Packaging Solutions Green Solutions
Continuing its 50th anniversary celebrations, Greiner Packaging UK & Ireland’s ‘We love sustainable packaging’ message will now be seen by thousands of consumers all over the UK and Ireland, as a fleet of newly liveried trailers heads out onto the nations’ roads.
‘We recently celebrated our 50th anniversary at Dungannon, Northern Ireland, in the presence of representatives of regional and local government, investors, and the Greiner Family Council from Austria,’ said director operations at Greiner Packaging International, Jarek Zasadzinski.
‘At the event, we announced new investments totalling over £10 million, for the installation of new bespoke machinery, commissioning of a new manufacturing hall, and the expansion of the warehouse. These new investments follow the more than £35 million we have invested since acquiring Wilsanco in 2006. Sixteen years ago, the site was turning over £15 million and today we are achieving £60 million. Our goal is to grow this site to £100 million over the next three to four years.
‘For 50 years, we have produced some of the world’s most sustainable packaging for food and non food applications at our factory in Dungannon, so putting our essential sustainability message on the road in an exciting and important step.’
Newry, Northern Ireland based logistics company Surefreight has been providing logistics services to Greiner Packaging UK & Ireland for more than five years, and has decided to take the packaging company’s sustainability message on tour.
‘Thousands of people see messages on trucks on a daily basis,’ said Surefreight business development manager Stuart Ferris. ‘Greiner Packaging is a valued partner, and we are proud to promote its sustainability message as it so closely aligns with our own environmental values. We were planning the addition of dozens of new trailers for the fleet, and immediately thought about using the opportunity to share important messages on what are effectively mobile billboards.
‘We understand the value of getting people to think about packaging and sustainability, and half a dozen of our new trailers now feature Greiner’s important message.’
‘Surefreight is an invaluable and totally reliable partner for us,’ said Greiner Packaging UK & Ireland warehouse and distribution manager Gavin Lee. ‘It is great that it shares our vision and want to take this opportunity to use its trailers to promote our sustainability message.
‘The 13.6 metre long trailers each have a 26 pallet capacity, or 52 pallets when double stacked. The lightweight nature of our packaging solutions means we can ship large quantities on each delivery, reducing the number of journeys required, which also contributes to our sustainability story.’
‘The idea of branding trailers with our message has been around for quite some time,’ said sales director Julie Eller. ‘The new trucks look amazing and now they are heading out onto the country’s major routes, we are so pleased to know that people all over the UK and Ireland will see them and think about why sustainable packaging is so important.
‘Designed for recycling, Greiner Packaging’s K3 cardboard-plastic solution is one of the most sustainable packaging solutions on the market, and has a significantly smaller carbon footprint than other alternative packaging solutions. The cardboard wrap is especially easy to detach from the cup and now features a new tear tab which makes separation intuitive and much easier for consumers to separate the cardboard sleeve from the lightweight plastic cup, to enable efficient recycling.
‘We have successfully trialled a solution in which the cardboard wrap separates itself from the plastic cup during the waste collection process – before the packaging arrives at the recycling facility. K3 r100 enables cardboard and plastic to be assigned to the correct material streams during the initial sorting process, before being recycled.
‘This innovative development is revolutionising the recyclability of cardboard-plastic combinations. Making sure that waste was sorted correctly used to be fully reliant on consumers playing their part, but now with K3 r100, the cardboard wrap and the plastic cup separate all by themselves on the way to the recycling facility. This makes the packaging solution ideal for recycling.’
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