O F wins best of best at Dow Innovation awards

O F Packaging's high barrier, kerbside recyclable Muesli Pouch for Brookfarm, using the Roll ‘n’ Recycle programme, has won the  best of the best Diamond award at the prestigious Dow 2021 Packaging Innovation Awards.

In a triumph for Australian packaging innovation, the company’s winning packaging solution, with the pouch printed gravure and the label flexo, enables consumers to transform the empty, 100 per cent polyethylene flat pouch into a 3D shape, by rolling it up and fastening it with a self-adhesive label already attached to the pack, with the rolled pack suitable for the kerbside recycling bin so it can be recycled through existing processes.

The gravure printed pack and the label printed flexo are both produced by long-time O F Packaging print partners. An O F Packaging spokesperson told Print21 that the development of the substrate that can be printed on, then can be rolled up post-use, and have a label affixed, was O F Packaging's IP.

Joe Foster, managing director of O F Packaging, said, “Recovery of end-of-life packaging can be challenging. Flexible packaging is typically not easily recognised by material recovery machines and hand picking such materials is difficult if not impractical.

“It took a lot of involvement from our team and partners, along with more than 12 months of hard work and testing to make this new packaging a reality,” he said.

The Diamond award is the highest honour in Dow’s Packaging Innovation Awards, which this year, its 33rd year of running, saw 189 entries leading to 36 shorlisted finalists. The Dow Awards, presented last night, recognise packaging projects from around the globe demonstrating the best in sustainable innovation.

O F Packaging’s high barrier, kerbside recyclable Muesli Pouch for Brookfarm using the Roll ‘n’ Recycle program has previously won two 2021 Packaging Innovation & Design Awards (PIDA) and 2022 WorldStar recognition.

The company's circular solution for the reusable and recyclable ZeroCo spouted pouch packaging was also recognised at the Dow awards with a Gold, and this innovation too has won a PIDA award and Worldstar recognition.

Both the award-winning Brookfarm Muesli Pouch packaging and the ZeroCo packaging will be on show at Stand C170 at AUSPACK 2022, taking place at the MCEC in Melbourne from 17-20 May.