Pregis Expands Curbside-Recyclable Paper Packaging Solutions

Quarter Highlights: *Delivered net sales of $5.1 billion, up 1 percent, with organic sales growth of 5 percent. *Gross margin was 33.7 percent, up 350 basis points; adjusted gross margin was 34.0 percent, up 380 basis points versus the prior year, driven by favorable net revenue realization and productivity, offsetting inflation. *Raised 2023 outlook for organic growth to 3% - 5%, and for adjusted earnings per share growth of 10% - 14%, with adjusted operating margin up 150 basis points at the midpoint versus last year.

Smurfit Kappa Brazil, partnering with sommelier Myriam Echeverri, has won a prestigious Red Dot Award in the category of Product Design 2021. The award recognises this packaging as one of the most innovative design projects in the world. The packaging challenge came from Wine & Bite Box to secure and protect bottles of wine and food for a growing trend of tasting boxes being delivered to customers for an at home gourmet experience. Developed by Smurfit Kappa with 100% recyclable materials, the main advantage of the packaging design is its flexibility and the ability to accommodate different shapes and sizes of wine bottles safely, without having to use any filling materials. This design has a variety of 220 options to optimise space within the cardboard box and to accommodate different formats allowing for the wine bottle and food to fit perfectly.

If you have an interest in packaging policy or sustainable packaging, you have likely heard the term “EPR” or “extended producer responsibility.” But what exactly is EPR, and how will it ultimately affect the types of packaging we use? In this Deep Dive, we will explore the current EPR landscape in the U.S. and what is likely to come over the next several years. A note of caution: this article is intended as a general overview of packaging EPR with some basic advice for companies trying to navigate the new legislative landscape. It should not be taken as legal advice, and we highly recommend that companies who think they are regulated “producers” seek legal counsel to better understand their responsibilities. Extended Producer Responsibility, or EPR, refers to a policy approach that shifts the responsibility for waste management of a given product from consumers/taxpayers and municipalities onto the producers of that product. Typically, the main goal of EPR is to minimize the environmental externalities of a product’s end of life – that is, minimize the unintended consequence of what happens to a product when we’re done with it. EPR prompts a society to start thinking on a large scale about where products end up when we’re done with them and how we can better manage them. EPR regulations are not new to the U.S. and have been around for over a decade to manage products like e-waste, mattresses, paint, tires, batteries, etc. Let’s take the example of paint. “Producers,” meaning paint manufacturers, are typically responsible for the paint up until the point where you, the consumer, purchase it. But there are some unintended consequences that come when you’re done with that paint can that likely has extra paint in it. While most paint is actually recyclable, many people throw it away or pour it down the drain, which can contaminate the environment with hazardous chemicals. Ultimately, consumers/taxpayers and the environment pay the costs to deal with this result, and paint companies don’t have an incentive to fix it.