Hindustan Tin Works wins IPA award
Indian can maker Hindustan Tin Works has won the IPA Innovation Award for its Canvironment Week initiative.
The International Packaging Association (IPA) promotes the inherent material and environmental value of steel packaging. There is a need for the market and the consumer to understand the win-win situation for economy and ecology in the use of metal packaging. Innovation in the metal packaging sector can be driven by environmental challenges.
Members of the IPA are aware of this fact and stimulate the innovation process within the group by annually presenting the Innovation Award.
The IPA technical and marketing committees constantly discuss this topic and exchange ideas on how to make the tin can more attractive to the consumer. Since 2007 the IPA General Assembly has rewarded its group’s most innovative metal can development with the Innovation Award.
At the latest General Assembly in San Marino, Italy in June 2011 the 5th IPA Innovation Award was presented to Hindustan Tin Works (HTW) for the creation of Canvironment Week, a global initiative to promote the sustainability of metal cans.
Sanjay Bhatia (pictured right), managing director of HTW, said: “This award strengthens our belief that the movement of Canvironment Week is a move in the right direction to promote and position metal packaging with the final consumers and also to connect the industry with society at large. It is indeed quite encouraging and motivating for all of us at HTW and clearly bestows further responsibility on us to excel it further this year.”
Canvironment Week is a movement to stimulate metal packaging, its recycling and green character via multiple activities and media with like-minded international partners across the world.
Antonio Teixeira (pictured left), who has recently been appointed president of the IPA, added: “It was a pleasure for me to deliver the IPA Innovation Award to Hindustan Tin Works. It was the first time that the award was not given to a specific product, but to an event. Sustainability is the key word today, especially for packaging in post-consumer waste streams. Unfortunately, can makers have so far not been very successful in promoting the exceptional competitive advantages of metal in terms of sustainability. To cite just one aspect, the recycling of metal cans is profitable due to the fact that metals when recycled do not degrade and are in huge demand in the market. It is up to our industry to promote the metal can. Actions like Canvironment Week are welcome and deserving of institutional rewards.”
The International Packaging Association unites major independent metal packaging companies from four continents. Its mission is to secure the global information exchange between independent can makers worldwide and to enhance the technical and environmental expertise of each company.
