Electron Beam Success Amcor Minimizes Environmental Impact
Electron Beam Success: Amcor Minimizes Environmental Impact
Amcor recently released their 2016 Sustainability Review that highlights their eco-friendly performance throughout their 2016 fiscal year. The Australian based company uses Energy Sciences' electron beam systems in many of their plants across the United States, allowing printing and curing processes to contribute to the company's overall sustainability.
An Industry Leader
Amcor currently employs 29,000 people across more than 40 countries and does more than $10 billion in US sales. They focus on flexibles and rigids, which respectively account for 68% and 32% of their total sales. As a worldwide packaging leader, their CEO identifies their commitment to sustainability as a social responsibility. CEO Ron Delia says, “leadership in the global packaging industry includes accountability for helping to reduce the environmental and social effects of our business and our industry overall.”
In a supply chain this large, every operational function is measured and adjusted based on potential cost savings and primary goals. For Amcor, one of their primary goals is to achieve an environmentally friendly packaging business. Opting for electron beam systems in their curing process is one measure that adds value to their overal sustainability metrics.
Eco-Friendly Processing
Ebeam technology is widely adopted by industry leaders like Amcor for a reason. Besides saving money, using EB results in no carbon taxes, has no CO2 emissions, and requires no government reporting. It also is completely safe for food, using no volatile organic compounds and consisting of 100% solids.
Energy consumption is also often a key metric of sustainability for many companies. Electron beam systems cut down energy use by eliminating the mixing, drying, collecting, and incinerating steps often found with traditional methods. If you would like to learn more about how our systems cut down energy use, please contact us and we would be happy to discuss more in detail.
Other Highlights
Besides their widespread use of electron beam systems, Amcor has a variety of achievements that stand out from their 2016 report. Highlights include:
- Their Greenhouse Gas intensity level dropped 28%, well over their goal of a 10% reduction. This drop included a 6% decrease in Scope 3 indirect emissions, which are emissions from activities they do not have control over (such as the equipment used to extract materials).
- They unveiled the first liquid laundry detergent bottle made from 100% post-consumer recycled (PCR) PET. The bottle won DuPont Packaging Awards in the Technological Advancement, Responsible Packaging, and Enhanced User Experience groups. Making the bottle was challenging because PCR material has color stability difficulties, but the bottle was rolled out completely transparent and resulted in a 78% lower lifecycle energy consumption.
- Waste to landfill intensity dropped 62%, ahead of their goal of a 50% drop.
Amcor had a great 2016 year and they have lofty packaging goals for the road ahead. They envision a not-too-distant future where plastics never become waste, which is achieved through more access to home recycling while keeping plastic waste out of the ocean. They are also planning to expand recycling efforts for flexible packaging, which currently does not have a substantial infrastructure. Amcor is working with Dow Chemical, Pepsico, Proctor & Gamble, and Nestlé to look at our current recycling technology and apply it to flexibles.
Packaging giants like Amcor and Pepsico are using ESI's technology to enhance their products overall sustainability and ensure every step along the line is as efficient as possible. The future of plastics and packaging is all about achieving a sustainable product in our current marketplace, and large corporations who have invested in this are seeing amazing results. For those who would like to see what electron beam is capable of, click the button below to sign up for a pilot line.