The expanding and self-opening food package Sustainable Expanding Bowl was awarded the the Bio category prize during Plastovationer Awards on 13 November in connection with Elmia Subcontractor in Jönköping.

Plastovationer Awards are given in five categories: "Plastovationer", Product Development, Composite, Bio and Energy Efficiency . Innventia, together with design studio Tomorrow Machine received the prize in the category of Bio for "having created an exciting new concept in the form of a self-expanding packageing for dried food. By exploiting the unique properties of Innventia's mechano-active biomaterials, old and new technology come together in an innovative border crossing. The result is an elegant packaging solution with a wide range of applications."

The Sustainable Expanding Bowl is a so-called demonstrator, a prototype developed to demonstrate the possibilities of a new interactive material produced from renewable resources. The demonstrator has already met worldwide interest on material and design blogs when it was awarded The Dieline Sustainable Packaging Award 2013. The ingenious construction has been designed by Anna Glansén and Hanna Billqvist at the design studio Tomorrow Machine, in a unique collaboration with Innventia's materials research team led by Hjalmar Granberg.

The starting point for the work of a multidisciplinary team was the features of the material itself, a cardboard with active properties that respond to heat and moisture. Thanks to the expanding function, the package size is minimized which will avoid transporting air in the package. Normally, this type of food packaging consists of as much as two-thirds air.

"We are very happy and proud ! This is yet another sign that our new material from the forest is gaining ground in new areas and industries", says Catharina Ottestam, Vice President business area Packaging Solutions.

Image: Hjalmar Granberg at the awards ceremony of Plastovationer Awards