Packaging / Advertising & Office

On August 29, the Asia-Pacific R&D Center of Amcor PLC, a leading consumer packaging company in international trade, was officially established. The center is located in Jiangyin City, Jiangsu Province, China. It is currently the largest innovation center of Amcor Group in the world outside North America.

In the first phase of the project, Amcor will invest more than 10 million US dollars to build a research and development center with an area of more than 3,000 square meters. In the first phase, there will be 50 research and development personnel, and the number will reach 100 in the future. Center Laizi China will make products face to Chinese consumers and customers, devote itself to the development of sustainable and innovative packaging products, and promote the industrial upgrading of the packaging industry and the low-carbon transformation of social life.

"Thanks to China's excellent business environment, Amcor's business has grown rapidly in China, even during the epidemic. China, for China's commitment." She Xin, President of Amcor Greater China, said at the opening ceremony of the center.

As the world's largest consumer packaging company, Amcor Group, founded in 1860 and headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, is mainly engaged in various soft plastic and hard plastic packaging, which can be used in food, beverage, pharmaceutical, medical equipment, household and personal care, etc.

Since its establishment in Hong Kong in 1987, Amcor has entered China. For more than 30 years, it has set up 13 production bases in China, with 4,000 employees and a cumulative investment of more than 3 billion. The company has China's largest pharmaceutical flexible packaging factory in Jiangyin, and China's largest medical device flexible packaging factory in Suzhou. At present, it produces about 100 billion packages in China every year, and about 200-300 million Amcor packages are used in the Chinese market every day.

Products should keep up with "China's speed"

On the day of the opening ceremony, Lu Qiang, vice president of R&D in the Asia-Pacific region of Amcor Group, said that in the future, Amcor's Asia-Pacific R&D center will accelerate the introduction of advanced technologies from other R&D centers around the world into China and implement them in China. On the other hand, the Asia-Pacific R&D Center will also directly face the needs of Chinese customers and market consumers, and provide one-stop services for all innovation needs of customers.

According to Lu Qiang, the Asia-Pacific R&D Center will set up a customer experience center, a packaging creativity laboratory, a packaging application laboratory, and a pilot line. Customers can turn packaging concepts into physical objects through Amcor's CatalystTM "concept-to-product" full-chain service.

Specifically, the customer experience center brings together innovative packaging products from all over the world, covering various scenarios of consumers' daily life, from which customers can obtain the world's most cutting-edge packaging information, ideas and innovation inspiration. Combining material science with industry knowledge and consumer insights, the Packaging Creative Lab can rapidly create realistic packaging prototypes, greatly shortening customers' product development and evaluation cycles.

The packaging application laboratory has a variety of production and testing capabilities such as high-speed vertical and horizontal packaging, ISTA packaging and transportation, high-temperature cooking, and thermoforming product packaging, which can quickly and effectively conduct early and effective early detection of various problems that may be encountered in the production process. Evaluate. In addition, the center has also introduced a number of world-leading packaging production lines, covering various packaging applications such as daily chemicals, snacks, chocolate, pet food, medical health, meat and dairy products, thereby effectively improving the efficiency of product development.

Lu Qiang said, "Compared with other packaging markets in the world, China's market is still growing, the market response is faster, and there are many differences in product requirements between regions. This is also what Amcor Asia Pacific R&D Center is facing. challenge."

According to the data of China Packaging Federation, in 2021, the total operating income of enterprises above designated size in my country's packaging industry will be 1,204.181 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.39%, and the growth rate has increased by 17.56 percentage points year-on-year; the total accumulated profit of enterprises above designated size is 71.056 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.52. %. The data from the leading domestic consulting company shows that China has become the second largest packaging country in the world, and the market size of the packaging industry exceeds one trillion yuan.

To this end, Amcor Asia-Pacific R&D Center will make every effort to catch up with "China's speed." According to Lu Qiang, Amcor's Asia-Pacific R&D Center is working with well-known domestic catering companies in the pre-fabricated vegetable market recently. Bei and Haidilao cooperated to create the packaging of pre-made dishes in the central kitchen. In addition, Amcor has also developed microwave automatic exhaust packaging to prevent the expansion and explosion of instant food due to excessive air pressure during microwave heating, and at the same time, keep the moist air in the packaging as much as possible to maintain the flavor of the food.

Help the packaging industry to be low-carbon and recyclable

Today, China has entered the era of electronic consumption. Every day, all kinds of packaging, especially express packaging, surround the city and the people living in the city like the ocean.

According to statistics from the State Post Bureau, my country's express delivery industry produces more than 9 million tons of paper waste and about 1.8 million tons of plastic waste each year, with a rapid growth trend. In super-large cities, the increase in the amount of garbage in express packaging has accounted for 93% of the increase in domestic garbage, and the growth trend is not decreasing. However, another data shows that in 2021, the overall recycling rate of packaging waste in my country will be less than 20%, and the actual recycling rate of tape and plastic in express waste will be less than 10%.

At present, what difficulties still exist in the recycling of waste packaging in China? She Xin, President of Amcor Greater China, said in response to a reporter's question, "First of all, this requires the packaging itself to be recyclable. For example, the packaging should preferably be a single material. In this regard, domestic packaging products are generally in the design and material formulations. There is still a long way to go.”

Taking plastic packaging as an example, the recyclable plastic packaging needs to use pure polyolefin structural materials. The materials are mainly composed of PE (polyethylene) and PP (polypropylene), and PET (polyethylene terephthalate) cannot be added. , PVC (polyvinyl chloride), PVDC (polyvinylidene chloride), etc.

"In the circulation link, packaging recycling requires the participation of the government level to educate consumers. Finally, it needs more understanding and support from the society." She Xin said.

It is understood that in 2020, eight departments including the National Development and Reform Commission and the State Post Bureau issued the "Opinions on Accelerating the Green Transformation of Express Packaging". The adapted laws, standards and policy systems have formed a long-term governance mechanism that runs through the entire chain of express packaging production, use, recycling and disposal; e-commerce express mail has basically achieved no secondary packaging, and the application scale of recyclable express packaging has reached 10 million.

In order to realize the green transformation of packaging in Chinese society, Amcor is also contributing its own strength.

Since 2020, Amcor has cooperated with Shanghai Shishang Recycling Company to create the first closed-loop special recycling plan for flexible plastic packaging in China. In the project, consumers applied for Amcor Pickup Bags through the mobile phone applet, and then Pickup Recycling Company came to collect them and transported them to the warehouse for sorting. "Exit" patented technology, the waste soft plastic is crushed and re-granulated into products such as panels, fence railings, plastic trash cans and outdoor floors, and then put back into the market. Currently the applet has 100,000 active users in Shanghai.

In addition, Amcor is also cooperating with e-commerce companies such as JD.com, Dingdong and Hema to further promote the use of recyclable packaging for express delivery.

"The balance of functionality and sustainability is the product philosophy that Amcor has always adhered to," said She Xin. To this end, in 2018, Amcor Group made a commitment to make all packaging products recyclable or reusable by 2025. At present, 74% of its packaging products worldwide have achieved recyclable requirements, and the proportion of products in China has reached 70%. She Xin said frankly, "How to complete the remaining 30% in the next three years is also a major challenge for the company."