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Export-led industrialization is crucial for economic growth, emphasizing the shift from primary production to manufacturing. Malawi aims for industrialization through its National Export Strategy (NES), focusing on oilseed and sugarcane products and manufacturing. However, research gaps exist on export promotion programs' impact, especially in less developed countries like Malawi and specific sectors like plastics and packaging. A mixed-method approach was employed, combining qualitative and quantitative methods for robust analysis. All 13 firms in Malawi's plastics and packaging industry were surveyed in Blantyre and Lilongwe to assess the impact of the National Export Strategy (NES). A questionnaire with 37 questions across six sections, adapted from prior research, was used to gather comprehensive data on various aspects such as employment, production, and investment. Ethical clearance was obtained, and completed questionnaires underwent thorough review before data analysis. Results are presented in subsequent sections. The impact of Malawi's National Export Strategy (NES) on its plastics and packaging industry highlights vital challenges. Employment suffers from a lack of skilled labor, stemming from a mismatch with training institutions. Firms struggle with limited access to finance and high borrowing costs, hindering investment. High taxes and duties hamper export competitiveness, while unreliable energy supply increases operational costs. Additionally, transportation expenses impede raw material imports, exports, and local distribution. These findings underscore the need to address skill mismatches, enhance financial access, reduce trade barriers, and improve infrastructure to bolster the industry's resilience and competitiveness under the NES. Policy implications include collaborating with financial institutions to enhance access to grants and affordable credit, imposing higher import taxes on finished products to protect local producers, improving energy supply, enhancing transportation infrastructure, introducing incentives for investment in support services, raising awareness of NES benefits, and establishing industry-specific meetings to address sector-specific issues. These measures aim to bolster the plastics and packaging industry's competitiveness and support its growth under the NES. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bacterial nanocellulose (BNC) has emerged as a versatile and sustainable biomaterial with unprecedented potential in various fields, particularly in the realm of food packaging. This review explores the synthesis and bioengineering advancements in harnessing BNC for creating green, active, and smart solutions to address contemporary challenges in the food packaging industry. Certain groups of bacteria produce BNC as an extracellular matrix that exhibits exceptional physicochemical properties, making it an ideal candidate for innovative packaging applications. Its unique nanostructure, high mechanical strength, and its biocompatibility distinguishes it, offering a potential alternative to conventional packaging materials. The versatility of BNC extends beyond its fundamental properties, as researchers explore modifications to make it suitable for specific applications. This review discusses the strategies employed to enhance BNC's functionality in food packaging, including its role as an active, antimicrobial, and intelligent material. Various modifications, such as the incorporation of bioactive compounds and responsive polymers using various nanoparticles, anthocyanins, chitosan, plant extracts, fatty acids, proteins and enzymes, enable BNC to actively engage with its environment. This extends the shelf life of packaged food and ensures safety. Despite the promising potential, the present review also acknowledges the existing challenges in the commercial production of BNC for food packaging. Issues such as scalability and cost-effectiveness are addressed to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of the field. By examining the production processes, physicochemical properties and modifications, this review offers valuable insights into the prospects of BNC as a sustainable and innovative solution in the dynamic landscape of green, active and intelligent food packaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis study aimed to understand the experiences that trans, masculine presenting, non-binary and gender diverse (TMNG) people who menstruate have with period product packaging and marketing, and identified opportunities for improvement through an inclusive communication design framework. Semi-structured online interviews were conducted with nine TMNG consumers, allies and advocates. These revealed positive and negative experiences with the current design of period product packaging and marketing throughout the entire ‘user journey’, including purchasing, use and disposal. A thematic analysis of the interviews confirmed that problems exist with the lack of representation through imagery and language on period product packaging and marketing. The resulting three themes were engaged with to develop an inclusive communication design framework that included: the need for an improvement in the physical experience of periods; the need for improved mental health and emotional relationship to periods; and the need for the consideration of broader social issues such as sustainability and accessibility in relation to period product packaging and marketing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review discusses the Arabic gum and gelatin-based films used in the food packaging industry. Gelatin is an essential biopolymer derivative of collagen. Various industries widely use it due to its technological and functional characteristics. Several constituents can be used as additives to recover their characteristics and requests. Antioxidants, antimicrobials, and other agents are used to increase customer attention and extend the food products shelf life. Food packaging is planned to protect food products, offer essential information related to the food, and make food handling suitable for consumer delivery. The Arabic gum and gelatin blend is suitable