Secondary packaging

Supermarket giant Tesco has announced it is launching a trial to address the issue of excess and unnecessary toothpaste packaging in the UK by selling tubes without cardboard boxes.

The trial is launching this week, and Tesco said it would assess how customers react when branded toothpaste is no longer sold in cardboard boxes.

The move follows on from the retailer scrapping the use of cardboard boxes on its own brand toothpaste in November last year, a move which according to Tesco could save more than 55 tonnes of cardboard a year.

The Company will reduce its secondary packaging, such as cardboard boxes, for its key whisky brands such as Ballantine’s and Royal Salute.

This initiative will help reduce 35 tons of cardboard boxes and 3.5 tons of wrapping fabric per year, the equivalent resource savings of 840 trees and 720 million liters of water.

Pernod Ricard Korea, the Korean unit of the global wine and spirits company Pernod Ricard, announced on Sept. 6 a plan to streamline the packaging of its key whisky brands. 

The refresh marks the next chapter for the brand which can trace its roots back to 1814 and has since grown to become one of Scotland’s most well-known distilleries. 

The new packaging initiatives underlines the continuing ambitions of the brand, and its parent The Loch Lomond Group, to further grow its sales and presence internationally. 

Loch Lomond Whiskies sees the entire portfolio of whiskies, including its collection of three 12-year-old expressions, its limited edition “The Open” expressions, and its older age single-malts, all unveil a new look. 

The new system features Markem-Imaje's proprietary Touch Dry inks that instantly dry on contact, enabling increased readability of GS1-128 barcodes for more reliable traceability. In addition, unlike liquid inks, Touch Dry inks will not spread along corrugated fibers and lose resolution. These inks, which are available in a variety of colors, are VOC-free, safe to handle, and support sustainability.

• New development based on proven technology
• Modular design gives customers great flexibility
• Up to 108,000 cans an hour processed

It also doesn’t use any single-use plastic in their secondary packaging, such as plastic bags, shrink wrap, or excessive tape. The labels, too, are printed using food grade, biodegradable ink.

The brand believes in 100% transparency with its consumers, testament to which is the disclosed ingredient lists of product labels on their website, explaining where they come from, what they do, and how each formula is made, so that consumers can make the informed and right choice.

Called “Sustainability Facts,” the added panel was modeled after a nutrition label and is printed on the packaging. Cocokind used the Department of Energy’s Life Cycle Inventory Database to determine its carbon footprint and worked with Carbon Calories to validate all the featured information. Now, each product is labeled with its quantified impact on sustainability across four life cycles, from sourcing to consumer use to end-of-life. It also offers instructions for curbside recycling, as well as how much of its packaging and cap are recyclable, and what they’re made from.