Page 45 - Packaging News Nov-Dec 2019

November-December 2019 www.packagingnews.com.au PACK PRINTING & DECORATION
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process has meant less production wastage overall, and in turn, less energy consumption.
The post-print UV curing process is one that is particularly energy intensive. Lajovic says, “We have started to do some research work on changing from UV curing to LED curing in the screenprinting pro- cess, which uses a lot less energy than the UV lamps. But there are quite a few technical challenges we’d need to overcome first: for example, for the range of products we make, we use more than 600 dif- ferent colour inks, none of which work with LED. It leads to a colour- matching nightmare, and probably would require starting again with a new range of inks – and that doesn’t even take into account upgrading the machines to operate with LED. But, of course, we have to consider for the future,” he says.
Beyond energy savings, the com- pany has also made a concerted effort to reduce water usage, achiev- ing a 50 per cent reduction over the last year across the operations – and on the manufacturing side, which used 4000 litres a day, it’s now down to 2000.
MATERIAL DIFFERENCE
One of the most significant, and award-winning, initiatives has been Impact’s introduction of its sugar cane derived plastic tube, complementing the existing virgin plastic and recycled plastic options in its portfolio.
“The sugar cane plastic is quite unique and interesting... because sugar cane as a plant captures car- bon when it’s growing, so when that material leaves the resin manufac- turing factory, it’s carbon neutral at
LEFT: Strong Impact: MD Aleks Lajovic
in front of
the screen displaying the solar farm stats.
ABOVE: Oil Garden has opted for Impact’s carbon neutral sugar cane based tubes; Deep Heat is one of many major brands in Impact tubes.
that point of getting shipped to us. And we can manufacture tubes using energy from our solar farm. So, we can basically offer a tube with virtually zero carbon footprint,” says Lajovic.
This option has been a key selling point for the company, with brands like Oil Garden signing up.
Lajovic says the company’s recy- cled material option is important when considering the government’s 2025 packaging targets, one of which is to have all packaging contain 30 per cent recycled content.
“We do get a little bit of pushback or a little bit of frustration from some customers because although the federal government has put this initiative in place, the TGA [Thera- peutic Goods Association] is a federal government body and the TGA is not giving a green light to brand owners to include recycled materials in their direct packaging. So while many of our customers would love to use this material, when it gets to the regulatory side of the project, they start to find things very complicated. Sunscreen is a case in point.”
ACCOLADES GALORE
The initiatives implemented at Impact have seen the company score kudos in both the printing and pack- aging sphere. Its score card is impres- sive: Two Golds and a Bronze at the NSW Printing Industry Creativity awards Awards (PICAs); a Gold, Silver and Bronze at the National PICAs; and at the Australasian Pack- aging Innovation & Design Awards, it won a Gold and a Bronze. It’s now in the running for a World Packaging Organisation WorldStar award, to be announced next year at interpack.
“We’ve had a very successful year this year, which makes me both humble and proud,” Lajovic says. But the company – which has grow- ing operations in Europe and Asia too – is not resting on its laurels. Looking ahead, Lajovic says the fo- cus will be twofold: continuing with machinery upgrades in the plant to optimise production; and convert- ing customers to more sustainable packaging options.
If the company’s recent track record is anything to go by, there’s no reason the sun will stop shining on Impact any time soon. ■