Zacros America is a flexible packaging manufacturer focusing on sustainability with specialties in liquid packaging. The company provides monolayer and multilayer packaging products, including bulk liquid containers, CUBITAINER®, and flexible pouch. ZACROS has more than 50 years of liquid packaging experience. Zacros doesn’t just manufactures packaging. The company works together with customers to help them guide finding the suitable packaging and provide downstream solutions.
Easy Engineering: What are the main areas of activity of the company?
ZACROS: The main areas of activity of ZACROS are manufacturing sustainable liquid packaging and educating the benefits of flexible packaging. Especially these days, plastics have a negative reputation. However, flexible packaging using plastics can help reduce overall carbon footprints by offering more prolonged shelf life and better protection and using fewer resources. Providing educational content such as the video “Ways to reduce plastic in packaging” or the blog “4 Reasons to Choose Flexible Refill Package” helps brand owners and consumers understand the scientific facts, promoting flexible packaging.
E.E: What’s the news about new products?
ZACROS: ZACROS launched our latest monomaterial flexible packaging series called MONOSOLUTIONS™. The MONOSOLUTIONS™ helps to reduce environmental impacts in two ways. First, the MONOSOLUTIONS™ is recycle-ready packaging. The traditional flexible packaging uses multilayer materials to develop barrier properties. However, this MONOSOTIONS™ series is made with a single material for better recyclability while offering superior performance. Second, the MONOSOLUTIONS™ is a flexible packaging, which reduces the amount of plastic used significantly compared to rigid packaging. Combining recyclability and fewer materials makes the MONOSOLUTIONS™ ideal packaging for better sustainability.
E.E: What are the ranges of products?
ZACROS: ZACROS offers various size ranges of liquid flexible packaging from 80ml to 20L. The main application of our flexible pouch is home & personal care. CUBITAINER® can be used for more aggressive chemicals, including agriculture fertilizer, reagents, and industrial chemicals. We also have an in-house injection molding manufacturing capability to produce custom fitments.
E.E: What can you tell us about market trends?
ZACROS: In the packaging industry, flexible packaging is one of the fastest-growing segments globally because of its performance and sustainability benefits.
Different products need different packaging requirements. Some products need moisture and oxygen barrier properties, and some products need aroma protection properties. Flexible packaging can combine various materials easily to provide the optimal protection for any product. That is why flexible packaging has been utilized in a wide range of applications.
In addition, flexible packaging improves sustainability in many ways. It uses fewer resources. Considering the actual current global recycling rate, reducing resources in the first place significantly impacts sustainability. For example, the 1L product fits in either a rigid bottle that weighs 110g or a flexible pouch that weighs 30g. Suppose the recycling rate of the recyclable rigid bottle is 50%. That means 55g of plastic will go to the landfill. Since typically flexible packaging uses multiple layers with different materials, it is hard to recycle. However, even the flexible pouch does not get recycled, only 30g will go to the landfill. Recyclability has been challenging for flexible packaging, but we have seen tremendous improvements in the last few years. As more recyclable flexible packaging, such as the MONOSOLUTIONS™ series, is coming out to the market, it is expected to see more demands for flexible packaging in the future.
E.E: What are the most innovative products marketed?
ZACROS: A global brand owner just launched their haircare product with our MONOSOLUTIONS™ monomaterial flexible pouch in Japan this year. Monomaterial flexible pouch has been challenging for liquid applications due to its performance and technical limitations. However, ZACROS improved the durability of the monomaterial flexible pouch and added an aroma protection barrier property through an enhanced converting process while meeting the recycling guidelines such as CEFLEX. We have not seen this level of innovation with liquid flexible packaging globally, so we are very excited about this newest innovation.
E.E: What estimations do you have for 2022?
ZACROS: ZACROS group has manufacturing sites in Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, and the US. We are currently expanding US flexible pouch manufacturing capability to support the Americas and EU markets. Moreover, ZACROS is continuously developing unique innovations that improve performance and consumer usability, which helps to promote flexible packaging. We will widen our MONOSOLUTIONS™ products to support different levels of sustainability needs.