for keeping fruit and vegetables fresh for a long time due to the blended film's ability to cover the food and protect it from microbial and environmental effects. The film's composition of natural components that are safe to eat forms a protective layer to prevent gas, oxygen, and humidity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines why some brands are able to ride the wave of macroeconomic expansions, whereas other brands are better able to successfully weather contractions. Using a utility-based framework, the authors develop hypotheses on how the impact of these shocks on brand equity is moderated by six strategic brand factors: price positioning, advertising spending, product line length, distribution breadth, brand architecture, and market position. The authors utilize monthly data on 325 national consumer packaged goods brands in 35 categories across 17 years from the United Kingdom to obtain quarterly sales-based brand equity estimates. The two preeminent brand factors are distribution and assortment. Distribution is by far the most important factor in contractions. It is also the most important factor in expansions. In short, in good times and bad times, extensively distributed brands win. A wide assortment is also a strong contributor to brand equity in expansions, while it does not destroy brand equity in contractions. The authors further find that advertising spending, premium price positioning, umbrella branding structure, and market leadership matter in expansions and/or contractions, and the magnitude of their effects on brand equity is relatively modest. The discussion concludes with managerial implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bright print images help any product on the shelf stand out, attract the consumer, and add a unique value to the product. This research work is to empirically identify significant factors and optimize printing press parameters like press speed (x1: 5000, 7000, and 9000 sheets per hour), ink viscosity (x2: 15, 25, 35 Pa·s), and blanket rubber hardness (x3: 65, 70 and 75 shore A) to achieve prints with rich chroma yet with low dot gain in the lithography process, the most economical and widely used process today in the field of label and packaging industry. The parameters used during the printing process can affect the physical dot gain and the color of printed images. To study this, measurements were taken of the dot gain (y1) and color (measured in terms of lightness (y2) and chroma (y3)) at three different dot areas - highlight (25 %), middle tone (50 %), and shadow (75 %). Box-Behnken Design was used to test fifteen different print conditions. The second-order polynomial model's fit quality was good concerning the responses. The optimum printing machine conditions determined to minimize dot gain and lightness and maximize chroma were a press speed of 5000 sheets per hour, 30 Pa·s ink viscosity, and blanket rubber having 70 A shore hardness. The optimized values agreed with the predicted responses were acceptable, considering the right balance of minimum dot gain, higher chroma, and lower lightness to give the vibrant yet controlled halftone dot area in print production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inter Holdings says its patented technology can extend shelf life, save food, and reduce C[O.sub.2] emissions A Tokyo-based company has developed and patented what it calls 'ultra-high vacuum technology.' It [...]

Nowadays, the interest of the world toward nanocellulose materials has been incredibly increased for the development of high value products owing to the unique and potentially convenient structures of nanocellulose. There is advanced enhancement of the nanocellulose application with strongly increasing interest for the high demand of sustainability requirements in the global market. Nanocellulose materials are sourced from different plant fibers, algae, tunicate and bacteria. They have been synthesized through different extraction techniques like acid hydrolysis, and mechanical refining methods with increasing advancements. Nanocellulose products have potential application areas of reinforcements in nanocomposites, paper and packaging industries, biodegradable films, barriers in packaging and membrane industries, additives in food and medical applications, and medical devices, wound healing, bioactive implants and self-healing applications. This review realizes the current understandings of nanocellulose materials with source materials, isolation techniques from their sources, extraction methods and end use applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disposable plastic packaging has been conceptualised as a market device that has effects on the functioning of economic markets. It is particularly influential in food retail environments but also has significant environmental consequences. Consumers are aware of these issues, and this paper addresses their questions and objections to the packaging market device for fresh food. Drawing on empirical insights from 28 interviews and 25 completed research diaries conducted as part of the 'Reducing plastic packaging and food waste through product innovation simulation' project, these contestations are explored in a number of ways. Firstly, it explores how such objections become possible and the role of unintended consequences of marketing arrangements. Secondly, conflicting ontologies of freshness are examined, as they also create the potential for objections. Thirdly, the paper engages with the role of responsibility, looking at how municipal recycling systems and packaging design enable contestations. Exploring these contestations contributes to an understanding of how we can address non-market effects of market devices, once they have left the physical spaces associated with market activity and moved into other spheres of activity. It also holds several contributions for debates concerning consumer engagement and acceptance of plastic packaging and plastics policy discourses more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of sustainable hydrogen markets will play a vital role to achieve energy sovereignty and climate neutrality by 2050. The article analyses what tools and methods are available to