Packaging Industry Leaders Launch Organization to Create PPE for Medical Professionals during COVID-19
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Over forty packaging firms from twenty countries have come together to create an organization called “Fiber Shield” to create single-use, disposable face shields in response to COVID-19 and the global shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for medical professionals.
Packaging producers and supply chain partners from around the world pooled their collective resources and expertise to develop, in record time, face shield designs that could be produced on existing packaging equipment with readily available materials.
Two packaging companies, Pawi from Switzerland and Zumbiel Packaging from the United States, launched this initiative in March and, to date, have already been joined by over forty packaging firms from twenty countries who have committed to produce protective paperboard face shields.
Every participating company is committing to donate at least 100,000 shields, but that is only the start. Pawi, Zumbiel Packaging and Pulver Packaging (Chicago, USA) have already committed to donating over 700,000 shields to medical providers in Europe and North America who are at the epicenter of the pandemic. The group is confident that they can produce and distribute over 10 million face shields in the next several weeks.
“Our industry wanted to do something to support the fight against COVID-19,” Ed Zumbiel, from Zumbiel Packaging explains, “so when we realized that face shields were in short supply, and that we could in fact manufacture them with our existing production assets, we turned our organizations loose."
This isn’t the end of the story, it’s just the beginning. Every day, additional packaging firms, supply chain partners, and industry trade associations are joining the group.
The most amazing part of this story, according to Zumbiel, is that "virtually everyone in the packaging ecosystem has jumped in to offer raw materials, production assistance, and logistics support to the companies who are producing the shields." It is truly a global, humanitarian effort, the likes of which the packaging industry has never seen.
Today, over 1 million face shields have been donated but Fiber Shield members guarantee that there are many more to come.
