FTA honors two companies in 2007 Environmental Excellence competition

Each year, the Flexographic Technical Association (FTA) recognizes members of the flexographic community for outstanding efforts in achieving a cleaner environment. The Environmental Excellence Award Program recognizes facilities that have gone beyond compliance and have been proactive in their efforts.  These efforts may include process improvement or technical innovation.

In the seventh annual competition, judges honored two companies for exceptional achievement: Overnight Labels in the area of Process Improvement and Farnell Packaging Ltd. for Innovative Technology.

Five judges chose the winning entries, which were officially announced during the National Environmental, Health & Safety (NEHS) Conference for the Graphic Communications Industries March 12-14 at the Omni Hotel, Jacksonville, Florida.

Overnight Labels, located in Deer Park, New York, earned recognition for Process Improvement. Overnight Labels specializes in a variety of packaging options including shrink sleeves, neck bands, flexible film for pouches and sachets, booklets and more. This company worked diligently to reduce the percentage of solid waste produced in its facility. Overnight Labels reduced solid waste by nearly one million feet of substrate in 2006. The goal was accomplished by implementing a quality management system specifically developed with the intention of becoming ISO compliant, reducing overall production waste, while continually improving the end product.

The winner in the area of Technical Innovation was Farnell Packaging Ltd. located in Dartmouth, NS, Canada. Farnell is a family owned extruder, printer and converter of light gauge, predominantly food grade polyethylene film. Farnell has developed a new environmentally-responsible packaging, the next generation of bio resins. This biodegradable packaging is being distributed coast to coast.