amcor rigid plastics, one of the world&rsquos leading manufacturers of rigid plastic packaging for food, beverage, spirits, personalhome care and healthcare industries, has been recognized by the grandes cases de embalagem, a brazilian packaging award competition sponsored by embalagem e marca magazine, a leading trade magazine based in são paulo. amcor captured the packaging award for its innovative designs for cocacola carbonated soft drink bottle, unilever condiment bottle, and johnson & johnson shampoo container.the award presentation was made november 18 at senac university center, in são paulo. the award ceremony brought together more than 450 attendees, including representatives of the user industry, converters, design agencies, and raw material manufacturers and equipment makers. the grandes cases de embalagem design competition encourages and values the pursuit of excellence in brazilian packaging. the competition honors those companies who excel in optimizing design packaging elements and deliver functionality and performance for the user company and the consumer. the entries are judged on key features and attributes including material reduction, online productivity, costcutting, innovation, value, design, environmental impact, performance at point of sale, and convenience.&ldquowe are delighted to be recognized with this honor for our longstanding commitment to innovation,&rdquo said juan procel, commercial director of amcor&rsquos brazil business unit. &ldquowe&rsquore thrilled that we have developed gamechanging packages that are highly functional, provide longterm production savings, and deliver major sustainability benefits.&rdquoamcor was recognized for its development of a 15g polyethylene terephthalate pet preform for cocacola&rsquos 200ml contour carbonated soft drink csd bottle. compared to the previous 20.6gram preform, the new preform is approximately 33 lighter and exceeds co2 loss requirements, maintaining a minimum shelf life of 63 days. through extensive design enhancements, amcor was able to optimize stress ratios and molecular orientation. despite the weight reduction, functionality and performance were maintained. the material reduction also increases the bottle&rsquos recyclability and reduces the energy needed for its production, dramatically decreasing the package&rsquos environmental footprint. cradletogate greenhouse gas emissions and energy use are cut by over 25, according to calculations performed using amcor&rsquos asset tm streamline life cycle assessment software.amcor was also honored for its development of ergonomically designed upsidedown condiment containers for unilever&rsquos hellmann&rsquos brand products. the ambientfilled 350ml 21g preform and 175ml 17g preform bottles underwent preferential heating and indexing to optimize finish orientation. a major challenge was aligning the elliptical closure to the bottle shape. amcor used finite element analysis fea to adjust the preform and the overall design to enhance blowing and adaptability to the filling line. the bottles &ndash which are targeted for ketchup, salad dressing, and mustard &ndash are manufactured inline at unilever&rsquos filling operation in goiania, goias.amcor was also cited for its conversion of johnson & johnson&rsquos baby shampoo product to 50 postconsumer recycled pcr polyethylene terephthalate pet bottles. the 200ml bottles, originally in virgin resin, are the first pcr containers for j&j, which gained major sustainability benefits with the switch to pcr resin. by converting to 50 pcr resin, j&j reduced its pet packaging carbon footprint by 27.amcor is a leader in advancing the use of pcr pet resin in a range of packaging. the company incorporates varying percentages of pcr for other customers throughout the americas.>> for more information, click here 
