TAKEAWAYS
1. CP-Meiji, Thailand’s number 1 brand for pasteurized milk, has implemented a future-oriented sustainability strategy. The company was interested in an even more sustainable labeling material for their milk packaging without compromising on quality and performance.
2. CP-Meiji switched the label material in their 2-liter milk bottles to UPM Raflatac’s thinnest film label material PE 65. This helped the company to decarbonize, to save water and energy, and to reduce the use of plastic in their packaging.
3. The high-efficiency thin film solution keeps the high-quality standards of CP-Meiji milk packaging, meanwhile providing more labels per roll and longer runs with less downtime.
Climate change mitigation, water saving, waste management, and biodiversity protection are at the core of CP-Meiji’s sustainability vision. The company has taken innovative and aggressive actions towards a more sustainable future. One concrete action in the new strategy was to reduce the thickness of dairy packaging so that wasting precious resources could be avoided but quality would still be maintained.
The answer to the challenge was UPM Raflatac PE 65 film label material, the thinner version of UPM Raflatac’s standard PE 85 film, which the company had used previously in their 2-liter milk bottles. Choosing PE 65 instead meant less raw material and less waste, as well as great production efficiency: more labels per roll and longer runs with less downtime.
Significant reductions in water use, energy use and CO2 emissions
The switch from PE 85 to PE 65 labeling solution supports CP-Meiji in achieving their sustainability goals. They could potentially save water by 9%, save energy by 10%, and reduce their CO2 emission (including biogenic carbon) by 11%.
Great quality and technical support
Apart from the environmental benefits, the performance of PE 65 is of great importance to CP Meiji in maintaining the high-quality standards of milk packaging.
“The quality of PE 65 is consistent. Even though the film label is thin, we have never had any quality issues with it. We have now used it more than 1.5 years,” says Miss K. Sucheera, Quality Assurance Manager at CP-Meiji.
Switching from one material to another, especially from a thicker one to a thinner one, can be challenging for converters. At first, die cutting the new, thinner PE 65 film caused some challenges to the label converter.
“But UPM Raflatac provided the best technical support to solve the issue and the converter could improve their die cutting performance accordingly,” says Miss Panumas, Packaging Development Section Manager at CP-Meiji.
Looking to the future, CP-Meiji’s efforts to mitigate climate change and support for the circular economy will continue.
“We will focus on introducing sustainable measures like reducing the size and thickness of our packaging to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions – while always ensuring that quality is maintained,” says Mrs. Tuanjai Khamtong, Assistant Vice President, Purchasing at CP-Meiji.