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Clever cartons add a playful twist to egg packaging

Colorful Eggyplay cartons are designed to have a second life as a plastic brick to stretch children’s imaginations.

Rick Lingle, Senior Technical Editor

January 11, 2017

2 Min Read
Clever cartons add a playful twist to egg packaging

Build a better mousetrap? Unless you’re in the rodent-killing business, my suggestion is to put your efforts into building better packaging. And whatever packaging you’re working on, it’s better when the post-packaging life is considered.

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Consider as an example an egg carton that has a second life that’s so seamless that it’s literally child’s play for millions: Eggyplay egg cartons (or boxes). Besides offering an eye-catching distinctive take on conventional egg carton packaging, the ingenious design leverages the durability of plastic—polypropylene, specifically—in a second life as a building block for children.

Does it also remind you of a certain children’s plastic brick building set known worldwide? There’s a good reason for that. But first some Eggyplay facts; they:

  • Provide a distinctive look on shelf;

  • Are available in four colors, blue, pink, yellow and green;

  • Are decorated using in-mold labeling printed using vegetable-based inks;

  • Are dishwasher safe;

  • Are recyclable; and

  • Weigh less than standard egg boxes and take up half the space when opened and stacked.

An all-in-one plastics and packaging event makes a convenient integrated location for 20,000-plus industry professionals expected in Anaheim, CA, Feb. 7 to 9, 2017 during PLASTEC West and Medical Design & Manufacturing (MD&M) West co-located with WestPack. For more information and to register to attend, visit the PLASTEC West website.

Brand owner DAVA Foods A/S (Hadsund, Denmark) hatched a patent-pending design to create a value-added carton provided through the brand owner’s Twinpack Special Products BV (Barneveld, Denmark) division. That Eggyplay bears a striking resemblance to the ubiquitous Lego is entirely by design, according to that division’s managing director Jacco Wagelaar.

“In 2010, after the Lego patent expired, a Swedish packaging designer received the assignment to create egg packaging based on the principals of Lego,” he explains. “This eventually became Eggyplay and was launched by the Danish company Hedegaard (today’s DAVA Foods) in 2011 for use with high-end organic eggs.

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“As an egg producer and grader, Dava Foods searched for a partner to look after the global sales of the Eggyplay product. This is where we, Twinpack Special Products, got involved. Twinpack Special Products is a global marketing and sales organization specializing in egg packaging and egg logistic systems.”

Twinpack’s other egg-centric products include the EggsCargoSystem and HatchCargoSystem.

Eggyplay boxes are injection molded by two vendors, Kellpo in Denmark and Giordano in Italy, according to Wagelaar.

Besides DAVA Foods, the Eggyplay boxes are sold to egg graders and retailers.

“We have customers all around the world,” offers Wagelaar. “Several million pieces have been produced and sold and many more will follow. If sales further increase, we will start looking for partners around the globe to produce the product under license.”

He also discloses future plans: “The next generation might be an Eggyplay for four eggs, versus the current packaging for eight eggs.”

That’s the great thing about inventive people—they don’t stop brainstorming.

About the Author

Rick Lingle

Senior Technical Editor, Packaging Digest and PlasticsToday

Rick Lingle is Senior Technical Editor, PlasticsToday. He’s been a packaging media journalist since 1985 specializing in food, beverage and plastic markets. He has a chemistry degree from Clarke College and has worked in food industry R&D for Standard Brands/Nabisco and the R.T. French Co. Reach him at [email protected] or 630-408-7184.

https://twitter.com/PackmanRick[email protected]

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