Mitsubishi Uniball

Mitsubishi Uniball plastic-free packaging / Source: Mitsubishi Uniball

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6 MINUTE READ

Nate Tyler

WHAT WE SAY:

Small brands have the agility to go plastic free. It's much easier starting out this way than it is to make the change once you're an established company. So when a global company switches to plastic-free packaging, people can't help but notice.

Mitsubishi Uniball - the UK subsidiary of the global Japanese pen and writing utensil brand - made the switch to paper packaging in 2020, eliminating the plastic blister that gave consumers a view of the pens. The company worked with UK packaging company and design house FACER to create its board-to-board blister pack, proving that co-solving can spur plastic-free innovations. Following the launch, Uniball boosted its UK market share to 38%, demonstrating not just a consumer demand for innovation, but a new era of design where plastic doesn't have to be the go-to.

KEY FACTS:

Mitsubishi Uniball partnered with FACER in 2019 with the aim of going plastic free by the end of the year. The brand's challenge to the company was to remove the plastic blister from its packs while ensuring the new packaging was heat sealable and could be produced using existing machinery.
FACER delivered, creating a heat sealable pack that uses the same chemistry, requires the same machinery, and offers the normal parameters of a blister pack, such as shelf presence and security.
Using a two-sided solid bleach paperboard made from PEFC-sourced pulp, FACER created a trapped blister pack with a cut-and-creased tray. The standard blister backing became the front of the pack, adorned with an image of the pens inside, while board-to-board sealing and a standard aqueous blister coating brings everything together.
"It's simply two surfaces of board that have been applied with the captivation coating and the blister coating, and then adhering and bonding to each other," FACER's managing director, Luke Wilson, told PlasticFree.
The product isn't entirely fossil fuel-free, however. FACER uses soy-based ink for all of its packaging, including the Uniball packs. Soy-based inks can require as little as 6% soy oil, but all have varying amounts of fossil fuels in them. Wilson said that FACER sticks to conventional printing techniques, because processes like UV inks require more intensive fossil fuel use.
Wilson likens the new design to a diet, where trading plastic for Paper is the healthy choice. The packaging is fully recyclable in existing paper waste streams.
FACER has worked with the pen brand for close to 10 years, and holds a big niche in the UK folding card market, particularly in heat sealed blister cards. The company is actively challenging clients on the use of plastic blister packs.
There are now 15 different profiles for the Uniball pack, based on quantity or SKU product type. Some have an aperture that shows the colour or the pen tip width printed on the side of the pen. This allows Uniball to maintain product visibility without a translucent plastic blister.
In 2020, Uniball estimated that it had saved four tonnes of plastic by moving away from plastic blisters.
Wilson said that Uniball’s market share increased to 38% in the UK following the release of the plastic-free packaging, making it the number one rollerball pen brand in the country. This growth more than makes up for any costs involved in switching from plastic to paper.

Mitsubishi Uniball plastic-free blister pack / Source: Mitsubishi Uniball

Mitsubishi Uniball plastic-free pack / Source: Mitsubishi Uniball

DIVE DEEPER:

Packaging is the number one sector for plastic production, and the biggest contributor of plastic waste. There were 146 million tonnes of plastic packaging created in 2015, and 141 million tonnes was discarded, most likely after a single use. We need to ask ourselves why we're using that plastic to house everyday, non-perishable items such as plastic pens.
Most plastic blister packs are made from recycled PET (rPET), a substance proven to be worse for human health and the environment than virgin PET. Plastic contains over 13,000 different chemicals, with more than 3,200 of them known to be hazardous to human health. When plastic is recycled, toxicity levels exponentially rise, as the chemicals added at the beginning mix with those absorbed by the plastic throughout its life. Even more are created during the recycling process itself.
The result is a material so toxic for human contact that one study in 2022 found that of the 73 recycled plastic products it analysed from China, Indonesia, and Russia, every single one contained at least one globally banned flame retardant chemical. Just touching this plastic has impacts on our health, yet the world is focused on creating more recycled plastic content to keep the fossil fuel giants alive.
Questioning our use of plastic in verticals where it's not essential is at the forefront of Wilson's mind, adding that "it doesn’t make sense for non-perishable FMCG". FACER is keen to encourage brands to consider healthy swaps into "mono-material, plastic-free, highly kerbside recyclable formats", and he believes that "cardboard is probably the best priced material in the market to do it".
To facilitate this transition, FACER is looking into licensing the design for Uniball UK to other subsidiaries, or suppliers to those subsidiaries, helping to expand the benefits of this development further afield. "It's almost a bit of a no-brainer."
The challenge, Wilson explained, is that companies have large investments tied up in blister packaging machinery. While shifting to folding cartons is ecologically sound, the loss of automation, and the resulting increase in labour, can make many brands reluctant to switch. Another challenge is losing product visibility.
But one major benefit lies in providing a simple end-of-life for the consumer, something a mono-material, paper blister pack can offer. "Consumers want complete ease," says Wilson, "and to be able to just simply see a symbol on the back packaging that tells them they can recycle our product" offers that ease.

"Brands need to really think about where it's appropriate [to use plastic], and how easy it could be to make a healthy swap into a mono-material, plastic-free, highly kerbside recyclable format."

Luke Wilson – managing director, FACER

Key Design Considerations:

Retain shelf presence

Losing product visibility is a big concern for many FMCG brands who're moving away from translucent plastic packaging, and an accurate illustration of the product on a box isn't always enough to sway a consumer who's used to seeing something before buying it. To overcome this issue, FACER simply punched holes in the Uniball packs to show the product, while still maintaining the packaging's heat sealing and security. Sometimes a simple solution is the right one.

Co-solve with an open mind

Mitsubishi Uniball couldn't find the answer to its problem alone, so it reached out to those who could. Solutionists can be found in all corners of the world, and it's not always those you expect who can help you move forward. Be open to new partners, especially those in different industries - working in silos is problematic for a reason.

Coatings and inks are the last hurdle

While the FACER solution removes plastic from the blister, fossil fuel-derived products are still used in the coatings and inks. This is the reality of the industry today when producing at scale, with many pioneers working on plastic-free alternatives as we speak. In the absence of a perfect solution, question whether you could do away with these elements altogether, and keep an eye on emerging developments such as MelOx from Melodea.