With the continuous dissemination and implementation of sustainable development and other concepts, more and more enterprises have joined the ranks of digital intelligence and green intelligent manufacturing. As one of the world's largest ice cream brands, Menglong's parent company and Luxue have made great progress on the road of green transformation, not only promoting the construction of the first digital and intelligent "lighthouse factory" in the ice cream industry in China, Heluxue Taicang production base, but also winning the CPIS 2023 M life Award at the 14th China Packaging Innovation and Sustainable Development Forum (CPIS 2023) by continuously innovating the packaging methods of its Cuaiduo and Menglong ice cream.
Unilever Ice Cream Packaging Wins Two Packaging Innovation Awards
Since 2017, Unilever, a subsidiary of Heluxue, has changed its plastic packaging method with the idea of "reduce, optimize, and zero plastic" to achieve the goal of reducing the amount of plastic used and achieving the sustainable development of plastic recycling. In recent years, it has successively realized the pure paper structure of most of the outer packaging of its Menglong, Cuaido, Millefeuille, and Luxue brand series. In addition, its Menglong brand uses the best material as the liner of the transport box, reducing the use of more than 35 tons of virgin plastic.
Case 1: Non-laminated packaging box
Because ice cream products need to maintain a low temperature environment in transportation and storage, condensation is easy to appear on the packaging, and conventional paper packaging is easy to become damp and soft, which affects the appearance of the product, so ice cream packaging has high waterproof and low temperature resistance requirements. At present, the more mainstream way on the market is to use the process of paper surface coating to ensure better waterproof performance, but the laminated paper causes difficulties for the first time, and also increases the use of plastics.
Together with Luxue, we have developed a non-laminated product box suitable for cold chain transportation of ice cream. In the process of development, the main difficulty lies in the waterproof performance and appearance of the outer box of the product. Conventional laminated packaging, thanks to the existence of plastic film on the surface, it is difficult for condensation to infiltrate into the paper fiber through the surface of the paper to affect the physical properties of the paper, and it is not easy to crack after bending.
The non-laminated packaging box must not only pass the waterproof performance test of Unilever standards, but also ensure that the overall printing and appearance of the form and effect are not affected. Based on these two needs, Heluxue has carried out many rounds of lengthy tests on the research and development of this packaging, and the experimental products have been tested and compared with the actual use effect in various offline display freezers, and finally verified the hydrophobic varnish and paper material that meet the requirements and successfully applied this non-laminated packaging box.
Mini cute pure paper packaging box that uses hydrophobic varnish instead of laminating process].
Case 2: ChangeepePadding material
Due to the peculiarity of its shape (wrapped in chocolate crispy), it is very fragile, so the protective performance of the packaging is required, and the bottom of the outer box has been cushioned with EPE (expandable polyethylene) as a cushioning layer. In the process of changing the material of EPE liner from virgin plastic to recycled material, due to the difference between the performance of recycled material and virgin plastic, multiple rounds of testing and verification are required to ensure that the performance of EPE liner made of recycled material can meet the protective requirements in the process of logistics and transportation. At the same time, from the perspective of the first business, the material process control of reused materials is also a very important link, which requires the first business to standardize and control their upstream raw materials and internal production.
Menglong brand and the first business have carried out several rounds of discussion and optimization to ensure the production and use of recycled materials, and on this basis, a large number of tests and verifications have been carried out in the laboratory, and finally the EPE liner has been successfully changed from virgin plastic to recycled amount, reducing the use of about 35 tons of virgin plastic.
Use an EPE liner made of plastic
The above are all cases of successful implementation under the guidance of Unilever's sustainable action plan (USLP), for plastic reduction, Unilever has launched a "reduction (less plastic), optimization (better plastic), zero plastic (no plastic)" planning and goals, in this process, and Luxue is exploring the direction of more plastic reduction in existing packaging, such as replacing plastic packaging film with paper packaging film in the near future, using other easy ** of single materials to replace or reduce the use of plastics.
Since entering the Chinese market, Menglong's parent company and Luxue have always adhered to the market and consumer needs as the brand development orientation. On the basis of adhering to science and innovation, Unilever has now launched a new idea of "reduce, optimize, and zero plastic" planning and goals to create the plastic-reduction packaging of Menglong Ice Cream, and actively implement China's carbon reduction goals with practical actions, so that this wind of sustainable development will continue to blow in the ice cream industry.