TekniPlex Consumer Products presented at AMI Plastics’ Thin Wall Packaging Conference on June 20 in Chicago. At the event, Rodolfo Haenni, VP of sales, marketing and new product development presented TekniPlex’s take on addressing evolving sustainability needs through functional, item-specific material science solutions.

The company was invited to present in recognition of its array of packaging materials and solutions for the industry including food and beverage, beauty, personal care and others where thin-walled packaging designs such as rigid and flexible plastics, rubber, aluminum, molded, fiber and paper-based containers are utilized.

In addressing TekniPlex’s multi-faceted approach to furthering sustainability, Haenni’s presentation ran countercurrent to a topic that the company states, is often portrayed as overly simplistic. Speaking from his experience pairing packaged goods of all sorts with solutions comprising differing materials and environmental benefits, He stressed that sustainability has many different definitions depending on customer and consumer needs, must be intimately connected to the product requirements, and can be achieved in different ways—always combining product protection with exemplary brand experience in ways that are reportedly cost-effective and satisfy both customers and consumers.

The presentation hinged on a common denominator—that for any package to further sustainability goals, it must first protect the product it houses. “Waste is sustainability’s worst enemy. There’s nothing worse than putting a product inside a package that does not protect it. When that happens, all the resources invested in making the product, its package, and the entire supply chain involved in bringing it to consumers is wasted, with a significant carbon footprint,” said Haenni.

Numerous other factors were brought into the overall discussion, fitting as ‘sustainability’ has taken on various context-dependent meanings. Product shelf-life and performance, portability and consumer convenience, dosing and dispending control and resealability—all play complementary roles in determining a truly sustainable solution.

Haenni also discussed the packaging industry’s responsibility to help society achieve sustainability goals by continuously reducing waste, increasing operational efficiency, innovating around eco-designs, further using and developing bio-based and post-consumer recycled solutions and implementing closed-loop systems for a true circular economy for all materials.