You will be speaking about Overcoming challenges and unlocking the potential of moulded fibre for high-performance, scalable solutions at the Moulded Fibre Packaging conference, Amsterdam. Can you give us a few more details about your talk?
Traditionally, moulded fibre has been used at scale for simple applications such as food service bowls and clamshells, where the technical performance requirements such as strength and barrier are limited.
At Cirkla, we’ve made giant strides in developing high performance fibre packaging solutions. Think packaging that requires high strength, complex shapes, barrier for extended shelf-life, plug-and-play substitution, and easy operability on the lines.
We’ve built solutions that did not exist before: Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP) for meat, dairy tubs, cookie trays, frozen and ready meals, scoops, refill packs for cosmetics, measuring cups for pharma cough syup bottles, coffee capsules, and more.
What are the biggest scalability challenges and how can the industry address issues like cost, production speed, and supply chain consistency?
Right now, the biggest challenge is the awareness that moulded fibre packaging can be a viable alternative to high performance applications. Commercial scale capacity already exists in Asia for this. Supply chain reliability can also be achieved with proper planning.
The pricing delta of moulded fibre vs plastics entirely depends on the use-case and the kind of plastic being used. There are use-cases where moulded fibre is actually at par with plastics. Usually the difference is ~10-20% which can be brought down to ~0-5% at scale too.
How do you see the moulded fibre packaging industry developing over the next year?
Fiber packaging is very versatile. We are still just scratching the surface with what’s possible. A lot of applications open up during brainstorming conversations with brands. So, going forward, we see a lot many high performance applications being achieved across Food, CPG, Cosmetics, Pharma, Auto industries.
What are you most looking forward to at the moulded fibre packaging conference?
- To share about the versatility of fibre packaging with brands
- To showcase the innovative development work we’ve done in pushing the boundaries of moulded fibre to make demanding applications feasible
