Cut the cost of innovation, use sustainability as an opportunity, says Ball boss

In a rallying call to the metal packaging industry during a keynote presentation opening The Canmaker Summit, John Friedery, Ball Corporation’s top canmaker in the US, highlighted the need for cutting the cost of innovation and bringing products more quickly to the market.

He was speaking from a position of authority, having just presided over the launch of new packaging for Caribou, a ready-to-drink coffee being marketed by Coca-Cola. This used aluminium recloseable bottles, which are being made by Ball on the first high-speed production line of its type in North America.

“This is a new package with both convenience and appeal,” he said. “Often on the past we have killed off products too early to give them the oxygen of development.”

In the past, the metal packaging industry had focused on volumes and value with a concentration on functionality rather than consumer appeal, he said. Meanwhile, more visible changes had been made to PET bottle designs.

“Sustainability plays straight to the can,” he said. “We’ve been operating sustainably for decades without calling it that.”

And he rattled off a series of facts that supported his comments:

• The recycling rate for aluminium cans in North America was 59 percent in 2005.
• The recycling rate for steel cans was 63 percent in 2005, the highest for any food.container.
• Average post-consumer recycled content of an aluminium can is 41 percent, the highest for any beverage container.
• Steel cans contain an average of 25 percent post-consumer recycled content.
• Since 1970, the weight of a 12oz can has been reduced by about 40 percent.
• The weight of steel cans has been reduced by 33 percent in the last 25 years.
• Aluminium and steel have helped to subsidize municipal recycling because
  their.scrap value is higher than anything else in the curbside recycling bin.
• We must seize sustainability as an opportunity,” said Friedery. “We must help increase recycling rates in every market. And we must take pride in the difference our products make in people’s lives all over the world.”