Scholle’s Global Sustainability Team organized a week-long celebration to encourage participation in Earth Week across the organization. Although we maintain our work in sustainability, this year was the first time having a week of planned events across locations.

Here are a few highlights on how different locations celebrated Earth Week.

Employees at our Chilhowie, VA plant:

• Set up a clothing drive to support a local charity that provides food for those in need
• Reduced food waste by making pizzas with leftover food
• Eliminated paper cups with reusable mugs

Employees at Baie d’Urfe Canada plant:

• Donated time to The Great Food Drive for area kids
• Also eliminated paper cups with reusable mug

Employees at the Northlake, IL plant:

• Spread the word on thinkeatsave.org and how to reduce food waste
• Raised $1,133 from a bake sale, proceeds go to nokidhungry.org and will provide 11,330 meals for kids

Scholle officially joined the Save Food Initiative.  Save Food aims at encouraging the dialogue on food losses between industry, research, politics and civil society. By belonging to this organization, Scholle is better positioned on the leading edge of packaging solutions that will help meet the needs of our customer and the end consumers in the most sustainable way possible.

Today, April 22, Scholle Packaging locations around the world are joining together to celebrate Earth Day. This year, we are choosing to focus our attention on food, and specifically, ways to eliminate waste of food in our own homes.

Food waste has become a global epidemic with negative humanitarian, environmental and financial implications.

The average American family will throw out over $2,000 worth of food this year* because they won’t eat it before it goes bad, or because they will throw out excess cooked food.

There are 900 million hungry people in the world today and 1 billion people who are overfed*. Do the math. By re-training ourselves to eat better and properly shop for, and prepare, our food, we have the ability to divert much-needed food resources to those who really need them.

Scholle employees are learning tips on how to shop smarter, eat better and think about how our food choices are affecting the environment.

Here are some tips from thinkeatsave.org:

• Shop smart. Plan your meals ahead of time, then bring a shopping list and stick to it!
• Request smaller portions at a restaurant. It might cost you less and uneaten food is tossed out and sent to landfills.
• Leftovers about to go bad? Freeze them! Label and freeze your leftovers for another day.
• Cook less food. Odds are you will toss up to 1/3 of the food you cook tonight. Cook only what you need and save the rest for tomorrow.
• Buy half-cartons of eggs. Did you know that we toss out nearly 23% of our eggs because we don’t eat them quickly enough?

Join us this week and learn more about how your smart food decisions can help you save money, the environment and your waistline.

For over 60 years, Scholle Packaging has partnered with food and beverage companies to bring food products to market in environmentally-conscious package formats. Scholle bag-in-box packaging and pouch packaging greatly extends the opened shelf life for applications like dairy, juice and wine; and offers aseptic processing and packaging opportunities for applications like tomato and other processed fruits.

Interesting food packaging thoughts from the Flexible Packaging Association:

• The average grocery store contains more than 10,000 different products, each with unique packaging requirements.
• Flexible packaging represents only 2% of municipal solid waste.
• Food waste has at least 10x the environmental impact of packaging waste and that’s before taking into account the impact of methane gas emitted from decayed food.
• Flexible packaging weighs less than alternatives like glass and rigid plastics, reducing fossil fuel consumption and CO2 emissions during transportation of both empty and filled packaging.

This info graphic from CNN shows a complete picture of food waste from farm to landfill.

*SOURCE: www.thinkeatsave.org

Scholle understands the importance of environmental and social responsibility at both the local and global level.   Since our footprint stretches over 60 countries, it’s important that we start the responsibility at each of our locations.  Specifically, Scholle Packaging has a sustainability goal to eliminate landfill waste by 2015.

And we are off to a great start with our locations reporting over a 20% reduction in waste so far.

What are we doing to make such drastic reductions in landfill waste?  Let’s look at highlights from some of our locations.

