Category Archives: A&A News

ISO 9001:2008 A&A Packaging Now Certified

 A&A Packaging is always moving forward and now with ISO 9001:2008 Certification

ISO 9001:2008

What is ISO 9001:2008?

ISO 9001:2008 Certification will give your organisation the quality systems that will provide the foundation to better customer satisfaction, staff motivation and continual improvement.

Meeting the requirements of this standard will provide quality management systems that will be of real benefit to your organisation to help manage your business effectively and put in place best practice methodology.

ISO 9001:2008 certification is suitable for all sizes and types of organisations and is well established around the world as an invaluable Quality Management System standard. It is suitable for organisations in all industry sectors and will help your organisation to improve management processes to compete locally and/or globally.

The process encompasses the entire organisation and requires senior management buy-in, it is not just a function of the Quality Department. To achieve ISO 9001:2008 certification your organisation needs to demonstrate that it can meet the regulatory requirements and apply the system effectively to be of real benefit to your customers.

Scope
As an ISO 9001:2008 certified organisation we will have implemented Quality Management System requirements for all areas of the business, including:

•Facilities
•People
•Training
•Services
•Equipment

EU Circular Economy proposals “Packaging singled out”

EU Circular Economy proposals

EU Circular Economy proposals, Dick Searle, chief executive, has criticised the EU, insisting packaging is unfairly singled out for special attention.

He said the focus remains on environmental issues and frequently underestimates or ignores the economic impact of these measures.
He said there is not enough understanding and realism of the impact of EU Circular Economy proposals on EU wealth creation and competitiveness.
He also said there is recognition of wide disparities between EU Member States on the measure of recycling – both in terms of calculation and classification.
Regarding litter and costs of collection, he said he could not find any explicit reference to general litter or the suggestion (as in the previous proposal) that producers should be responsible for litter costs or the costs of collecting used packaging.
The EU stated that targets should be: Clear environmental, economic and social benefits would be derived from further increasing the targets laid down in Directive 94/62/EC for preparation for re-use and recycling of packaging waste.
“I suspect that not everyone would support this statement. In any event, very clearly there has been no attempt to set targets based on achieving the best balance between environmental and economic outcomes but rather “plucking figures out of the air”. In my view, it is likely that a general target achievement of 85% would only be possible at a very substantial environmental cost and a massive economic cost.”

Luxury Packaging Awards 2015 | Luxury Food Pack winner

WINNER

Cadbury Glow Luxury Packaging by Mondelēz International

 

Luxury Packaging

 

Congratulations to Cadbury Glow the judges felt this was a ‘Superb presentation of the product adding real Luxury Packaging to the pack and making it very special with ‘brilliant cardboard engineering’.

Cadbury Glow offers givers an elegantly designed gift with subtle, luxurious cues. Starting with the sleeve, the beautiful graphics connect the brand on multiple levels. The word ‘Glow’ is inviting, subtly whispering to consumers about special moments between you and your loved ones. The centre of the ‘O’ emanates light, offering depth and curiously while connecting the word ‘Glow’ and the design together as one. The light dapples are reminiscent of blurred light through a camera lens, creating a soft, glowing wallpaper that is friendly and inviting. The entire primary packaging is made from metallised cartonboard with the addition of a ribbon loop acting as a nod to traditional gifting cues. In addition, a number of finishes and effects were used to support the graphic elements; a pearlescent varnish creates a shimmering effect together with a spot gloss that enhances the glowing light. The hero features are embossed to draw further attention to the logo and praline image. The inner treasure box allows gold to be the star, with only a simple debossed logo on the front right door coupled with subtle white dapples. The gold and purple graphics are undeniably premium while also being distinctly Cadbury and warm.

Why Recycle?

Why Recycle

Why Recycle?

