. The leak-proof bag provides extended freshness to bulky roast-size products. The all-plastic bag is a multilayer, high-barrier, heat-sealed shrink bag that also has oxygen-barrier layers. The bag lets consumers see all the meat without excess packaging.
Duralam Inc.'s stand-up pouch for Jobe's Fertilizer Spikes. Previously, the spikes where packaged in either a thermoformed PVC tray sealed to a paper pegboard or a carton with PVC shrink overwrap. The new stand-up polyester pouches made by the Appleton, Wis.-based firm have a resealable zipper, a stand-up gusset for easy display, a peg hole and a tear notch for opening.
A Cool Mint Listerine antiseptic mouthwash pouch produced by Glenroy Inc. of Menomonee Falls, Wis. The pouch is a laminate of polyester, low density PE, foil and barrier layers. The pouch, containing a single dose of mouthwash, was distributed as a newspaper insert.
The Nalgene Cantene flexible container, which is made by Pactech/Nagle of Rochester, N.Y. The Cantene, as an alternative to a rigid, portable container, offers a wide mouth and large capacity.
The leakproof ultralinear LDPE and nylon bag can be boiled or frozen when filled. It weighs 50 percent less than its rigid counterpart but can be used alongside rigid containers on the same production line.
Atlanta-based Printpack Inc.'s package for Kettle Tortilla Chips. The PE bag has seals that allow the chips to be shipped over high altitudes without bursting. Barrier properties extend the shelf life by 30 percent. The bag also has a clear window to allow consumers to see the product.
The Ortho Fire Ant Killer stand-up pouch, also by Printpack. The PET/ PE/LLDPE pouch has a resealable zipper for this highly toxic lawn and garden product.
Chicago-based Viskase Corp.'s Clear-Tite 16 cheese bag. The high-shrink barrier bag uses patented materials and methods that allow the film to maintain high tensile film strength across unsupported areas, such as Swiss cheese holes, while shrinking at optimum temperatures.