Abhay Avadhani (AA): First of all, how was Interpack 2023 for you?
Smit Patel (SP): Entire world has had its focus on sustainable alternatives to presently in-use packaging materials for quite some time now, and Interpack has always attracted the most well-informed people of the packaging industry. We at Manish Packaging manufacture specialty films for a variety of applications. Predominantly, we specialise in manufacturing of shrink films. The show was good for us, we had interests shown from many converters from a lot of countries and quite a few brands as well.

AA: What did you showcase at the show?
SP: At Interpack we had launched a new product - a recyclable PET crystalliser friendly shrink film (CSP). It's a sustainable choice for applications that use shrink sleeve labels. The specialty of this grade is that when it’s printed with washable inks, it can be easily recycled along with PET bottles during its bottle’s washing and recycling process. The ink as the name suggests shall wash off, and the film is compatible with PET bottles throughout its recycling process right from drying, crystallising and extrusion.

AA: How is this achieved?
SP: All PET bottle washing lines have label separators, but there is always some slack in efficiency due to which the label waste enters the bottle recycling stream. Hence, labels are regarded as contaminants. With our CSP grade, we have focused on resolving this issue. We have added post-use recycling value to the label. If 100% labels are made from CSP grade, the CSP grade can recycle the bottles and labels together, and achieve high yields and lower the recycling costs further.

AA: What are the business prospects with CSP?
SP: Adding a sustainable choice to an application which mainly is categorised as secondary packaging looked in itself like a new prospect to us. This is the area where brands can ultimately claim 100% of their product packaging to be more eco-friendly than before. In regards to all the good work that already has been done to make the primary packaging more sustainable.

AA: How does labelling score?
SP: With regulatory and non-regulatory (conscious) changes coming in the packaging re-designing throughout the industry, the existing prospects have changed enough to be called as new. Shrink labels serve many essential purposes to labelling and branding of products. They offer 360 degree design, full body coverage, and fit to the shape of even most oddly contoured containers. A tamper evident seal can be added and full body coverage gives the brands an option to display more information about the product on the labels.

AA: What market does your product cater to?
SP: It mainly caters to the labelling application. Shrink sleeves are a mode for labelling and can be used across various markets like beverages, food products, cosmetics , household and pharmaceutical products.

AA: How and what was the significance of getting APR certified?
SP: After studying the entire packaging industry, right from source of packaging raw material to sustainable end-of-life processing and applications, APR has developed a set of guidelines that the industry can follow. It is called the Critical Guidance Protocol. It defines the compatibility of bottles, jars and containers made from materials like PP, PE and PET with caps, closures, and labels. These are defined on the basis of the material’s recyclability. The CSP grade films are APR certified under PET-CG-02 critical guidance protocol.

AA: How do you think this type of technology would benefit India?
SP: The best part about India is that it has one of the highest PET bottle recycling rates in the world. This signifies the type of infrastructural setup we already have in place. Since this application directly eases the processing of the PET recycling industry, I think it should not take much time to achieve fast penetration and wide acceptance in the market.

The packaging industry’s priority should be recycling. Actions taken by the packaging industry have to be in tandem with making the recycling process more easy and high quality yielding, so that it attracts even more growth and lucration.

AA: What are the advantages of having BOPP as the material for shrink sleeves?
SP: CSP is a PET shrink film. Shrink films do not need any adhesive or glue to be applied in order for it to stick to the bottles. PET is one of the most preferred choices of rigid packaging for various applications like beverages, cosmetics, food and hygiene products, pharma products and many more. Hence, it makes more sense to have a label that is compatible with PET in its recycling process. With the CSP grade shrink film as a label, the PET bottle and label can be considered as a single packaging material.

AA: What are the growth areas for the shrink sleeve segment?
SP: Presently the packaging sector growth itself is driving the growth of shrink sleeves in India. India as a country is evolving from buying and consuming loose-sold products, and it is moving towards consuming more safe and intact-packaged products. If pitched and informed rightly with the points you score from a sustainability angle, we may see a shift in choice of labelling to shrink sleeves. Products packed in a rigid container, can be labelled using a shrink sleeve.

AA: What kind of manufacturing compliance does your company follow in India?
SP: Manish Packaging is ISO:9001 2015 certified. We also internally follow and practise 5S and GMP. Our shrink films, although used as secondary packaging are tested safe for food contact applications as well.

AA: How does Manish Packaging score on sustainability?
SP: Manish Packaging has made some sustainable choices when it comes to putting up renewable energy power plants. We have our solar and wind energy plants located in Gujarat. Also, as a choice of fuel, we at Manish Packaging have already shifted to natural gas and as an alternative, we’ll be exploring bio-briquettes as well.

AA: What is happening in terms of R&D?
SP: There is a common understanding in the industry at present that anything promoted as recyclable/sustainable shall have some compromise in the properties or performance. Our team of experts working at R&D have presented a sustainable solution that shall have no compromise in terms of quality and performance. When compared to presently used material, it will be a straight switch, with minimum setting changes required at the shrink tunnel end. Also, the R&D department is continuously striving to achieve even better results for all sustainable solutions we have to offer.