New packaging partnership offers clear benefits

Polythene packaging manufacturer, Duo UK, has announced a new partnership with masterbatch specialist, Colloids, in a move which Duo says allows it to achieve its 97 percent opacity guarantee for mailing bags while reducing waste and lowering costs.

The project has already reportedly seen masterbatch usage reduced by five percent, while rejected spools have fallen by 20 percent.

Manchester-based Duo UK manufactures 125m polythene mailing bags annually for clients from the e-tail, retail and mail order and industrial sectors, many of which demand high levels of opacity. Duo approached Colloids with a challenge to achieve consistency across its most popular mailing bags whilst reducing the amount of virgin material used and waste produced.

“We produce products for likes of ASOS, J D Williams and F+F at Tesco so providing a quality product is incredibly important, but in order to ensure our competitiveness and meet our environmental responsibilities, we also need to minimise wastage,” explained Duo UK’s Operations Director, Dale Brimelow.

“Clearly, given the significant volumes of opacity-critical film we produce, if we are able to reduce the dosage of masterbatch and improve the consistency of output, this will help us achieve on both these fronts.”

In order to achieve its mission, Colloids’ R&D department utilised the latest technology laboratory cast film and its ability to measure the opacity level in correlation with Duo’s opacity meter. Using these techniques Colloids ran trials across seven colours of polythene film and achieved 97 percent opacity readings for the seven thicknesses specified by Duo, which ranged from 40-100 micron.

Following the research phase, Colloids produced a bespoke opacity chart for Duo UK which detailed masterbatch addition levels for each colour and thickness of polythene tested, thereby ensuring the risk of overdosing on expensive masterbatch was removed while the number of spools rejected for low opacity was also reduced.

“This project will have a significant impact on our operational efficiency and reduces our environmental footprint, which in turn allows us to offer a more cost effective solution to clients,” continued Brimelow.

Bob Thomas from Colloids added: “From our perspective this has also been a hugely beneficial project – as well as ensuring we have a happy client, the body of knowledge we built up during the trials for Duo will stand us in excellent stead for developing new masterbatches and meeting and exceeding our customers’ expectations in the future.”