Lightweighting, Milk bottle case study

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Milk bottles are an item of packaging that most been light weighting plastic bottles. There are people interact with on a daily basis. In the UK multiple ways this can be done, for example, alone we buy over 5.2 billion litres of milk per removing (or reducing) handles from smaller year, the majority of which, at 45%, is sold in a 4 bottles and increasing the uniformity of wall pint container. Over the years the traditional, thicknesses. Structural design is also key - the pint sized, glass milk bottle, delivered by the Infini milk bottle for example, achieves weight milk man, has evolved into a lightweight HDPE reduction by utilising an octagonal structure bottle which is most commonly purchased in which increases the bottles strength: weight supermarkets. In fact, more than 80% of milk ratio. is now packaged in plastic rather than glass bottles or cartons. The benefits of this are simple and as follows:

This shift is in part because the environmental The first tier on the waste hierarchy pyramid and economical savings of transporting plastic is waste reduction. Since preventing packaging rather than glass are significant. To benefit waste is the most desirable step, light further from these savings manufacturers have weighting bottles is extremely advantageous

Ideas | Development | Implementation from an environmental standpoint. Through great the packaging resource savings are, this is light weighting, fewer raw materials are used not successful. and less energy is often required in processing Any pack redesign concept must consider the and transportation. Consumers are becoming entire packaging solution covering primary, increasingly concerned with the environmental secondary and tertiary packaging required. impact of the products and packaging they This is because of the limit to the amount of purchase and hence proactively improving your material which can be removed from a primary packaging from an eco standpoint can be an pack without requiring an increase in secondary excellent marketing technique, giving your pack packaging to counteract the reduced strength. an edge over competitor products. Because of this, the structural elements of the pack solution must be considered in detail, As in all businesses, cost savings are a key driver. again, the octagonal Infini bottle is a great The benefits stated above can not only lead example of this. to environmental savings but also economical savings. With legislation only getting stricter The final key challenge is to fully understand regarding producer responsibility obligations, how any changes will affect the rest of the there is a significant motivation for businesses supply chain. Even minute changes to the shape to reduce the amount of waste they produce in or weight can have a huge affect on the filling order to save on costs. line for example. Fortunately, iDi Pac not only are specialists in packaging but also we have However, along with the benefits, there are of expertise within the supply chain so you can be course challenges of light weighting. sure nothing is left unconsidered.

It is vital that packs remain fit for purpose and that light weighting doesn’t negatively impact the integrity of the bottle. A vital function of the pack is product protection – this is because the product is more valuable in terms of energy and resources than the packaging. If excessive light weighting causes an increase in damaged packs and spilt product then, no matter how

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