By Lena Babaeva Coradini

The Association of Industrial Metallizers, Coaters and Laminators (AIMCAL) has hosted the 2010 Sustainability Awards, where a Tennessee company, Bryce Corp., won an award.

The Sustainability Competition, now in its second year, recognizes equipment, materials or processes that reduce environmental impact, minimize energy usage or waste, and/or increase recycling.  Its part of a larger awards program that includes Technology of the Year and Vacuum Metallized or Coated Product of the Year competitions.

Bryce took honors for a lamination with 33% bio-based content. It's produced for Frito-Lay North America, Plano, Texas, for 10.5-oz packs of five flavors of Sun Chips.  The lamination relies on an outer layer of polylactic acid (PLA) film converted by SKC Inc., Covington, Georgia, from Ingeo resin from NatureWorks LLC, Minnetonka, Minnesota, and is seen as a first step toward a fully compostable package. Bryce adjusted printing inks, web tensions, process temperatures, and bonding processes to deliver a lamination that would provide adequate barrier properties for the snack.  Replacing the lamination's outer layer, typically polypropylene (PP), with PLA, reduces consumption of petrochemical-based film by about 1 million pounds per year. It also saves energy since production of Ingeo resin consumes about 50% less fossil fuel than production of PP. 

The judges liked the renewable nature of the corn-based PLA layer and characterized the high-barrier package as ahead of its time.  It not only sets the stage for more widespread use of compostable packaging, but could spur the development of a composting infrastructure in North America where relatively few residents currently have access to composting programs.

I saw the commercial for this type of bag recently and I must say, it is impressive to have such a product enter the market.  Another award winner created a windowed folding carton for Crown Royal that would protect products during distribution and reduces material consumption by nearly one-third, requiring less metal and eliminating hand-loading of the insert.