Coveris to open sustainable packaging development center

Pack Positive Centre is claimed as an industry-first facility and is being launched in an academic partnership with Leeds Beckett University’s Retail Institute.

Opening on January 31, 2019, Pack Positive Centre is said to provide a collaborative learning and development space to connect industry stakeholders with new trends, materials, technologies and ways of thinking. It is strategically positioned to drive the sustainable packaging of the future across multiple plastic and paper formats, Coveris stated.

The center is an extension of Coveris’ Pack Positive sustainability strategy, launched earlier in this year. This has seen Coveris set itself the goal of delivering 100 percent recyclable packaging by 2025, in line with UK Plastics Pact targets. Having now developed a strategic roadmap for delivery, focused on Coveris’ recyclable films manufacturing and recycling capabilities, the need to support education, innovation and collaboration across the supply chain has led Coveris to launch a dedicated center to facilitate this.

Supporting a circular model for packaging, Pack Positive Centre will focus on driving sustainable value through the entire packaging development process; from ideation and insight, through to testing, print, commercialization, recyclability, and now focusing on new ways of designing waste back into this process to meet the UK legislated requirement for 30 percent recycled content in plastics by 2022.

Providing a suite of real-time development processes including a merchandising store, photography studio, CAD, creative design, and the installation of a new Mimaki printer to expedite sampling and visualization, the center is claimed to align qualitative research and consumer insights with tangible packaging development, all under one roof.

Drawing on a network of technical expertise from across the Coveris Group, the center will also provide links to satellite facilities such as the manufacturer’s extensive extrusion, print and conversion facilities, Freshlife Food Science lab in Gainsborough, and its polymer science facility in Winsford.

Coveris UK president Gary Rehwinkel commented: ‘We are delighted to open the Pack Positive Centre and announce our partnership with The Retail Institute at Leeds Beckett University. Building on Coveris’ UK Plastics Pact commitments, membership of On-Pack Recycling Label (OPRL), extensive food science and polymer science capabilities, we are determined to support our customers and retail partners in collaborating to deliver tomorrow’s packaging, today.’

The new facility is also expected to drive greater supplier innovation and collaboration and will be used as a test facility for new technologies. As the largest user of MacDermid plates in Europe, a strategic project is already underway to develop plate material technologies within the center itself.

Olga Munroe, head of the Retail Institute at Leeds Beckett University, explained: ‘The vision of the Coveris Pack Positive Centre is to become an academically informed, consumer centred and future thinking hub that will deliver holistic innovation services to the packaging industry. The Retail Institute is delighted to be partners in Coveris’ endeavour, and excited to provide support for an ambitious and important facility that will support the future of packaging.’