Legalization leads top global packaging firms to cannabis

Chicago — As the stigma of marijuana use —​ both medicinally and recreationally — continues to wane in the United States, more plastics packaging companies are embracing the market.

That was clearly evident at Pack Expo in Chicago, where companies openly displayed a willingness to jump into the market.

Companies, both private and public, are typically risk adverse, so the fact that one of the largest plastics processing companies in the world is now openly talking about cannabis packaging signals both a market opportunity and a cultural shift.

But Berry Global Group Inc. CEO Tom Salmon made one thing perfectly clear: His Fortune 500 firm is only interested in the legal cannabis market.

"As you see the proliferation of legalization of cannabis, of medical-grade marijuana, there has to be a responsible way to package it. So why not take advantage of those years of expertise, knowledge and know-how to deliver value to those customers that are using it for medical purposes, ​ and in states where it is legal for recreational purposes, in a responsible way?" Salmon said in an interview on the show floor.

"This is taking advantage of a packaging know-how. If you think about what we are trying to do, we're supporting, in all instances, a legal industry, right? A legal business on a state-by-state basis, region-by-region basis," he said. "We're not, obviously, going to drift beyond those confines."

Todd Meussling, senior manager of market development at Presto Products Co., remembers his expectations going to a marijuana-themed trade show.

"Quite frankly, I was expecting a bunch of bong salesmen and flower children running around the aisles," he said.

Instead, he encountered professionals, including those in the medical field, who see value in the changing attitudes toward the subject.

Presto's Child-Guard zipper was originally designed to help keep children out of detergent pod packaging, but the opportunities now go beyond that application, Meussling said.

Cannabis companies know they need to upgrade their packaging as they become more mainstream.

"There's a lot of regulations they are faced with. States are trying to figure it out, but they know they want child safety. So that's how they started using our product," he said.

"As time goes on, we're finding the cannabis market is not just a bunch of people who want to smoke it," Meussling said.

With a litany of products, the cannabis industry knows it needs help from packaging firms, he said.

The sandwich bag just isn't going to work anymore.

"They need our expertise," Meussling said. Presto is a unit of Reynolds Consumer Products.

But that doesn't mean it comes easy for package designers and packaging processors. Companies have been making effective cookie packaging for a long, long time, Meussling said, but that packaging never had to be child-safe.

Now the firms are faced with making child-resistant packaging for a wide variety of products that contain cannabis.

Zip-Pak, a division of Illinois Tool Works Inc., introduced its own child-resistant slider called Safety-Lok at Pack Expo.

The slider requires more than one action — in this case both squeezing and sliding — to open the package. Young children find it difficult to figure that out.

Carrie Strieter, Zip-Pak's director of marketing and innovation, said Safety-Lok has multiple applications, including chemicals, laundry pods and pharmaceuticals, but the company also pointed out its potential use for medical marijuana packaging.

"We find ourselves having more and more conversations in this burgeoning market of marijuana," Strieter said. "It's a new market, and it's humongous. Who among us that's looking for business and to grow our business doesn't want a piece of that, right?" she said.

She expects plastics packaging manufacturers will continue to become more aware of the opportunities.

But Zip-Pak is cautious about how to approach the opportunity.

"We're careful about what we do and how we do it. When it's a question of legalization, it is what it is. And you treat it in a medical sense. It's not underground," she said.

As the idea of marijuana use becomes more legitimate, she said, "there's a bit more of a comfort level."

"It is an evolution," Strieter said.

Presto's Meussling expects the market will continue to evolve as more people accept marijuana use.

"I'm thinking a lot of it is desensitization. We're hearing it. We're seeing it in the newspaper. It was so taboo in the beginning," he said.

Berry, unlike Presto and Zip-Pak, is concentrating its efforts on rigid packaging. Berry's Blue Clover Studios designed a new line of child-resistant packaging under the Embark name for both cannabis flower and edible products.

"Listen, we're going to abide always. Legal, ethical, credible in everything we do. If we have the ability to provide discreteness, tamper evidence, child protection, we should do that. I think we're uniquely capable of doing that," Salmon said.

"The narrative changed, no doubt about it. No doubt about it," he said. "The narrative around legalization, especially medical uses of marijuana, continues to grow. And if we can fulfill a need in helping people managing those products responsibly, we think we're very well-suited."