Tyler Packaging Ltd - Andrea Mosca

andrea-mosca 

 

What expectations do you have for Zoomark, being held in person?


Tyler is eager to take part in the first in-person event, and even more so considering it is in Italy, one of the most strategic markets in Europe, a very dynamic, attractive prospect. We miss the human aspect of business a lot. We think there will be a great buzz, and we want to be part of that, as well as sharing some great news about sustainability with potential and existing customers present at the show. We hope attendance will be good, like in the good old days. Of course all the precautions will be in place, but it will finally be a chance to get back to normal life!

 

 

The whole pet industry has seen an impressive increase in sales. Will this growth continue in 2021? And after that?


Pets are increasingly important to families, and Covid saw a rise in the number of pet owners, meaning that our animals are now getting more attention than ever before. The fact that people are spending more time at home, and not going away for holidays, means we are spending more time with our pets. The petcare industry has definitely grown, and this trend is likely to be confirmed in 2021, due to the pandemic and the new consumer habits developing, with greater attention being paid to pets.

 

For Tyler, above all, it is time to take petfood packaging to the next level: our company is a pioneer in innovative, sustainable packaging for petfood. Growing business involves increased responsibility, and Tyler is ready with key solutions to boost sustainability and support circularity. At present the world's population is around 7 billion, but by 2050 it will be 10 billion: we must therefore do everything possible to reduce the environmental impact of our activities, as resources are not infinite. Tyler Packaging, founded in 1982, specializes in flexible plastic and paper packaging for food products. In the last 20 years the company has focussed on packaging for pet food. Our current challenge is to reproduce all the main features of traditional packaging in a green, recyclable form, reducing the impact on the environment. We started by identifying the materials and then we focused on the technological solutions.

 

There are three main ways to increase the sustainability of flexible packaging in pet food. The first regards plastic, with the use of 100% recyclable materials; the second concerns compostable materials of organic origin and the third regards paper. We have identified 100% recyclable polyethylene-based plastic as the solution, the most efficient and closest to our know-how, and we have also worked on solutions with compostable materials, and fulfilled requests for packaging in laminated paper or heat sealable paper. Plastics have been produced for decades and the techniques developed mean they are now more efficient than other materials; the technology applied to paper has also evolved but in this case there are limits in terms of weight. The only material that fully satisfies our customers' needs is plastic, which becomes truly effective when it is composed of a single element, polyethylene, the most recycled material in the world.

 

Having obtained 100% recyclability certification, at the end of 2020 Tyler took further action, commissioning a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) from the independent firm Trayak. TO PE (Tyler Oriented PE) was found to be the most sustainable of all the solutions, with excellent parameters: 16% less fossil fuel used, a 21% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, and 26% less water used. At this point we want to commission another LCA for our TO PE produced using regenerated materials and materials from renewable sources, enabling us to further reduce the consumption of water and fuel and the production of greenhouse gases. Our commitment to sustainability follows the rule of the three Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
Pet food producers place tons of non-recyclable packaging onto the market every day. If PE was used, this packaging could become 100% recyclable, and therefore reused for the same purposes. Tyler is ready to initiate this virtuous circle, to implement a more environmentally friendly system that consumes less of the planet's resources.