The contract manufacturer SternMaid has modernised one of its packaging lines by adding flexible filling equipment for spiral-wound cardboard cans. Besides the classic tinplate bottoms, the cans can now be closed with a cardboard base to make them over 95 percent recyclable.
According to the new EU packaging directive of 2019, more raw materials from packaging must be recovered and re-used. The prescribed recycling quota for paper, for example, is now 80 percent and will be raised to 90 percent as of 2022.
Said Mark Riemer, Commercial Director, SternMaid: “In order to keep pace with this development, we have chosen to invest in cardboard can bottoms as an optional alternative closure. That greatly improves their recyclability. The traditional seal, a permanently seamed-on tinplate bottom, posed a major problem in the reprocessing of recyclable materials.”
Since the can body with a cardboard bottom consists of over 95 percent paper and the interior and exterior lamination is very thin, it may be disposed of along with waste paper. A further advantage is its lower weight: an empty can with a cardboard bottom, a diameter of 99 mm and a height of 180 mm, for example, is about 13.6 percent lighter than the same can with a tinplate base.
From dry beverage bases, dietetic drinks and food supplements to products for athletes and foods for special medicinal purposes, SternMaid can fill a wide range of powdered products on the new line. For more visit sternmaid.de/en
