SIG releases SIOC-approved bag-in-box packaging for liquid products

Brent Haynam, Commercial Engineering and Sustainability Manager for SIG, said of the need for a change in package format, “In ecommerce, we’re using existing—oftentimes rigid—packages that can work fine for certain applications but not necessarily for this channel. With rigid packaging, distributors find that they need to add secondary and tertiary packaging to these products, which increases costs and doesn’t guarantee that the products are going to survive delivery.” Haynam continued with the environmental benefits of bag-in-box for ecommerce, “Switching to an efficient, flexible pack reduces the overall packaging weight, has a better product-to-package ratio, and, with this SIOC (Ships-In-Own-Container) packaging, there is no need for wasteful, additional packaging in distribution. We’re seeing overall carbon footprint reductions of up to 67% and total energy savings of 75% in some cases. The environmental impacts are significant and the efficiencies in the ecommerce distribution chain are valuable.”

Keri Wilson, Senior Packaging Innovation Engineer for Georgia-Pacific, spoke to the difficulty of delivering a SIOC-certified package for liquids, “Delivering single packages of liquids through ecommerce is a significant technical challenge. We needed to design a corrugate solution that could not only protect up to 50 pounds of liquid, but also survive multiple drop sequences and a multi-hour vibration test.” Wilson continued, “Once we created a solution that could survive this test, we need to ensure that the end user could easily access the product and enjoy the experience without extraneous secondary wraps or hard-to-open tap perforations. It’s not enough for us to just get it there; we need the packaging to perform throughout the channel, reducing waste every step of the way.”