Bale d’Urfe, Canada Highlights

• Case erector project reduced corrugated use due to change from hand-folded to glued carton
• Implemented hand dryers throughout location
• Use of 2 balers to ensure all scrap bags are recycled
• Replaced all fluorescent tubes to new t8 standard
• Added motion detectors to common areas

Merced/ Northlake Highlights

• Educating employees on recycling and providing convenient containers within departments
• Monthly sustainability meetings

Chilhowie Highlights

• Installed hand dryers to eliminate paper towel waste
• Plant wide recycling centers
• Purchased chipper to chip pallet bandings for recycling
• Changed disposable dishes  from Styrofoam to recyclable products for events

What is aseptic bag-in-box packaging?

In the 1970’s, Scholle Packaging developed the aseptic filling machine which enabled the bag-in-box packaging process. Prior to Scholle, the aseptic process had been limited to cans and was most commonly used for dairy products. Aseptic packaging for bulk bag-in-box allowed processors to provide out-of-season products throughout the year, revolutionizing the storage and transportation of processed fruit and vegetable products.

In recent years, we have seen a shift in consumer demands towards healthy beverage options, resulting in the growth of the aseptic drink category. Scholle Packaging’s advancements in filling equipment and bag-in-box technology provide solutions for retail and institutions who wish to offer coffee, dairy, juice, smoothies and other functional beverages, while retaining nutritional value.

How does aseptic processing affect the packaging process?

Different packaging filling conditions affect storage requirements, shelf life, and ultimately the quality of the product. The below chart looks at ambient, extended shelf life, hot-fill, aseptic high-acid, aseptic low-acid and retort filling conditions.

Click diagram for larger image.

What makes aseptic different from hot-fill processing?

Aseptic processing and packaging is the filling of commercially-sterilized products into pre-sterilized containers. (1) Commercially-sterile, cooled product is processed separately from the packaging. (2) Incoming packaging is sterilized independently from the product.  (3) Packaging is filled and hermetically sealed with a pre-sterilized closure in an atmosphere free of microorganisms (refer to diagram below).

Click diagram for larger image.

The aseptic process allows food to retain nutritional value, flavors and texture throughout its shelf-life, providing a quality product to the end user.

Hot-fill processing fills heated, commercially-sterile product in non-sterile packaging. The product is held for a predetermined time and temperature in order to sterilize the packaging prior to the filling process. The longer hold time at high temperatures reduces quality of the product. Only high-acid products can be hot-filled and held at ambient temperatures without refrigeration.

Retort processing fills non-sterile product in hermetically-sealed, non-sterile packaging. The packaging is loaded into a retort pressure vessel and subjected to pressurized steam.  The product is also exposed to high temperatures for a much longer period than in hot-filling. The additional time can significantly deteriorate the overall quality and nutritional content of the product.

Why doesn’t aseptic bag-in-box need to be refrigerated?

Products that are aseptically processed are commercially sterilized and free from harmful microorganisms. Refrigeration serves to slow or prevent the growth of microorganisms in the product. Since microorganisms that can grow in the product have been eliminated, the sealed package is shelf-stable and refrigeration is not required.

What is the difference between high-acid and low-acid?

The FDA CFR113 defines low-acid foods (other than alcoholic beverages) as having a finished equilibrium pH greater than 4.6 and a water activity (aw) greater than .85. For example, tomato products having a finished equilibrium pH less than 4.7 are not classified as low-acid foods. The division between low-acid and high-acid foods is based on the limited pH growth of clostridium botulinim.

• High-acid products have a pH lower than 4.6
• Low-acid products have a pH level higher than 4.6

Scholle Packaging is attending the Craft Brewers Conference and BrewExpo America in Washington D.C this March 27 and 28th with partner Lightweight Containers. CBC is an industry event for both brewpubs and packaging breweries to educate and improve brewery quality and performance.

At the tradeshow, Lightweight Containers and Scholle are exhibiting the KeyKeg® 30 and the new KeyKeg® 20 that utilizes Double Wall™ technology. This technology allows the KeyKeg® 20 to withstand high internal pressures.

Additional features include moisture resistance, more efficient footprint and better protection against damage.

