Among the 38 winners of the German Packaging Award 2022, organised by Deutsches Verpackungsinstitut (dvi), 10 plastics solutions were awarded this year.

The intelligent use of recyclate, recyclable barrier solutions, new materials, and monomaterial solutions convinced the jury, which consisted of 27 people from the industry. The official presentation of the awards will be made on 27 September 2022 at the FachPack trade fair in Germany, where the winners of the Gold Awards will also be announced.

The 38 prize-winning packaging products are spread over a total of 10 categories – from Digitalisation through Design and Processing, Sustainability and Economic Efficiency to Packaging Machines, plus a special award for Young Talents.

One of the winners in the Sustainability category – the pivotal group with a total of 10 winners – is Push Tab, a mono-material blister lid packaging of PET that is free of the usual underlayer of aluminium (see Plasteurope.com of 02.05.2022). The jury said that the packaging solution, which was developed by Huhtamaki (Espoo, Finland; www.huhtamaki.com) together with the German speciality films producer Klöckner Pentaplast (KP, Montabaur; www.kpfilms.com), complied with the specified barrier properties and could be manufactured on existing blister packaging lines without compromising production.

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The shrink film, Vacushrink MEX 55, submitted by film and packaging manufacturer Schur Flexibles (Wiener Neudorf, Austria; www.schurflexibles.com), which also received an award in the Sustainability category, is based on monolayer film instead of the multilayer films that are otherwise commonly used in this field. This stretched, 55 µm polyethylene film, the jury said, satisfies the requirements of puncture resistance and barrier properties when, for example, sharp-edged pieces of meat are vacuum-packed. The jury came to the conclusion that it has “high pack security even without the usual polyamide layers or PVDC barriers”.

Also among the winners this year were two tube solutions: the EcoFusion Top with Thin-Wall & PCR Max from Albéa (Gennevilliers, France; www.albea-group.com) is noted for its weight reduction of 55% compared with comparable tubes – related to the body and the sealing cap. The PE monomaterial pack, the jury said, is recyclable and contains 42% post-consumer recyclate (PCR).

The use of recyclate also convinced the jury in the case of a solution submitted by Linhardt (Viechtach, Germany; www.linhardt.com), cosmetics group Kao, and Dutch recycling company Morssinkhof Plastics (Lichtenvoorde; www.morssinkhofplastics.nl). Against the background that more and more recyclate is being used in packaging and, as a consequence, more coloured material is in circulation, the three development partners opted for a two-layer tube structure: in the inner layer, 72% coloured recyclate is used, and in the outer layer, 73% natural coloured or white recyclate from household-related waste collection, with the result that there are no restrictions with printing.

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Awards were also received by:

• Cleaning products manufacturer Werner & Mertz (W&M, Mainz, Germany; www.werner-mertz.com) for a spray head made of 97% polypropylene with a PCR content of 29%.
• Packaging manufacturer Spies Kunststoffe (Melle, Germany; www.spies-packaging.com) for a cap with a honeycomb structure in which 30% less material is used.
• Brewery group Anheuser-Busch InBev for its Corona Extra returnable beer crate, which has 90% recycled plastics content, including a 20% share of marine litter-based plastics.
• Films manufacturer Polifilm Extrusion (Weißandt-Gölzau, Germany; www.polifilm.de) for a self-laminating PE film, which can be activated by plasma treatment to shorten curing time.
• Dental supplier Ivoclar Vivadent (Schaan, Liechtenstein; www.ivoclar.com) for an application system in the dental sector (Vivapen), with which light-curing adhesives can be applied directly in the mouth.

In the Young Talents category, Hélène Fontaine, a student from the Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle, won an award for her product design. Because it is sometimes very difficult with liquid medication to achieve accurate dosage via the number of drops or by pouring the medicine onto a separate spoon, Fontaine developed the concept of a plastic pump dispenser (with a standard DIN thread) and an integrated dosage spoon that can be used with one hand.

“Especially for people with motor disorders or impaired vision, the innovative cap makes it possible to achieve clean, safe, and more accurate medication dosage and ingestion,” said the jury.