Cantech Online

Schools Australia introduces Cantech Online in Bentley, for all your education and learning needs.

One of my first challenges was to discourage the internecine fights between various packaging materials and interests. As I was fond of pointing out, I could write a handful of “plusses and minuses” for every packaging material. As an industry, we still have too many detractors and it does us little credit if public fights provide ammunition for our critics. In short, it is absolutely essential that we are seen to be united in promoting what we do and the fantastic contribution that our products make to the way in which society now functions. I’m all for healthy competition but surely no one believes that our customers’ purchasing decisions are going to be influenced by claims and counter-claims that they read in the media.”

These are the words of Dick Searle, chief executive of The Packaging Federation, in this month’s industry interview (see the February 2013 issue of CanTech International). The Federation is the “over-arching” trade association for the UK packaging manufacturing industry. It is a unique representative body for companies and organisations in the UK packaging manufacturing sector and its associated activities.

So what do you make of Searle’s comments? As he points out, every packaging material has its plusses and minuses. Cans have many plus points which are often talked about in CanTech International. If you were to list the pros and cons of most packaging types you’d end up with quite a balanced list.