TAGS: Sustainability / Natural Coatings Inks
Siegwerk announces its partnership with Borouge to co-develop 100% recyclable mono-material solutions. It is to further drive packaging design for a circular economy. The goal of the collaboration is to build a pipeline of solutions. This will enable converters worldwide to produce advanced mono-material packaging. It will address the growing demand for sustainable packaging in the market.
Borouge is a petrochemical company that provides innovative and differentiated polyolefin solutions.
Alternative to Multi-material Packaging
The new partnership aims to drive the replacement of multi-material packaging with advanced mono-material structures. Mono-material solutions combined with innovative inks and coatings technologies will offer the same performance. They are also easy to recycle. Both companies are committed to contributing to sustainable packaging solutions. It is to boost circularity and lower carbon footprint.
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The majority of flexible packaging still consists of mixed materials. And because of this multi-material structure, it is challenging to recycle it in the conventional recycling streams,” said Dr. Stephane Bertaux, head of Brand Owner Collaboration and Circular Economy for Southeast Asia at Siegwerk Thailand. “
Here, the switch to mono-material packaging is an essential lever to ease the recycling of packaging and thus enhance its circularity.”
However, moving to mono-material structures is also accompanied by several challenges. This includes ensuring reliable sealability, certain mechanical properties or thermal stability, or realizing specific levels of barrier performance depending on the end-use application.
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Enabling mono-material structures using Borouge’s performance polyethylene products with the combination of innovative ink and coating technologies can achieve the desired packaging outcomes,” said Anton Wolfsberger, vice president, Global Marketing, Packaging and Circular Economy, Borouge.
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With this new way of industry collaboration, we contribute to addressing global challenges to increase sustainability and circularity. Upcycling is becoming possible through mechanical recycling. This results in high-quality recyclates. It further boosts circularity and lower carbon footprint versus currently used multi-material packaging, which is mostly incinerated,” added Wolfsberger.
Co-development Projects
One of the first co-development projects between the two partners will be a barrier stand-up pouch. It is the Borealis Borstar® technology-based enhanced HDPE FB5600 from Borouge and Siegwerk’s oxygen barrier coating CIRKIT OxyBar BC1582. The project also includes its primer solution CIRKIT Clearprime for a smooth deinking of the laminates.
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By incorporating our special deinking and delamination primer into this innovative mono-material structure with superior performance and mechanical properties, all used inks and coatings can be removed from the printed film during the recycling process resulting in high-quality recycled polyethylene that is suitable for re-use in new packaging materials,” added Bertaux.
Siegwerk and Borouge are already collaborating with selected converters worldwide. This is to make solutions available to produce high-barrier mono-material packaging combining oxygen (Oxygen Transmission Rate OTR < 1 cc/m2.day) and Moisture Vapor Transmission Rate (MVTR) barrier coatings (MWTR < 1 cc/m2.day).
Both partners are committed to contributing to sustainable and future-oriented packaging through enabling mono-material structures. It can replace hard-to-recycle multi-material packaging structures. Borouge offers a wide range of virgin polyolefins such as PE and PP specifically developed in regard to their recyclability.
Siegwerk offers a variety of innovative ink and coating solutions. They can improve the recyclability of plastic packaging without compromising on the performance and productivity required. By joining their forces, the two companies are underlining the importance of collaboration along the packaging supply chain. It is to develop suitable solutions that can truly make a difference in accelerating the transformation to a circular economy.
Source: Siegwerk