Spadel and DS Smith launch a new 5 litre package that has been innovatively designed to ensure it’s not only practical, but sustainable too. The respective market leaders, who specialize in natural mineral water and sustainable packaging solutions, joined forces to create the Eco Pack. The octagonal box comprises of cardboard and a flexible inside plastic bag that has room for 5 litres of liquid. Its efficient use of materials enables a 65% reduction in plastic* while also extending the waters shelf life. The octagonal 5L Eco Pack is the latest innovation flowing from Spadel and DS Smith’s partnership over the last decade. As a B-Corp certified company, Spadel consistently seeks new ways to reduce its environmental footprint. DS Smith helped Spadel find and tailor its ideal packaging solution using their PackRight approach. This is a collaborative, four-step development process: starting with gaining insights, then moving on to pack development, testing and implementation. DS Smith’s Supply Cycle Thinking guided Spadel every step of the way to identify specific needs and optimize their 5L SPA® Reine Eco Pack.

Governor Josh Shapiro announced a significant investment of $500,000 from the Commonwealth to support Flexopack USA Inc. in establishing its first American manufacturing facility in Pennsylvania. This project will inject $33 million into the local economy and create at least 64 new, full-time jobs in Lebanon County. Based in Greece, Flexopack USA will construct a 107,000-square-foot, rail-served facility at 3010 Hanford Drive in North Lebanon Township, the first phase of a three-phase project. This initiative will expand the company’s packaging product manufacturing footprint into the United States, including its role as the primary packaging supplier for Pennsylvania-based poultry company Bell & Evans. "Pennsylvania is the best place in the country for businesses to grow, and I’m proud that Flexopack saw that when choosing the Commonwealth for its first U.S. manufacturing facility,” said Governor Shapiro. “I’m highly competitive, and I’m thrilled that our strong manufacturing and agriculture sectors helped us secure this project over Texas. We’re committed to making meaningful investments in our private sector to position Pennsylvania as an economic leader, create jobs, and bring manufacturing back to the United States.”

Mondi, a global leader in sustainable packaging and paper, has opened a ground-breaking hub in Germany for co-creating flexible packaging solutions that will shape the future. FlexStudios is a brand new 2,300 m2 building, located in Steinfeld, Germany, that offers three floors of interactive, inspiring collaborative space. The experiential studios have been built so that Mondi customers can actively participate in the innovation process, benefitting first-hand from the company’s extensive expertise, state-of-the-art technology, and customer-centric approach to driving sustainable change in the flexible packaging industry. By bringing pilot lines, testing capabilities and co-creation space together under one roof, Mondi can reduce time-to-market for new packaging and paper solutions.