SternMaid Revamps Packaging Line

SternMaid has commissioned a filling line with the option of an environment-friendly closure for spiral-wound cardboard cans. The contract manufacturer has added flexible filling equipment for them. Besides the classic tinplate bottoms, the cans can now be closed with a cardboard base to make them over 95% recyclable. From dry beverage bases, dietetic drinks, and food supplements to products for athletes and foods for special medicinal purposes, SternMaid can fill a wide range of powdered products on the new line.

Since the can body with a cardboard bottom consists of over 95% paper and the interior and exterior lamination is very thin, it may be disposed of along with the wastepaper. Another advantage is its lower weight: an empty can with a cardboard bottom, a diameter of 99 mm and a height of 180 mm, for example, is about 13.6% lighter than the same can with a tinplate base.

“We have chosen to invest in cardboard can bottoms as an optional alternative closure (…) That greatly improves their recyclability. The traditional seal, a permanently seamed-on tinplate bottom, posed a major problem in the reprocessing of recyclable materials”, said Mark Riemer, commercial director of SternMaid.