Tetra Pak goes green with lighter caps

LAUSANNE, Switzerland Tetra Pak is redesigning its closure types in order to make their products more environmentally friendly. Both their new pre-applied and post-applied caps will have an increased pouring area (50 percent larger for pre-applied, 25 percent larger for post-applied) and a weight reduction of roughly 20 percent. These changes, which will be market tested during 2009 and commercially released in 2010, will reduce the amount of Tetra Pak’s manufactured plastic and improve the cap’s opening and pouring features.

According to a recent report by analyst Canadean, “Caps and closures are currently a fertile area for new product development and a key means of ‘adding value,’ ‘convenience’ and differentiation to brands and packs in an increasingly competitive global marketplace.”

Tetra Pak is producing a resealable screw cap, called a LightCap, that is combined with the packaging before filling, as well as a one-step opening cap, called a StreamCap, that can be used for packages of various shapes and sizes, such as premium juice, tomato products, wine cartons and milk.

“Beverage manufacturers will benefit from these enhanced screw caps through the light weighting of the material, a significant cut in cap production cycle time, together with enhanced robustness to reduce down time,” said Riccardo Vellani, manager of openings and closures for Tetra Pak Italy.