Life-cycle analysis 'too complex' to communicate to consumer

packagingnews.co.uk: "Life-cycle analysis is 'too complex' to be used to convey information about the environmental impact of packaging to consumers, according to industry association European Bioplastics.

European Bioplastics (EB) said that while life cycle assessment (LCA) was a good for assessing environmental performance, turning the information into 'messages that are commonly understandable calls for other tools'.

An EB spokeswoman told Packaging News there was a 'lively discussion' about product labelling, and the organisation will evaluate the situation next year."

Lusosider cuts 90% of employment contracts

Metal Bulletin: "Portugal-based hot-dipped galv and tinplate producers, Lusosider, is temporarily laying off around 90% of its workforce due to weak demand for steel caused..."

Packaging award for Rasselstein

Your Metal News: "Andernach/Germany-based Rasselstein GmbH and Soudronic AG of Switzerland have jointly won the 31st German Packaging Award. ThyssenKrupp Steel subsidiary Rasselstein is Germany's only producer of tinplate. Soudronic AG produces can welding lines. The two companies received the internationally renowned award from the German Packaging Institute for a newly developed food can production line.

The line achieves 30 percent higher productivity than conventional machines and is capable of processing ultra-thin tinplate sheet. The thinner material allows more cans to be produced per ton of tinplate, while the lower weight reduces transportation and storage costs. Rasselstein and Soudronic submitted a joint entry for the German Packaging Award.

Rasselstein was involved in the development of the new line and provided tinplate material only 0.1 millimeter thick. This is 23 percent thinner than the lightest-gauge packaging steel previously available and sets a new standard. Presented for the first time at the METPACK show in spring 2008, the ultra-thin tinplate is available in a wide range of strengths and is suitable for use both in three-piece welded food cans or, for example, as microwave trays."

FLEXILINE Project

Impress set to raise metal packaging prices in 2009

packagingnews.co.uk: "Impress, the metal packaging giant, is set to increase its prices in 2009 following huge hikes in the cost of tinplate.

The Paris-based multinational, which produces food cans, paint tins, aerosols among other types of metal packs, has not yet revealed the extent of the price rises it will be seeking.

However, it has said that the move has been forced by its tinplate suppliers raising their prices by 50% to 80% earlier in the year.

Chief executive Francis Labbe said that the company had negotiated the best tinplate prices available to us not only in Europe but in the world for 2009 but that it would nevertheless have to pass on some of the increase to customers."

Characterization of anodic tin passive films formed in citrate buffer solutions

Scopus : "Voltammetry, chronoamperometry and SEM were employed to derive mechanistic information about the electroreduction processes that take place after cathodic polarization of a previously oxidized tin surface. 

This information proved useful to gain a deeper insight into the complex passivation process as well as into the passive layer changes generated by the anodizing procedure."

Dofasco spending $5 million on sewer crackdown

DundasStarNews.com:: "ArcelorMittal Dofasco are spending $5 million to upgrade a biological pretreatment plant to meet what a company official calls “pretty strict” sewer bylaw limits enacted by city council two years ago.

Jim Stirling, general manager of environment, said work will proceed in three phases to address over-limit levels of cyanide, fluoride and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons."

We are watching you closely, Impress boss tells tinplate mills

The Canmaker: "We are watching you closely, Impress boss tells tinplate mills

December 8: The boss of a leading canmaking company has told tinplate suppliers to “recognise the current economic cycle in their pricing” and to provide a supply service that matches recent dramatic price increases."

Francis Labbé, chief executive of Impress Metal Packaging, the world’s leading producer of cans for sea foods and one of the leaders in food and industrial cans in Europe, said that disruptions in the supply of tinplate had resulted from mill capacity cuts and the diversion of raw materials away from tinplate products.

Yet as tinplate prices had increased by between 50 and 80 percent, canmakers’ customers in the food and drinks industries had seen input costs falling, he said.

Labbé warned that he would be watching how the tinplate mills would be managing their supply chain and pricing. “We are monitoring their positions closely,” he said.