Eastman focuses on sustainability in the cosmetics industry
K 2019: Kiefel Packaging showcases 100% post-consumer recycled PET egg trays
There is still one week away from the live award ceremony of the 2019 Sustainability Awards held at FachPack! Join us and discover the winners of the most prestigious packaging innovation sustainability competition.
In anticipation, we explored 25 outstanding solutions that entered the finals, which were carefully selected by our independent expert jury. Laurent Chantraine, Flexible Packaging Business Development Manager at Jindal Films Europe, talks about their cooperation with Unilever and Mondi. Their all-PP single-material bag solution for dry food was selected in the "recyclable packaging" category.
Congratulations on being selected as the finalist of the 2019 Sustainability Awards! Can you introduce your successful initiatives/innovations?
Jindal Films, Mondi and Unilever have jointly developed a new single-material "PP-rich" film barrier laminate, which can be run on a high-speed horizontal bagging machine and is sensitive to the filling of the world’s famous Carre brand. Dehydrated powder soup.
This single-material recyclable barrier laminate (OPP/Met-OPP/Seal OPP) is regarded as a breakthrough innovation by the three parties because it is the first large-capacity dehydrated soup bag application on the market that uses only OPP film. For This is considered an achievement for traditional market segments that typically use high barrier laminates based on paper, aluminum foil, PET and PE, and according to the pending CEFLEX guidelines, these materials are today considered non-recyclable.
This packaging is Unilever's first recyclable Knorr brand dehydrated soup bag in the world! The use of new high barrier and high sealing performance technologies from Jindal Films contributed to the success of this project.
What packaging environmental challenges have your entries solved, and how has the market reacted to these challenges so far?
Our entry-a single-material high-barrier solution-illustrates the feasibility of replacing difficult-to-recycle substrates (ie PET, aluminum foil, paper...) with PP film to improve the future of flexible packaging Recyclability. The market is very sensitive to our recent technological innovations, which have allowed us to switch to OPP films or laminates, as most customers are increasingly aware that the pending design guidelines developed by CEFLEX will be released in 2020.
The need to remove non-polyolefin components is generally well known, and brand owners and processors are actively moving in this direction, with some significant differences in Europe (for example, the United Kingdom focuses on PE like the United States). The shift to PP-rich solutions is the company’s focus on product protection (moisture, odor or gas), promotion (matte or glossy, high rigidity, good aesthetics and touch) and performance (printing, lamination, packaging and filling). Installation operation).
Of course, some more demanding end-use market segments, such as liquid packaging (for example, pasteurized or sterilized food) have higher performance requirements, we need more time to find a suitable compromise solution for the above 3 P packaging.
"Sustainable packaging" is a controversial concept. It means different things to different people. Anyone who works in packaging understands that it is easy to make things worse according to one environmental indicator, while according to another Various environmental indicators were improved. In your opinion, should there be a hierarchy between our sustainable development goals?
The good use of science should still prevail, and the use of LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) helps to prove the benefits and helps stratify goals and solutions. For example, we have previously shown that compared with thin aluminum foil, high-barrier vacuum metallized OPP has great advantages in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, solid waste and energy consumption.
Aluminum is very suitable for recycling in a rigid form, but when laminated to polyolefin, it prevents the laminate from being recycled mechanically. The switch to high-barrier OPP film solved this problem and allowed to keep the product protected, and to collect and recycle the laminate. A huge additional benefit is that the LCA performance of vacuum coated OPP is much better than aluminum foil. Similarly, polymer science stipulates that some polymers are miscible, while others are not. PP and PE can be co-extruded, but when blended and re-extruded together, they are immiscible and phase separation occurs.
This immiscibility will result in poor mechanical properties of rigid packaging. Again, this can be solved by moving the PE sealant film to the PP sealant film, and the entire laminate is miscible, and the degradation cycle capability is improved.
Obviously, the sustainability of packaging needs to be achieved by the joint actions of many stakeholders, not by people with a panacea. Considering the broader situation, what areas of innovation or action do you hope to see throughout the value chain in the next few years to meet the needs of nature and society?
From our perspective as the world's leading supplier of PP film, one of the keys to success is to ensure that the entire value chain (ie resin to recycled resin) works together.
In order for recyclable solutions (such as all PP laminates) to be widely accepted as an alternative to other solutions that are not easily recyclable (such as paper/aluminum foil/PE), key conversion and packaging requirements need to be addressed. For conversion, some major players may specialize in the production of one of the substrates (such as aluminum foil or blown PE film) or are very focused on one technology (such as adhesives and extrusion lamination), and may tend to prefer one. One solution instead of another.
For packaging, machines need to develop faster to achieve or facilitate the transition to a single material. Most OEM suppliers are not always proficient in the function of each substrate, and it may be difficult to find a suitable solution to help transition from a heat-resistant laminate to a less heat-resistant but more recyclable solution. Machinery suppliers who can improve heat transfer (and seal jaws) or handle laminates other than PET, OPA, paper, or aluminum foil will help adopt PO-based recyclable solutions.
In addition, in the long run, the use of chemical recovery may become a suitable method. However, now to have an impact on our near future, we need to get the industry to deploy improved sorting and mechanical recycling flows for flexible packaging throughout Europe.
The recycling industry urgently needs to adjust their current processes to better separate PP, PE, and mixed PO streams to maximize or optimize downstream secondary uses (such as injection molding). This workflow is essential to support the goal of gradually replacing single-use plastics for flexible packaging in Europe.
For high-barrier applications, we evaluated with partners such as Tomra. The Knorr barrier OPP laminates we developed jointly with Unilver and Mondi are easy to sort-which means that they can be detected by near infrared technology-so they are transferred to the PP part during the sorting process. Operation. We have further cooperated with partners such as Axion Polymers to prove that this all-PP high-barrier laminate for injection molding applications has good mechanical recyclability.
The winners of each category and the overall winners of the 2019 Sustainability Awards will be announced on September 25th at FachPack in Nuremberg, Germany. Starting at 16:30, join us on FachPack's PackBox forum for sustainability discussions, networking, beverages and big secrets.
Victoria Hattersley talked with Itue Yanagida, Toray International Europe GmbH's graphics system business development manager.
Philippe Gallard, Global Innovation Director of Nestlé Water, discussed the trends and latest developments from recyclability and reusability to different packaging materials.
© Packaging Europe Ltd. A fast news communication group company. all rights reserved.