KeyKeg® is the one-way, “sell and forget” container that provides a sustainable solution for beer and wine transport compared to heavy steel kegs or glass bottles. Features include:

• 25% more beer per transport and no return shipments
• No loss or damage of steel kegs
• Extra protection, longer preservation of product
• Marketing opportunity with more branding space available
• Logistical efficiency due to its one-way design

Visit Scholle Packaging and KeyKeg at booth # 3053 this Wednesday and Thursday CBC’s BrewExpo.

Scholle Packaging is changing the shape of wine in retail space and on-premise through performance packaging solutions that help customers in the wine industry reach new markets.  Scholle will be showcasing solutions at this year’s ProWein International Trade Fair for wine, spirits, winemakers, manufacturers and storage providers in Dusseldorf, Germany.

Visit Scholle’s booth to find out more about these performance packaging solutions:

• ZORK® SPK innovative closure for sparkling wine provides unique re-seal benefits for sparkling wine
• KeyKeg offers a more sustainable one-way system for filling, transporting and tapping drinks on premise
• Bag-in-Box offers a sustainable and efficient alternative wine package to enhance your customers’ experience

Visit Scholle Packaging, Hall 7a D02 at ProWein  24th to 26th March 2013 in Düsseldorf.

To ensure that our products have the characteristics that are suited to customer needs and expectations in Latin America, Scholle Vindedo was certified in standard FSSC 22000:2011 (Food Safety System Certification), a certification program for food safety, based on ISO 22000:2005 and PAS223.

“ This certification has two great values: first demonstrates the ability of our organization to systematize best market practices bringing even higher quality of products and Scholle´s processes, second is to gain a competitive edge, attending to the demands of major customer,” said Roberto Bucker, Managing Director Latin America

Established in 2004, The Foundation for Food Safety Certification developed FSSC 22000, the ISO 22000 and PAS 220 for certifications of food manufactures. Specifically, the FSSC 22000 “has as mission to be the globally leading, independent, non-profit, ISO-bases and GFSI-accepted food safety certification scheme for the whole supply chain.”*

* About FSSC 22000

Employees from Scholle’s Northlake, IL location recently donated time to help feed hungry neighbors across northern Illinois. During the two-day event, Scholle employees served with the Northern Illinois Food Bank, packing 23,298 lbs of oatmeal and frozen meat which form the basis of nearly 19,500 meals.

Northern Illinois Food Bank is a non-profit organization that engages the community in a commitment to feed hungry neighbors. Across 13 Illinois counties, food manufacturers, local groceries, corporations, foundations, and individuals come together to donate food and funds. Volunteers evaluate and repack food for distribution to more than 600 network partners; the food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters and youth and senior feeding programs that serve more than 60,000 different people each week.

Rosa Rogel, Global Procurement Administrator, said of the opportunity to serve, “It’s a great feeling to do something that impacts so many; and it doesn’t cost you anything but a little time off your day. It takes so little to make a big difference in people’s lives.”

“This was a great day. My daughter and I had the chance to help neighbors and have fun with co-workers,” said Mike Miller, Global Process Engineer.

Joyce Schmitt, Payroll Administrator, was happy to give her time, saying “We all take for granted the simple things we enjoy in this life such as food, clothing and shelter. How heartbreaking it is to see people who are struggling for these necessities. Being able to help in a small way, with even just the gift of time, is very rewarding.”

Click here to learn more about Northern Illinois Food Bank’s mission.

Stop by Scholle’s booth at the upcoming Food Processing Expo to see a live demo on how you can improve traceability with a smartphone and Scholle’s innovative 2D on-bag coding system.  Also learn about how employee accountability, quality manufacturing and product traceability can lead to improved efficiency in the processed fruits industry.

Visit Scholle Packaging (booth 610) at the Food Processing Expo in Sacramento, CA this February 5th & 6th.

Scholle Packaging is changing the shape of wine from retail space to on-premise through performance packaging solutions that have helped customers in the wine industry reach new markets.  Check out booth #1328 at the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium where, Scholle will be featuring wine bottle closures, one-way kegs and sustainable bag-in-box.

Visit Scholle Packaging, booth #1328 at Unified Wine & Grape Symposium, January 30 & 31 in Sacramento, CA.