Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Happy 200th Birthday to the Tin Can!

by Bill Connell - Chainalytics
Today the Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI) celebrates the 200th anniversary of the metal can. It was 200 years ago that Englishman, Peter Durand received a patent to preserve food in tin plated containers.

People all over the world are familiar with this tin/steel can style of packaging which allows products to be retorted for excellent for shelf stability and product preservation. Also, the can's stack-ability and rigid structure was ideal for safely moving food to uncommon places, like the American Civil War battlegrounds or in a backpack to a kindergarten class food drive.

The steel can also fits right in with today’s sustainability movement because of its high recycling rate and unchanged post recycling material properties. The CMI claims that the metal can is the most recycled type of packaging. Proving that the steel can as we know it will most likely be around for the next 200 years!

Happy Birthday!

1 comment:

  1. Very interesting, you forget about things like the corrugated box and steel can, even though they are such long standing staple of the packaging industry, they both will probably be around for another 200 years. There are probably other trendy new ideas that will come and be long gone when these are still around. Good topic!

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