Dr. Rick Michelman, currently Chief Technology Officer & Executive Vice President (EVP), Americas and Printing & Packaging, will become President & CEO. He has been with the company for more than 25 years, acquiring broad operation and market knowledge by serving in many organizational roles, including product development, technology management, business development, regional leadership, and business segment leadership. Furthermore, his background as a chemist gives him an understanding of the sustainable solutions Michelman continues to innovate globally.

Andrew Michelman, the company’s Chief Business Development Officer and EVP, Asia and Fibers & Composites, will assume additional leadership responsibility for Michelman’s Americas region and Coatings business segment. In his expanded role, Mr. Michelman will oversee the commercial operations in Asia and the Americas and manage the strategic directions and operations of the Fibers & Composites and Coatings business segments. He joined Michelman in 2015 after accumulating over 20 years of global M&A experience. In addition, he has worked in investment banking with Citigroup in New York and London and as a strategy and corporate development consultant with European-based manufacturer Valliant Group.

Paul Griffith, Michelman’s Chief Marketing Officer & EVP, EMEA and Agriculture, will add leadership of its Printing & Packaging business segment to his responsibilities. He takes over the business segment’s leadership from Dr. Rick Michelman as he transitions to President & CEO. Mr. Griffith will maintain his leadership over organization-wide Marketing, the EMEA region, and the Agriculture business segment. He came to Michelman in 2016 with almost 30 years’ career in the chemical industry, where he held senior and executive leadership positions at The Dow Chemical Company, ExxonMobil, and Jindal Films, including assignments in Europe, Asia, and the United States.

Jason Wise, appointed Chief Financial Officer in 2019, will assume the role of Chief Financial & Risk Officer responsible for the direction and operations of Michelman’s Finance, Accounting, Legal, Regulatory, and Environmental Health & Safety functions. Previous to joining Michelman in 2012, Mr. Wise held senior-level managerial and auditing positions at global, mid-to-large-sized market companies, including Baker Concrete Construction, Sun Chemical, Deloitte, and Arthur Anderson.

Kreg Keesee will remain as Chief Operating Officer (COO) after being appointed in 2020. He joined Michelman in 2016 as Chief Supply Chain Officer and has since transitioned to Chief Administrative Officer and then COO. He currently has leadership and management responsibility for Human Resources, Operations, Supply Chain, and Information Technology. Before joining Michelman, Mr. Keesee worked in finance at Procter & Gamble and held senior and executive leadership positions with Sun Chemical. At Sun Chemical, he had a series of posts with increasing responsibility, including Vice President Global Supply Chain, Vice President - Global Business Transformation, and Chief Information Officer and Vice President – Sun Graphics Division.

Explains Steve Shifman, the company’s outgoing President and CEO, “These executive appointments provide leadership continuity and support the momentum we have for delivering on our purpose of Innovating a Sustainable Future. We have deployed exceptional talent to ensure that we continue to be more vital and impactful than ever before, as there is increased demand for our sustainable solutions in the coatings, printing & packaging, and fibers & composites markets.”

Mr. Shifman will transition to Executive Chair in 2022 after leading the company for nearly twenty years. During his tenure, Michelman has expanded its global footprint and significantly grown in size and profitability. As a result, more than 50% of its business is currently being generated outside of the United States.

Adds Mr. Shifman, “It’s an exciting time at Michelman. Our foundation is strong, and we are committed to building the business for generations to come.”

‘We are investing continuously in the research and use of alternative, bio-based packaging materials to complement our product portfolio,’ stated Christian Zmölnig, Director Corporate Research, Development and Innovation at ALPLA. ‘Now we are looking forward to bringing our expertise into the new cooperation with Glatfelter and BOC.’

As part of this sustainable partnership, ALPLA and Glatfelter are joining together to invest in the development of high-quality cellulose-based products like screw caps that are fully bio-based and potentially ocean biodegradable. This unique collaboration will support BOC in its product development and shorten time to market even further.

‘This partnership brings together like-minded companies that share similar sustainable objectives and goals,’ said Chris Astley, Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer of Glatfelter. ‘We are excited to partner with ALPLA and BOC to make more innovative and eco-friendly products that will have a lasting effect on our world.’

Lars Sandberg, Chief Executive Officer of BOC, said: ‘We are pleased about the partnership with leading companies from the industry. In addition to a common vision for a sustainable future, they also bring enormous competencies in the field of production technology and materials science into our company.’

Advancing the circular economy
The partnership with Glatfelter and BOC is in line with ALPLA’s strategic focus of increased investment in the circular economy. The four Rs – Replace, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle – are crucial in order to advance forward-looking activities and to identify areas of action.

The Replace research field comprises research into and the use of alternative, bio-based and recyclable materials to expand and complement the product portfolio.

