After nominations from members of the Swedish Rheumatism Association, Sonoco’s Orbit™ lid has been named winner of the inaugural User-Friendly Packaging award at the PackNorth Award. The new category celebrates packaging innovations that are accessible, intuitive and easy to use for everyone.
Several members of the Swedish Rheumatism Association suggested that the innovative metal lid for glass jars should be nominated in the User-Friendly Packaging category. The Association encouraged the Nordic packaging competition, the PackNorth Award, to introduce this new category. The aim is to recognise, reward and promote the development of packaging that works for everyone. The nominations for this new award category were submitted by the Association and its members. The competition jury has now reached its decision, and the winner is the Orbit™ metal lid from Sonoco.
The jury’s citation read:
“The Orbit lid stands out for its user-centred and thoughtfully engineered design, addressing a well-known challenge associated with opening glass jars. Its intelligent construction reduces the need for strength and fine motor skills, making both opening and reclosing easier, more intuitive and accessible to a wider range of users. A strong example of how functional design can make everyday life easier.”
Stina Nordström, Secretary General of the Swedish Rheumatism Association, presented the award to Sonoco at the Empack packaging exhibition in Stockholm. During the award ceremony, she explained why the Association, together with its Easy to use initiative, is behind the award: “If we cannot open a package, it does not matter how attractive, sustainable or innovative it may be. None of these qualities matter if the packaging is difficult to open, impossible to reseal and cumbersome to recycle.”
Stina Nordström also delivered a clear message to the packaging industry: do not view user-friendliness as a cost, but as an investment. She also addressed product owners directly: let consumers love your product, not hate your packaging.
Sonoco was named the winner of this new award category for its smart, two-part Orbit lid. The lid is an excellent example of how a traditional type of packaging can be modernised and made more functional and user-friendly.
"Better Packaging, Better Life is the promise behind everything we do at Sonoco. Packaging should make daily life simpler, not harder, and ease of use is an essential part of that. We are proud that the Swedish Rheumatism Association has recognised Orbit as easy to use, as this independent validation shows that our work makes a real difference for consumers. We sincerely thank the Association for its important work in championing accessibility, and we will continue to put the consumers at the heart of our innovation”, said Ghulam MOEEN UD DIN, Digital Project Leader at Sonoco.
“I hope this new award category will not only highlight good examples but also inspire the entire industry to develop packaging that works for all consumers,” said Stina Nordström.