The Dow Chemical Company (Dow) has announced the winners of the 2018 30^th Awards for Packaging Innovation. The ultimate honor, the Diamond Award, went to Procter & Gamble’s Air Assist, “a breakthrough in performance and sustainability for e-commerce and brick-and-mortar packaging.”

The liquid packaging technology uses compressed gas to provide tailored rigidity to create structure in flexible films. By utilizing a proprietary one-way valve, the new packaging form delivers cleaner dispensing, more controlled dosing and more convenient one-handed use while still being tough enough for e-commerce shipping without extra protection. Air Assist also uses 50% less plastic than a traditional rigid bottle and has a 360° palette for design, making it a more resource-efficient solution.

“We received hundreds of very strong submissions this year, collectively demonstrating a deep global commitment to serving consumer needs and addressing worldwide challenges,” said Diego Donoso, business president for Dow Packaging & Specialty Plastics. “This year’s winners display customer-first designs with improvements in material technology and responsible resource use, from new formats in food packaging and e-commerce protection to improved medical and hygiene packaging.”

Another winner in the awards dispensed with compressed air in a technology used to blow-mold a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) hand wash bottle. LiquiForm technology from Amcor Rigid Plastics. uses the packaged product instead of compressed air to simultaneously form and fill containers. In this case, the hand soap essentially forms its own rigid PET container using the LiquiForm process. By combining the forming and filling into one step, the process eliminates costs associated with the equipment and energy of the traditional blow molding process along with the handling, transport, and warehousing of empty containers.

Amcor partnered with Greenblendz, a Michigan-based co-packer and developer of private label, environmentally-friendly consumer products, to develop and commercialize packaging for the Nature’s Promise brand of hand soap. Amcor produced the 12-oz PET bottle on a proprietary Amcor-built machine powered by the LiquiForm process.

The judges evaluated more than 200 entries from companies in 30 countries. In addition to the Diamond Award, the top honor of the competition, the judges also selected nine Diamond Finalist Winners, eight Gold Award Winners and eleven

Diamond Finalists

Gold Award Winners

Silver Award Winners