A dearth of US breakthroughs and recognition for a mostly metal package were among the surprises at this year's DuPont packaging awards.
Equally surprising is the choice for DuPont's Diamond Award, which goes to the container the judging panel deems to be most innovative. Given the honor is sponsored by DuPont Packaging & Industrial Polymers, creativity in the use of plastic resins is almost a given. True, there is a thin, coextruded polymer layer on the peelable foil ends of containers from this year's winner, Crown Food Europe, but 99 percent of the materials are-gasp!-metal, the replacement container of choice for flexible and rigid plastic packaging.