ALPLA has been involved in the development of paper-based bottles with the company Paboco since 2019, and in 2018 unveiled a home-compostable coffee capsule to the public.

Reduce focuses on an ongoing reduction in material consumption, Reuse is all about optimising the properties of plastic bottles for reuse systems, and Recycle addresses the overarching objective of keeping as much plastic as possible in the recycling cycle.

• Syntegon develops new paper-based packaging concept for “PACK4SENSE” project
• Optimized recyclability thanks to easier separation of all packaging components

Together with partners from industry and research, namely Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging in Dresden, Colruyt Group, Strauss Group and the University of Reading, Syntegon is implementing the EIT project “PACK4SENSE” (Paper packaging for SENSitive foods) to develop a sustainable packaging concept. EIT Food, the world’s largest and most dynamic innovation community, is supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union.

OPTIMAL RECYCLABILITY THANKS TO PAPER AND MONO-MATERIAL
The aim of the project is to pack even sensitive products with high barrier properties in more sustainable materials. Syntegon uses a special paper, which is particularly stretchable and tearproof thanks to long cellulose fibers, thus enabling the production of sealed trays and cups with a depth of up to 30 millimeters.

A recycable barrier layer made of 95 percent mono-materials provides optimal product protection. The paper and the barrier layer, as well as the cover film can be easily separated, ensuring full utilization of its recyclability.

This sustainability advantage, however, also poses challenges for packaging manufacturers. On the one hand, consumers should be able to separate all components for waste sorting. On the other hand, paper and film must not be detached from each other unintenionally. To prevent this from happening, the TPU paper forming, filling and sealing machine from Syntegon forms paper and barrier layer in a common process by thermoforming and pressing. “With the paper-based trays from the “PACK4SENSE” project, we have further developed our previous paper packaging solutions like the shaped paper pods – structured paper trays for the packaging of cosmetics and confectionery,” explains Matthias Klauser, project manager and sustainability expert at Syntegon.

TPU BRINGS PAPER AND BARRIER LAYER TOGETHER
The TPU has already been honored with the German Packaging Award in 2020 and is Syntegon’s flagship machine for paper forming. For the PACK4SENSE trays and cups, the paper runs directly from the roll into the feeder – the barrier layer required for sealing is applied and joined to the paper without any further conversion step. Alternatively, manufacturers can use a converter to connect paper and protective layer of mono-material without heating. A forming station presses the materials into shape before the trays are filled and sealed. In addition to using a particularly stretchable paper that can withstand wrinkling during the forming process, it is important to preserve the separability of the materials: a specially adapted geometry of the forming tools reduces the tension on the materials during the manufacturing process.

Syntegon is continously working on further developing its paper-forming technology. EIT Food enables the company to work closely with important partners and to test products together with consumers and food manufacterers. This cooperation makes it possible to develop prototypes and solutions that meet product requirements and optimize the sustainability of packaging step by step.

In-depth research is being co-funded with Innovate UK and will closely follow consumers as they plan at home, engage in-store, and decant and sore products back at home.

Marcus Gover, chief executive WRAP, said: “We’ve seen Pact members introducing some successful small-scale trials of refills, but we know we need more evidence to understand how these can be rolled out on a wider-scale and become part of our daily shopping habits. No-one has looked at re-use and refill behaviours on this scale before, and I’m delighted that we are able to do this in partnership with two of our founding UK Plastics Pact members, Asda and Unilever. This way of shopping needs to become a habit if we are going to make serious headway in eliminating unnecessary plastic packaging and meet the targets of The UK Plastics Pact.

“This study holds the answers to developing re-use and refill systems that meet the needs of shoppers who want to protect their environment, but also in a cost-effective and convenient way.”

Susan Thomas, Asda senior director, sustainable commercial activities, added: “We know that customers want to do their bit to reduce their carbon footprint and we are always working with them and our partners such as Unilever on new ways to make refill as hassle free and also as cost effective as possible. Removing price as a barrier to purchase is essential to persuade shoppers to embrace refill and our Greener at Asda Price promise ensures that all loose products are sold at the same price or less per kg than packaged equivalents. We are really pleased with the enthusiasm customers have shown in our four refill stores and this WRAP research will help us shape our next steps as we persuade more customers to embrace this form of shopping when they have been used to the convenience and ease of buying sealed products.”

Yvette Edwards, Unilever UK and Ireland communications and corporate affairs director said: “We need to make it as easy as possible for people to make sustainable choices every day. We believe reusable packaging could help reduce plastic waste at scale, but it is a totally new way of shopping requiring new behaviours at-home and in-store. To encourage and enable more people to trial our reusable products and to continue to buy them in the longer term, we are pleased to be working with our partners WRAP and Asda so we can test and learn together and gather insight on what will work most effectively.”