Above: Paper cushioning material manufactured using “Dry Fibre Technology” (white objects)
Epson has won a 2024 WorldStar Global Packaging Award in the Electronics category for its cushioning material made from used copier paper. This is the second time that Epson has received a WorldStar Award, the first being in 2007 for ink packaging for large-format inkjet printers.
The WorldStar Global Packaging Awards 2024 in the Electronics category marks the third time that Epson’s packaging technology and environmental initiatives have been widely recognised in Japan, Asia, and around the world.
The WorldStar Awards are organised by the World Packaging Organisation (WPO), an international federation of packaging institutes, associations, federations, and other interested parties. Packages that have won awards at national and regional packaging contests can be entered. Winners are selected based on an assessment of the packaging technology and design excellence.
In the past, Epson has used petroleum-derived materials for cushioning used in packaging precision equipment such as printers, but Epson has developed eco-conscious paper-based cushioning materials to circulate resources.
The cushioning material is made from used copier paper collected within an internal wastepaper collection system. Epson’s proprietary Dry Fibre Technology reduces the paper to fibres with very little water and moulds the fibres into cushioning materials with the optimal configuration to absorb shocks.
Performance-wise, these cushions have shock-absorbing properties that are equivalent or superior to those of high-performance petroleum-derived cushioning materials, and since there is no need to change the cushioning distance and the size of the retail boxes, they use resources effectively and are being used as cushions in printer packages. Additionally, since the packaging is entirely paper based, it can be disassembled to reduce volume for disposal and recycling.
The packaging material has also won the President of Japan Productivity Centre for Socio-Economic Development Award, one of the 12 most prestigious awards in the Japan Packaging Contest 2023 organised by the Japan Packaging Institute. It also won an award in the Transportation Package category in the AsiaStar 2023 Awards organized by the Asian Packaging Federation.
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