contribute to the development of such markets. To identify these tools and methods, the article elaborates on goals and principles of good regulation, and argues for the consideration of flexibility in the regulatory framework to be responsive to technological, societal and economic changes. Considering Germany and the draft EU hydrogen and decarbonised gas market package as case studies, the article develops the argument that legislators should consider regulatory experimentation and apply comparative methods to develop well-working regulatory strategies and an appropriate set of rules for the development of the markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper studies the problem that occurs on material purchase quantity in price uncertainty situation. Larger buying quantity when the price at high will increase the purchase amount while smaller buying quantity could risk the inventory level. The decision on the purchase quantity of a cycle takes future price as input from price prediction output. Design/methodology/approach: This paper examines five price prediction models, Classification and Regression Tree (CART), Random Forest Regressor (RFR), Support Vector Regressor (SVR), Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA) and Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) to predict four Petrochemical products, Linear Low Density Polyethylene (LLDPE), Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE), Biaxially Oriented Polypropylene (BOPP) and Cast Polypropylene (CPP) using dataset built from weekly datapoints from January 2020 to June 2023. The most performing model is validated with data from July 2023 to September 2023 where the prediction result is fed into Linear Programming Simplex method to minimize the amount of purchase by making advanced or postpone orders. Findings: Result that RFR performs higher at most products tested, while SVR performs higher in LDPE product. The fitting of RFR and SVR models prediction, as predicted price to Linear Programming that decides optimum purchase quantity, delivers a total 2.2% of purchase amount reduction compared to original purchase quantity reflecting base scenario issued by the planner. Research limitations/implications: This study does not include additional prediction factors such as freight cost and the hyperparameters tuning studies on the existing factors. Originality/value: The novelty of this paper is prediction value is followed up by an optimization model that would guide the Procurement team decisions for future anticipation because imported raw materials should be purchased ahead of time. This research will provide a scientific approach input that would counterbalance or strengthen decision making that is typically made by individuals owning years of experience. This combined approach is rarely researched and has not been done to polymer products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Manufacturing companies continue to encounter a diverse set of obstacles while embracing sustainable development goals. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to explore critical sustainable development-related barriers to flexible packaging manufacturing companies in the New Zealand context. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on a qualitative multiple case studies approach, the authors collected data from the New Zealand flexible packaging industry. Semistructured interviews were conducted with the senior corporate managers in two large flexible packaging companies. Following the thematic analysis approach, the authors analyzed the information collected from the participants and synthesized our findings under the key dimensions of internal and external barriers to sustainable development. Findings: The findings revealed that internal barriers to sustainable flexible packaging are linked to economic, operational and technical issues. Conversely, external barriers include global crises and disruption, customer behavior and preferences and institutional and infrastructural-related aspects. Based on the analysis of empirical findings, the authors further identified the underlying reasons for sustainable flexible packaging barriers and recommended guidelines that could assist corporate managers and policymakers in addressing obstacles inhibiting the flexible packaging industry from adopting sustainable business practices. Originality/value: The authors argue that this study is one of the early studies to consider inhibiting factors to incorporate sustainable development into the New Zealand flexible packaging industry context. Building on a range of theoretical perspectives, the authors extend the current body of knowledge seeking to advance the sustainable development agenda in the New Zealand flexible packaging industry and offer recommended pathways fostering sustainable development in a distinctive manufacturing context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paints and coatings are widely used in various applications such as walls, cars, packaging, and food products. The quality of food packaging is essential due to its direct or indirect contact with food. The demand for high-quality food packaging is increasing due to the higher production and consumption rates. However, containers used in the beverage industry often face problems like scratches and abrasions during transportation. This study aimed to investigate different formulations of external coatings for beverage cans to improve their physical resistance properties and prevent corrosion and surface damage problems. The study involved reacting an acrylic resin with six different amino resins, including methylated melamine, butylated melamine, glycoluril, methylated urea, butylated urea, and benzoguanamine, in various proportions. The results of 25 formulated samples were compared based on properties such as adhesion, durability, and chemical resistance. The outcomes of the study showed significant differences among the crosslinking agents. Among all the crosslinking agents, methylated melamine showed the most favorable results in the analyses, proving effective in almost all tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing food waste, natural resource depletion, and