CROWN ACHIEVES A HISTORIC MILESTONE: REDUCING THE WEIGHT OF ITS BEVCAN

The multinational Crown has achieved a historic achievement in the metal packaging industry: after years of arduous research, it has succeeded in reducing the weight of its Bevcan. Specifically, this incredible lightweighting project has led to an overall average reduction of 4% in the weight of standard 330 ml aluminum cans.

For decades, the multinational has been promoting initiatives that help to improve sustainability and provide solutions to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.  The CTS team, comprised of expert engineers who provide training and production analysis support, was instrumental in ensuring that these lighter cans did not sacrifice performance or the critical barrier and strength properties demanded by brand owners.

“This is reflected in our Twentyby30 sustainability strategy, which includes a commitment to devote at least half of our research and development (R&D) efforts to minimizing the footprint of our products and manufacturing processes. Our ambitious plan also strives to decrease GHG emissions by reducing the use of packaging material by making aluminum cans 10% lighter in weight by 2030.”The company itself points out.

In addition, the lightweighting efforts add to the superior properties of the metal in terms of recyclability and the benefits are compounded as the material is cycled through the process over and over again. Weight reductions allow us to produce more cans with the same amount of aluminum previously used for standard cans, which has a positive impact on GHG emissions through energy savings.

Precisely to celebrate these achievements, the company launched its own commemorative can, known as ‘Libra’. Weighing less than 10 grams, the commemorative cans were decorated with advanced Accents™ variable printing technology and feature 24 different variations printed in two runs. All of them were manufactured at the Kechnec plant in Slovakia.

In addition, all Crown employees in the EMEA region received a personalized can of ‘Libra’ as part of the celebration. The design also features a quick response (QR) code that links directly to a fun and engaging augmented reality experience about recycling, developed by Zappar. Players were challenged to recycle cans to earn points and were able to take a quiz to test their knowledge of metal recyclability and increase education on the topic.