If you’re not already recycling, we explain how easy it is and how you can really make a difference.
For those who already recycle, discover the positive effect your recycling efforts are making and find out what else you could do.
Recycling conserves resources.
Why Recycle ? When we recycle, used materials are converted into new products, reducing the need to consume natural resources. If used materials are not recycled, new products are made by extracting fresh, raw material from the Earth, through mining and forestry.
Recycling helps conserve important raw materials and protects natural habitats for the future.
Recycling saves energy.
Using recycled materials in the manufacturing process uses considerably less energy than that required for producing new products from raw materials – even when comparing all associated costs, like transport.
Plus there are extra energy savings because more energy is required to extract, refine, transport and process raw materials ready for industry compared with providing industry-ready materials.
Recycling helps protect the environment.
Recycling reduces the need for extracting (mining, quarrying and logging), refining and processing raw materials all of which create substantial air and water pollution.
As recycling saves energy it also reduces greenhouse gas emissions, which helps to tackle climate change. Current UK recycling is estimated to save more than 18 million tonnes of CO2 a year – the equivalent to taking 5 million cars off the road.
Recycling reduces landfill.
When we recycle, recyclable materials are reprocessed into new products, and as a result the amount of rubbish sent to landfill sites reduces. There are over 1,500 landfill sites in the UK, and in 2001, these sites produced a quarter of the UK’s emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.
What Happens To Our Recycling?
Ever wondered what happens after your recycling bins are collected or you drop something off at the recycling centre? We explain how your recycling becomes a valuable resource.
Recyclable items are predominantly collected from your home in two ways. There are kerbside ‘sort’ schemes where recyclables are sorted into their respective materials on the lorry at the kerbside; and co-mingled collections where all your recyclables are put into one compartment on the lorry before being taken to a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) and sorted.
At the MRF, all the mixed recycling is sorted and separated into different types of materials by hand or machine (or both) before being sent to manufacturers who make it into new products.
Once collected and sorted, recycled materials become valuable commodities in the worldwide market.
What is recycled in the UK?
There are many recycling plants in the UK, reprocessing million of tonnes of material every year.
All of the newsprint manufactured here in the UK is now made from 100% recycled paper.
All of the organic (garden and kitchen) waste we collect is recycled here, usually quite close to where it is collected.
Over 80% of the glass collected for recycling is used in the UK, the majority of it to make new glass bottles and jars.
There is an ever increasing range of high quality products that are made in the UK from recycled materials. To find out what happens to the things you recycle watch our short animations and read the fact files.
Does the UK export any recyclable material?
Countries such as China are prepared to pay high prices for recyclables such as waste plastic; mainly because they do not have readily available sources of virgin materials (no indigenous forests or oil supplies) and they have a large manufacturing industry that requires these products.
Even though exporting our recyclables means a bigger recycling loop because recyclable materials are transported further, it is still a better environmental option than using virgin, raw materials.
It minimises the need to use our natural resources such as oil using recycled materials significantly reduces energy use and carbon emissions during the manufacturing process.
The transport impacts are reduced because the materials are transported in container ships returning to China after bringing the goods to the UK.
It means those materials are not being landfilled.

The Humble Cardboard Box

The Humble Cardboard BoxThe Humble Cardboard Box

 

The Humble Cardboard Box It’s difficult to imagine packaging without cardboard. It is the most commonly used type of packaging in the UK, making up a larger percentage of overall packaging than any other material. Virtually everything we use and consume has been packed in cardboard at some point with around five billion cardboard boxes used per year in UK.
It wasn’t always so, and although cardboard can be traced back to China about three or four thousand years ago, its modern use is more recent. That doesn’t mean that it is uncontentious however, with several different claimants as the inventor of the cardboard box. The French even have a cardboard box museum laying out their claims as cardboard originators in the mid-19th century.

 

The fact is that the development of the box is more of a cumulative effort with the process gradually being refined. The first written mention of cardboard is in printer Joseph Moxon’s 1683 book Mechanick Exercises. The oldest recorded cardboard box design is thought to be a game box from 1817 for a German board game called ‘The Game of Besieging’.
At this time cardboard was relatively expensive as both board and boxes were handmade. However the 1879 development of one-step cutting and creasing by Robert Gair in Brooklyn, opened up the market for mass-produced foldable boxes. Using Gair’s process, one single press could produce in two and a half hours what his entire factory used to turn out in a day. In 1896, the National Biscuit Company, or Nabisco, ordered two million of the pre-cut, pre-folded boxes.

The Humble Cardboard Box
Then in 1906, the Kellogg brothers adopted mass produced cardboard boxes for Cornflakes. The printed cardboard box became the go to option for packaging designers, especially for foodstuffs. The development of pre-packaged FMCG goods saw a move away from the sale of loose items, weighed and bagged by hand, and ultimately led to the creation of the self-service supermarket.
Flexible, cheap and recyclable, cardboard has been a gamechanger in how we shop and remains an vital packaging option to this day.