Metsä Board Designs Lightweight Gift Package
Canadian Packaging
Metsä Board, part of Finnish paper packaging products manufacturer Metsä Group, has designed a lighter gift package that has strength features close to those of the rigid box solutions currently used for premium products such as cosmetics.
With the new design, made from micro-fluted corrugated board, the company wanted to offer a new gift box solution that uses less material and has a lower carbon footprint than traditional rigid boxes.
The gift box was designed by the team at Metsä Board’s Excellence Centre in Äänekoski, Finland.
“We were looking to provide the same experience by remodeling a box that was strong and rigid but lighter and with a smaller environmental impact,” Ilkka Harju, Metsä Board’s Packaging Services Director explains.
The best solution turned out to be micro-flute, which has a significantly smaller and lower flute size than traditional corrugated boards. The packaging consists of a separate base and lid made of micro-flute. Its surface liner can be uncoated white kraftliner or coated white kraftliner. Of these, the latter gives the package the best printing properties.
The packaging solution is designed to be production-efficient from start to finish and suitable for mass production on current production lines, with no major retooling required.
According to Harju, “The new gift packaging solution is an ideal fit, especially for cosmetics, chocolate, beverages and other premium products.”
The new lightweight solution also uses significantly less material. Metsä Board’s Sustainability Services team compared the new micro-flute solution to recycled fiber-based rigid box solutions, and found the micro-fluted concept to be up to 50 per cent lighter.
The cradle-to-gate carbon footprint of the new solution—which considers value chain stages from raw materials extraction until the paperboard product leaves the mill—was also calculated and found to be 59 per cent lower than that of traditional solutions.
“Since no harmful adhesives or other plastic laminates are used in the packaging solution, the recycling becomes much more efficient,” adds Harju.
Metsä Board is a leading European producer of premium fresh fiber paperboards, focusing on lightweight and high-quality folding boxboards, foodservice boards and white kraftliners.
The pure fresh fibers used in its products are a renewable and recyclable resource that can be traced back to sustainably managed northern forests.
An established forerunner in sustainability, the company aims to be operating completely fossil-free mills and raw materials by the end of 2030.
With sales of about $3 billion in 2022, Metsä Board employs about 2,250 people at 31 facilities across Europe and the U.S.
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