Shifts in sustainability needs have lead many industries to use more environmentally friendly packaging. This trend extends to personal and home care products, as many of them tend to be liquids. The stand-up pouch has become one of the most common sustainable packaging options. A stand-up pouch reduces the overall carbon footprint significantly compared to more traditional rigid packaging. Despite being much more sustainable, achieving recyclability with this system has been challenging. ZACROS has developed durable and recyclable mono-PE1 MONOSOLUTIONS™ liquids stand-up pouches that offer both performance and sustainability benefits with our unique converting technique.
MONOSOLUTIONS™ Stand-Up Pouch Product Line
ZACROS currently offers two different MONOSOLUTIONS™ liquid stand-up pouches up to 1.3L2.
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A spout pouch (Flowpack SP)
The Flowpack SP allows the user to re-close the pouch for multi-use applications, similar to a bottle. A spout can be inserted at the top or the corner of a pouch.
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A spoutless Flowpack PL
The Flowpack PL is mainly for single-use applications. The opening section has an uneven surface design using plug molding to secure a flow passage. This unique design keeps the mouth open during the pouring process. In addition, Flowpack PL has a completely sealed structure for a more leak-proof design.
ZACROS also has another spoutless pouch called Flowpack NT, which incorporates a straw to mimic the functionality of a spout. Flowpack NT MONOSOLUTIONS™ is under development.
Why is the development of liquid monomaterial pouch challenging?
The full PE layer tends to be more heat sensitive, making it difficult to find the optimum sealing conditions. Improper sealing conditions can easily lead to defective seals resulting in a poor-quality pouch. Liquid, such as shampoo, weighs more for the same volume of space than dry products, such as cereal. Therefore, a pouch for liquid products needs higher durability than a pouch for dry products. In addition, any pinholes in the pouch can result in a leakage issue. Since it was hard to achieve the same durability with monomaterial structure, there was a delay in monomaterial pouch innovation around liquid applications. With our expertise in liquid packaging, we were able to find all PE materials and the process that offers durability necessary for liquid applications.
Liquid Packaging Challenges
The packaging itself might be recyclable, but it is the contents that determine recyclability. Some liquids may be eligible for store-drop off, and others may not. It is vital to work with the packaging suppliers and recovery associations to ensure packaging recyclability. A monomaterial flexible pouch offers the most sustainable solution if your products are eligible for packaging recycling.
Recyclable packaging is just one of the options to improve sustainability. Your products may not be eligible for recyclability with a monomaterial flexible pouch. However, there are many ways to improve sustainability in packaging, including some options below.
- Thinner the current packaging
- Change your product to concentrated
- Modify parts of the current packaging
- Switch to flexible packaging
MONOSOLUTIONS™
MONOSOLUTIONS ™ is a ZACROS original brand name for monomaterial flexible packaging. We offer a wide range of monomaterial liquid flexible packaging. Learn more about other MONOSOLUTIONS™ products in our MONOSOLUTIONS™ blog. ZACROS offers various sustainable liquid packaging products for any level of sustainability needs. We are continuously developing new innovative liquid flexible packaging solutions. Contact us for more information.
1: CEFLEX standard
2: As of December 2021