Industry supplier DuPont honored several converters in the company's 22nd annual DuPont Awards for Packaging Innovation, which the company characterized as exhibiting collaborative innovation across a wide array of geographies and market segments. This year’s competition honored materials, processing, technology and service achievements that demonstrate excellence in packaging innovation, sustainability and cost/waste reduction.

Winning packages in the industry’s longest-running, independently judged global awards program included:

• The first fully compostable snack bag by Frito-Lay North America, a division of PepsiCo-USA (Gold Award). To achieve compostability of the three-part packaging structure while providing maximum product protection, Frito-Lay switched to poly lactic acid (PLA) for the outer bag, along with a compostable adhesive and inner barrier coating. The bag allows for new disposal options such as composting, which diverts packaging from the landfill.

• Fresh Step cat litter bag from Clorox–USA (Gold Award). Clorox was able to replace a polypropylene pail for cat litter with a flexible bag, cutting packaging material use by nearly 80% while offering sustainability and cost reductions across its supply chain, including inbound freight, packaging materials, and finished goods storage and warehousing. The innovative design maintains consumer ease of use features for handling, pouring, resealing and storage equal to the pail it replaced.

• Always Feminine products by Procter & Gamble (P&G) (Gold Award). P&G redesigned machinery as well as packaging to enable a switch from wicketed polyethylene bags for its Always feminine products to continuous flow wrapping technology that reduced the use of polyethylene by 25% and created an 80% reduction in pack material warehouse space needed. The new approach enables better pallet fit due to the tighter package and reduced energy usage in transportation and pack material manufacture.

• Modified Atmosphere Packaging for Meats by Sealed Air's Cryovac-Italy (Silver Award). This anti-fog shrink film for modified atmosphere packaging enables film-to-meat contact with reduced pack volume, without discoloring the meat. The thinner package saves space on the retail display and there is less food waste as the meat product remains appealing the consumer longer.

• Grip & Tear bag from Sealed Air’s Cryovac Food Packaging Unit–USA (Silver Award). The bag combines the superior shrink, toughness and oxygen barrier properties of a traditional vacuum shrink bag with the addition of an easy-open feature. A user simply grips the package and tears it open. Easily opened by pulling a tab, the bag’s knifeless design improves employee safety, reduces the risk of cross-contamination, eliminates mess, and keeps the workspace clean.

• Kellogg's Cereal Flakes by Positive Packaging–India (Notable Achievement). A common problem for cereal makers is off-gassing of corn flakes and the need for oxygen barrier. Kellogg's solved the problem in the Indian local market, where high humidity is an issue through a metalized film laminate with oxygen barrier. Moisture in the pack is pulled into the polypropylene sealant. This solution enabled the CPG to stop importing its previous structure, cutting cost and complex logistics.