SIRANE’S plastic-free packaging ‘Earthpouch’ won a top prize at the UK Packaging Awards – taking first place in the Resource Efficient Pack of the Year category.
Winners were announced last night (Tuesday) at the Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane, at an awards ceremony organised by Packaging News.
The panel of industry judges described the Earthpouch as an “Innovative pack that will deliver the single material to simplify the recycling stream or be composted, with many pouches now on the market and a trend for reusable and therefore refillable this is a welcome addition as a pack format option.”
Simon Balderson, Sirane MD, said: “The Earthpouch is a fabulous product, and it’s great that the judges at the UK Packaging Awards have recognised this.
“Sirane’s constantly innovating, and the environment is at the forefront of a lot of our thinking. Plastics – and perhaps more specifically removing plastics where possible – is the hot-topic, and it’s great that Sirane is able to offer this product.
“This award comes on the back of a lot of hard work getting to this stage, and is a reward not only for us, but the development team behind the product, and indeed for the companies who helped us get the Earthpouch into the market.”
Sirane’s Earthpouch – developed in conjunction with B&G Products – was a couple of years in development, and Troofoods launched in the new year. Sirane recently acquired B&G Products, which is now part of the Sirane Group.
Troofoods were invited to the awards ceremony as guests of Sirane, having been involved with the project from the beginning, and joined Simon Balderson, Peter Ralten and Vince Larson on stage to collect the award.
Peter Ralten, from B&G, said: “Over the last few years food brands and retailers have asked us to come up with an affordable recyclable pouch solution. It’s great news to see the work we have done on this product recognised in such a way.
“It was nice that Troofoods were able to join us to share in our success – after all they were the first company to make the switch to plastic-free packaging.
“Earlier in the year we sent our first overseas order, to McCambridge in the Irish Republic for gluten-free porridge oats which was closely followed by our first delivery to the USA, where the packaging has been used for health-food supplements.”
The Earthpouch – an industry first – is made from a paper with a 100% plastic free heat-sealable coating which is then formed into a preformed stand-up pouch which provides total food security for dry and moist food products.
Simon Balderson, Sirane MD, added: “We’re now working with a number of companies, in many different sectors, and I think it’s fair to say Earthpouch will be on a shelf near you very soon… one of the great things about the Earthpouch is it is also cost-effective, often environmentally-friendly packaging comes at a cost, with Earthpouch that’s not the case, there really are no negatives.”
We’ve also recently added a pouch-filling line to our offering, the M7, which is compatible with the Earthpouch as well as a range of other materials.
The Earthpouch is just one of a range of compostable/recyclable products and packaging solutions Sirane has developed over the years – and it has been placed in our Earth Packaging range: compostable; recyclable and sustainable.
We’re already working on enhancing and expanding the Earthpouch range, including higher-barrier pouches, ovenable versions and more – the Earthpouch is not just a product, it’s the start of a whole range of plastic-free products.
The UK Packaging Awards success comes on the back of a great few months, in which the plastic-free packaging has earned serious industry recognition.
The Earthpouch was recognised earlier this year at the Sustainable Food Awards in Amsterdam, where it finished third in the sustainable packaging category.
And we’ve also been awarded a Green Apple Environment Award for Environmental Best Practice – which will be presented at the House of Parliament on November 12.
Sirane is an innovative food packaging development-to-manufacture company, with expertise in absorbency and material science. Specialisms include bags and pouches, absorbent products, shelf-life extension and dual-ovenable products.
For more information, contact Jeremy Haydn-Davies on 01952 230055, email [email protected] or visit our website which is www.sirane.com
