Dialog on metal containers

In an interview with Anfima, Aldo Sutter talks about packaging, drawing attention to the advantages which steel and aluminium packaging carry for concerns, consumers... and the environment.

Sutter is an Italian family-owned multinational that manufactures and distributes cleaning, care and disinfectant products for the home and workplace.
Since most of “their” packaging consists in metal containers, the company is especially qualified to lay out qualities and strongpoints. The concern’s managing director, engineer Aldo Sutter, speaks with Anfima* on wider topics of environmental sustainability and the market, not missing a chance to emphasize “the eco-compatibility, resistance, safety and capacity for guaranteeing a longer shelf life” of metal packaging.

Can sustainability represent a competitive advantage for concerns?
Certainly. According to recent research, more than a third of consumers demonstrate sensitivity to environmental issues, paying careful attention to sustainable products and packaging, but also waste sorting. In fact, an increasing awareness of the meaning and importance of one’s individual contribution to safeguarding the environment is emerging.

Having always been attentive to issues of sustainability, Sutter dedicates a lot to research and innovation. Which criteria guide your choices in this area?
Innovation and safeguarding the environment are the DNA of Sutter. For an example of our constant research into sustainable solutions, there is the Emulsio Mangiapolvere line. For this line of specific home cleaning products, in fact, we use steel spray cans that can be recycled forever, but also a new compressed air technology that does not use other gases, with a considerable benefit to the environment.

How much does the choice of container factor into a product’s success?
A lot. The container is the first “moment” of contact with the consumers that is available to a brand. And the consumer is looking for products that are practical to use and with eco-friendly packaging: for this reason we have chosen to use metal packaging, in steel or aluminium, which offer guarantees of both safety and efficiency. These are qualities that, along with their practicality, can’t help but add to the value of the product itself.

What are the strengths of metal containers for a user concern?
Metal is a valuable resource that lasts forever, with unique sustainability characteristics, first of all because it can be easily recycled. Furthermore, from a production standpoint, metal packaging enables greater filling speeds, which carries significant savings in terms of costs and energy, with positive repercussions also on the environment, of course. Other economies derive from the potential reduction of secondary packaging used. They are also unbreakable and, consequently, easily stackable for transport or storage.
Not to be forgotten, lastly, are the benefits of a prolonged product shelf life and safety guarantees, which are fundamental for distributors as well as consumers.

Safety and recyclability: how to extract value and communicate to consumers these characteristics of metal packaging?
For example by focusing on the fact that metal containers boast the highest recycling rate in Europe and can be recycled forever without losing any of their characteristics.
For our part, with the intention of bringing value and making immediately recognizable these qualities of metal packaging, we have decided to be the first to adopt the Metalleco certificate, for our Emulsio Mangiapolvere spray can line. Promoted by Anfima, Metalleco is an eco-sustainability logo that can be affixed to labels, and in such a way consumers know they are choosing the “most recycled” packaging in Europe.

Recycling: metal packaging on the cutting edge
Wtih a rate of 73%, steel and aluminium packaging is the most recycled in Europe. Ellen Wauters, communication officer of Empac (European Metal Packaging, www.empac.eu) explains: «The goal of our industry is to reach a European average recycling rate of 80% by 2020, guaranteeing that metal remains on the forefront of more efficient and sustainable packaging materials. A benefit to the environment, the economy and consumers».  Excellence has also been achieved in Italy: compared to the amount put on the market, the 2012 numbers show 75.5% of steel packaging (+2.9% compared to the previous year) and 61.6% of aluminium packaging was recycled.

Anfima is the Confindustria association that represents Italian metal packaging manufacturers.