Optimized design: New tear-tab solution for K3® makes recycling even easier

Sustainable, easy to recycle, with the best product protection, practical to handle, and visually appealing – packaging needs to meet many requirements these days. Cardboardplastic combinations are a packaging option that delivers in all categories. These have been established on the market for many years as sustainable packaging solutions. Cardboard wrap ensures the cup's stability, allowing it to be made with particularly thin walls – thus saving plastic. The plastic cup is also unprinted, making it an ideal recycled material.

To fully exploit the sustainability potential of cardboard-plastic cups, consumers need to separate the cardboard wrap from the plastic cup and dispose of the two components separately. This was  already easy to do in the past, but to make the disposal process even easier, Greiner Packaging has worked with the Schwarzach offset printing company to further optimize K3® cups’ tear-tab mechanism. The new, patented solution is not only eye-catching, but also boasts particularly intuitive handling. Separation can now be carried out with a single hand movement without a moment’s thought. After the separation process, consumers only have two packaging components in their hands: the cardboard wrap and the cup. Both can be easily added to their respective recycling streams in paper or plastic waste.

Introducing the new tear-tab mechanism has generated a lot of interest on the market, with many customers already switching to the new solution and confirming its positive features. These include Jérôme Mathyer, Head of Packaging Development at ELSA-MIFROMA, part of Migros-Industrie: “It was important for us to fully exploit the K3® cups’ recycling potential – with the new tear-tab mechanism, we are making it even easier for consumers to separate cardboard from the unprinted cup, thus enabling clean recycling.”

Changeover to the new tear-tab solution is just as easy as the actual handling: The majority of the changes are made internally at Greiner Packaging. Customers may need to make minor adjustments to the cardboard wrap design as part of the changeover process. These adjustments pay off twofold: They are entirely in the interests of both consumers and the environment.