At Weatherchem, sustainability initiatives start with their products and represent a corporate-wide commitment from employees to the community and the environment. Product design and production processes consider solutions that are both business-friendly and environmentally-friendly. Recent investments that reflect this commitment are poised to create a considerable impact as production begins on the lighter 110mm Flapper^® caps.

How much impact can one cap have? Following the cap from the initial ordering, through the production process and all the way to the cap’s delivery to the customer, the savings adds up quickly.

When an order is placed, what used to be printed on paper to create this order is now accomplished entirely electronically via Weatherchem's ERP system. Through paperless purchasing and order processing, letter-size paper consumption decreased 10% through the first half of the year at Weatherchem.

When this order makes its way to the production floor, it will be produced on a new press in which Weatherchem recently invested. This press consumes 30% less electricity.

Beause of the new lightweight 110mm design, 20% less plastic will be used compared to the previous design. Using less plastic also requires smaller amounts of color to be added to the resin while reduced cycle times for this process contribute additional energy savings.

Another investment made by Weatherchem includes machinery to stack the finished caps and automate the packaging process. Adding this equipment enables 80 more pieces to fit in each box of 110mm Flapper caps – an increase of 40% over the previous packaging method.

The amount of packing material needed to securely fill the box is reduced. More caps per box, pallet and truckload mean that the freight to transport these caps to the customer is also reduced. On average, to transport Weatherchem’s annual volume of 110mm caps will now require 11 fewer truckloads.

Combining the savings on paper, transportation, energy and raw materials, the new 110mm lightweight cap proves to be a convenient dispensing closure that both consumers and the environment value.

Weatherchem Corporation is an innovative manufacturer and marketer of convenient plastic dispensing closures and controlled access packaging. As the creators of the original Flapper® dispensing closure, Weatherchem now offers one of the industry's most innovative closure product lines. In addition to Flapper these include: LiquiFlapper^®, NutraFlapper^®, NutraGen II^®, FlapMate^® and Grinder NR^®.

Whether designing or selecting packaging for a new product or revamping the design of an existing product, Weatherchem has the closures that consumers love.