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Liquibox claims to have broken new ground with its recycle-ready bag-in-box packaging for sensitive products. Our judges picked the solution as a finalist for the Sustainability Awards 2022, and we caught up with the company to learn more about it.

You’re a finalist in the Sustainability Awards 2022. Congratulations! To start off, could you summarise your entry in fewer than 50 words?

Liquipure ultra flexible packaging with mono-material VINIflow dispensing tap is the first recycle-ready bag-in-box solution suitable for liquid products which require strong barrier protection. Traditional flexible packaging for oxygen-sensitive liquids requires mixed materials, but Liquipure eliminates the need for non-recyclable materials while still exceeding performance requirements.

Why do you think the judges were impressed with your entry? Tell us about what is innovative about your project and/or about its impact on packaging sustainability.

Put simply, Liquipure ultra is a game-changer and has advanced bag-in-box packaging further along the sustainability path than any other innovation in bag-in-box history! The status quo for bag-in-box packaging was accepted for decades. It has inherent sustainability benefits—it uses less plastic and has lower carbon emissions than the rigid alternatives—but the recyclability challenge had never been addressed.

Liquibox was the first company to commercialize recycle-ready bag-in-box flexible packaging for liquids that require high barrier protection. This enables beverage, liquid food and cleaning product suppliers to divert tons of plastic from the landfill each year.

Not only does it reduce waste at the end of life, but eliminating resource-intensive materials also reduces CO₂ emissions throughout the entire lifecycle by up to 20% compared to traditional non-recyclable bag-in-box designs. (Source: LCA, EcoImpact)

How has your innovation/initiative been received thus far?

We’ve been extremely inspired by how quickly our customers implemented Liquipure ultra flexible packaging. We have also experienced significant interest from companies who were not previously in bag-in-box.

By offering a recycle-ready flexible packaging solution, we were able to bridge the gap so that companies can both use lightweight packaging and meet recyclability goals. It really proved there was an urgent need for a more sustainable flexible packaging option for liquid products.

You’re shortlisted for the Driving the Circular Economy category. What do you see as the key demands, challenges and opportunities in relation to driving the circular economy in packaging?

Liquibox is proud to take responsibility for Driving the Circular Economy in packaging. We know that there is an urgent need to protect our planet. From brand owners and end-users alike, the demand is clear: performance cannot be sacrificed.

Packaging is vital to protect and preserve products, it plays an important role in eliminating food waste which can have a negative carbon footprint. While this may seem like a challenge, at Liquibox, we saw this as an opportunity to develop recycle-ready packaging that utilizes advanced resin technology to improve product protection.

The opportunities to advance the circular economy expand beyond the packaging we produce. At Liquibox, we are committed to minimizing the carbon footprint of our operations. We would encourage all companies to consider how they can shift their entire organization to be more sustainable.

To keep moving forward, the packaging industry needs to focus on additional education, consistent terminology and labeling guidelines to have a more unified approach. We also need to encourage and drive infrastructure investments to improve collection and recyclability of flexible packaging waste to ensure all packaging stays in the circular economy.

The winners of this Sustainability Awards category will be announced at a dinner taking place at the Sustainable Packaging Summit in Lisbon on 13th-14th September 2022. To attend the ceremony, register here.

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