PACKAGING BRIEFS Thursday, May 12

Annual postal food drive Saturday picks up packaged food
Postal workers are gearing up for the nation's largest one-day food drive Sat., May 14, when residents around the nation are encouraged to leave food outside their doors for postal pickup. An estimated 50 million Americans are food insecure, meaning they sometimes go hungry because they can't afford enough food. Those donating food should place their contributions in a bag and leave them at their mailboxes before their usual mail delivery time. Recommended donations included canned tuna, peanut butter, stews, soups, pasta, rice or other non-perishable, packaged foods.

Novelis launches aggressive plan to reduce lifecycle impact of aluminum
Novelis Inc., the world leader in aluminum rolling and beverage can recycling, has announced a corporate-wide commitment to significantly reduce its carbon footprint as well as those of its customers. The new sustainability commitment calls for an intensified focus on expanding the use of recycled materials, increasing post-consumer recycling of aluminum products and accelerating the development of new, high-recycled content alloys. The company plans to increase the amount of recycled metal it uses in its rolling operations, and committed that 80 percent of its products will be made from recycled metal by 2020. Recycled metal currently accounts for 34 percent of all material used by Novelis, and the company estimates that the projected increase to 80 percent will remove 10 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually from the aluminum product value chain. Additionally, Novelis intends to increase global aluminum recycling rates primarily through innovation and expanded recycling facility infrastructure. The company will build upon its successful global recycling operations by investing R&D in post-consumer recycling technology, collaborating with stakeholders to expand existing recycling programs and educating consumers in the value of recycling to their communities and the world at large.

PepsiCo's Frito-Lay Killingly facility achieves LEED Gold certification
PepsiCo's Frito-Lay Killingly, CT, facility has become the state's first manufacturing site to be awarded LEED Gold existing building from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), as verified by the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI). Frito-Lay North America now has eight LEED Gold existing buildings across the country, including its Plano, Texas-based headquarters. To achieve the certification, the plant implemented a number of green design and construction features and water reduction technologies and practices, including recycling. Less than 1 percent of the facility's solid waste goes to landfill. The site achieved this milestone through many initiatives including an employee-led recycling program, reusing shipping boxes multiple times and allocating waste product for use in animal feed.

Berlin Packaging unveils new website with Find-It-Fast product search
Berlin Packaging has launched a new website featuring a searchable online catalog of thousands of plastic, glass, and metal containers and closures, offering a rich source of stock and proprietary rigid packaging ideas and options for package designers, consultants and brand owners. The new Product Search tool enables users to browse, sort and filter thousands of packaging components-by product group, material, color, unit of measure, capacity, neck finish, shape and other features-simply by selecting desired attributes from dropdown menus. This find-it-fast capability makes it easy to explore package concepts while also expediting the process of matching available components to specific package needs. Users can save searches, order samples and request quotes directly from search results.

Three finalists named in Fifth Annual Bubble Wrap Competition for Young Inventors
Sealed Air Corp., creator of Bubble Wrap brand cushioning, has announced the three finalists in the Fifth Annual Bubble Wrap Competition for Young Inventors, a nationwide competition that encourages students in grades six through eight to design an invention that incorporates the use of Bubble Wrap brand cushioning. The three finalists were chosen from entries from all over the U.S. and are now in the running to win a $10,000 (U.S.) savings bond. The grand prize winner will be announced at the Bubble Wrap Competition for Young Inventors Awards Ceremony on Sat., May 21, 2011.

M&G to launch next generation PET and PTA plants in the U.S. Gulf Coast region
The M&G Group, the largest producer and technological leader of PET for packaging applications in the Americas, will build a next-generation technology PET plant in the United States, co-located and fully integrated with a new PTA plant at the same site (PTA, purified terephthalic acid, is the primary raw material used in the production of PET). PET capacity at the single-line plant is expected to be 1 million metric tons; PTA to be 1.2 million metric tons. Approximately 250 jobs will be created at the plants, with an additional 700 indirect positions and 3,000 jobs during construction. The new plants will be located in the Southern U.S. (Texas, Mississippi or Louisiana). Final selection of the location will be made by the end of June. Construction time for both plants is estimated to be 30 months.

International wine label contest now accepting submissions
The 2011 International Wine Label Design Competition is accepting entries until June 30th. Gold, Silver and Bronze awards will be given for the best label in five different categories: successful innovation, dramatic graphics, classic style and an overall award. Entries will be judged on the following criteria: overall originality and creativity, use of typography and use of graphics. Labels must have been designed in 2010 or 2011. Visit www.iwldc.org for more information or to enter the competition.

RPA to conduct workshops for national "Use Reusables" campaign
The Reusable Packaging Assn. will conduct a series of nationwide workshops to help businesses replace limited-use transport packaging with more durable and economical reusable alternatives. The workshops are part of the Alameda County public agency StopWaste.Org "Use Reusables" campaign. StopWaste.Org was awarded $499,000 in U.S. EPA grant funding to expand the reach of its current successful campaign to businesses and communities nationwide over the next three years.

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