Pet Food Processing - January 2024 - 59

Flexible packaging is an attractive on-trend offering
for fresh pet food as it provides barrier and durability
to protect and maintain freshness and quality. "
Julie Lichtman, TC Transcontinental
packaging. The company also offers Easy Peel ends in different
diameters and shapes. Flex peelable closures can
withstand the pressure of different retort conditions.
Packaging made with recyclable materials can help meet
the demand for natural resources as biodegradable and
compostable materials breakdown naturally to minimize
waste. Yet even with the best of intentions, current recycling
streams make it difficult to recycle certain materials
such as plastic. The infrastructure for recycling has not
kept pace and, depending on the municipality, a consumer
may or may not be able to recycle certain items.
Amcor Flexibles North America is developing platform
technologies like Ambiloc™ and AmLite™ packaging solutions
for the future of recycling. Ambiloc is a form and nonform
packaging technology that is a suitable replacement
for cup and lid packaging. The AmLite HeatFlex™ product
platform offers a retortable package that is recycle-ready in
some parts of the world using technology suited to replace
foil-based retort pouches. The mono-polypropylene offering
is recycle-ready in some countries and municipalities.
Compared to a metal can, the AmLite polypropylene retort
pouch shows a 40% reduction in carbon footprint resulting
from the material choice, according to Amcor's ASSET™
life cycle assessment.
Nestlé Purina, St. Louis, is also on a mission to make its
packaging more sustainable. Purina's wet pet food is packaged
in multiple formats, including aluminum and steel
cans, rigid plastic and flexible pouches. Nearly 90% of the
company's plastic packages are designed for recycling, and
Purina continues to research and test new solutions for the
remainder of its packaging, according to Gopi Sandhu, vice
president of environmental sustainability, Nestlé Purina
North America.
" While recycling has been a part of
the American ethos for more than 50
years, nearly half of people still lack
convenient, equitable access to recycling
- the ability to recycle something
just as easily as throwing something
away, " he said.
The company's sustainability
pledge states 95% of the company's
plastic packaging will be designed
for recycling by 2025. Shrink wrap
on variety packs can be recycled, but
pouches are not yet recyclable in the
United States.
www.petfoodprocessing.net | January 2024 | PET FOOD PROCESSING 59
" Recycling pet food cans is important
because using recycled aluminum cans to
make new aluminum cans uses 95% less
energy than raw materials, " Sandhu continued.
" Plus, the material from aluminum and
steel cans can be reused over and over again
when recycled. "
Companies are also looking outside the
can to create new forms of packaging for wet pet foods.
NaturPak Pet, Janesville, Wis., a co-manufacturer of natural
carton-packed wet pet foods, recently added Tetra Pak's
3-oz Tetra Recart format to its portfolio, which uses more
than 70% renewable resources.
Helsinki-based Ahlstrom pet food packaging, a paper
and forest product manufacturing company operating
multiple plants in Wisconsin, won an Innovation in
Sustainability award for a sustainable alternative to plastic
pet food packaging. Produced with Ahlstrom's FlouroFree
proprietary technology, the fiber-based and renewable materials
are recyclable, compostable, and fully grease-resistant
without the use of fluorochemical PFAS compounds.
Continuing innovation in packaging technologies demonstrates
that pet food processors are already blazing a
path of imaginative, eco-friendly practices as they determine
their unique sustainability pathways. But, as with
many innovations, progress can often feel like two steps
forward and one step back, and wet pet food packaging is
no exception. Ongoing creation of such innovations will be
reliant on understanding the needs of customers to create
an optimal packaging solution - one that not just looks
good, but functions well.
AmLite HeatFlex
Recycle-Ready from
Amcor is made from a
mono-polypropylene
material that can be
recycled in locations
where polypropylene
recycling is offered.
Amcor Flexibles North America
Waldner North
America offers
automated filling and
sealing machinery for
packaging wet pet
food and treats in shelf
stable cups, trays,
pouches and spouted
PFP
pouches.
Waldner North America
http://www.petfoodprocessing.net
Pet Food Processing - January 2024

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