climate change issues have forced plastic food packaging (PFP) companies to align their business strategies with sustainability aspects. At the same time, however, companies operating in the food packaging industry continue to face tensions while pursuing divergent sustainability goals simultaneously. Drawing on paradox theory, this study aims to examine paradoxical sustainability tensions in the PFP industry and propose potential resolution strategies to resolve diverse tensions arising from addressing competing social, economic, and environmental concerns simultaneously. To this end, we employed a qualitative research methodology and interviewed 15 senior corporate managers and consultants in the PFP industry. Based on the empirical data, we develop categories of sustainability tensions related to operations and supply chain, recycling, and external stakeholders associated with performing, organizing, learning, and belonging paradoxes. Further, we propose resolution strategies including multi‐stakeholder collaboration, research and innovation, circular economy, and use of integrated business strategies which are aligned with the acceptance, spatial separation, temporal separation, and synthesis approaches of the paradox theory. To the best of our knowledge, it is one of the early studies that embrace a paradox lens to investigate the sustainability tensions and resolution strategies in the PFP industry. Further, the study results could guide practitioners and policymakers in the PFP industry to comprehend underlying paradoxical sustainability tensions and promote resolution strategies to address divergent yet desirable economic, social, and environmental considerations simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The valorization of bioeconomy by-products holds immense significance in achieving sustainability goals and fostering resource efficiency, not only to reduce the amount of waste generated but also to significantly decrease the carbon footprint associated with several industrial fields, by promoting circular economy. The wine industry is not only one of the major contributors for world’s economy but also a great producer of by-products, with no valorization process associated. Grape stalks are a great source of chemical molecules, as polyphenols, that can be applied in the production of bio-adhesives. In the present work, grape stalk particles were used as raw material to obtain a highly rich extract with bonding properties through solid/liquid extraction. Different extraction agents were tested (water, NaOH, and Na2CO3) at varied concentrations (0.1%, 0.5%, and 1.0%, respectively). Additionally, extracts were chemically characterized, and the bonding capacity was also evaluated. Using NaOH 1.0%, an extraction efficiency of 8.9% and a total content of polyphenols of 1.4% were achieved. Moreover, all extracts presented an interesting bonding capacity (>1.0 MPa) by hot-press at 120°C for 120 s. The composite panel produced using grape stalk adhesive and vine strain particles fulfills the requirements for type P1 particleboards in terms of internal bond strength, reaching 0.66 MPa. The mechanical and wettability properties of composite material allow foreseeing a promising application in the food packaging industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study delves into the impact of waste silicon-based materials on the mechanical characteristics of the resulting cement pastes. The investigation uses Portland cement CEM I 42.5R in conjunction with silicon-based waste materials sourced from the packaging industry, specifically from Recifa, a.s. Variations between the sample groups arise from differences in the concentration of silicon-based materials and the method of surface treatment. The inquiry seeks to assess the effects of two distinct levels of Si-based material incorporation, namely 10 wt.% and 20 wt. %, along with plasma treatment involving two different gases: oxygen (O2) and hydrogen (H2). The mechanical attributes under scrutiny encompass compressive and flexural strengths. The evaluation of mechanical properties is carried out on samples aged 28 days, with dimensions measuring 20 × 20 × 100 mm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In accordance with the Circular Economy Package of the European directive, the Spanish government compels manufacturers of plastic bags to include into their products a minimum of 70% of polyethylene (PE) waste. Following this mandate can be challenging and requires a deep knowledge of the alterations produced by the recycling in the main components of a plastic bag film: lineal low-density polyethylene (LLDPE), the LLDPE recycled post-industry, generated as waste from an industrial process (rLLDPE) and the PE recycled from post-consumer use (rPE), that has been picked up, cleaned, and reprocessed. This study provides insight in the macro and microstructural changes produced by several cycles of recycling in these materials. Specimens in the form of film for supermarket bags formed with these polymers have been subjected to several recycling sequences. The process closely mimics industrial processes. Four cycles have been applied to the samples. The evolution of mechanical properties, including tensile strength, elongation at break, and tear and impact tests, shows an obvious decrease due to degradation that is not an impediment for practical use after the four cycles of recycling according to the main specifications defined by the producer. Colorimetric measurements reveal no significant variations in the color of the films. The results of the FTIR and TGA analysis show degradation phenomena and changes in crystallinity in branching and the apparition of crosslinking that are in consonance with the mechanical data. There is also a difference between both types of recycled PE. In general, rLLDPE is more affected by the recycling than rPE. According to our findings, the limiting property would be the tearing. By comparing these values with bags available in the market, manufactured from 70–80% recycled material, we can infer that while two reprocessing cycles can lead to good results, a maximum of four cycles of recycling is advisable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]