TAGS: Sustainability / Natural Coatings
Siegwerk announces the successful development of a fully recyclable mono-PE bag for dry pet food using its CIRKIT functional coatings. Together with Windmöller & Hölscher and B&B, Siegwerk jointly produced a new high-barrier mono-material packaging. It offers the same packaging and process performance as the multi-material structure commonly used for dry pet food.
Siegwerk is a provider of printing inks and coatings for packaging applications and labels. Windmöller & Hölscher is a printing machine manufacturer. B&B is a bag making and machine producer.
Recyclable Packaging
With all its new regulations and directives, the EU is increasing the pressure on brand owners and packaging manufacturers to rethink the design of packaging towards circularity.
“
New approaches are needed to meet the upcoming regulatory requirements for circular packaging. The challenge is to find a recyclable design that also meets the respective performance requirements of the packaging,” said Belal Habib, head of Brand Owner Collaboration at Siegwerk.
For example, pet food packaging does not only have to be food safe, but also requires certain barrier properties, such as resistance to oils and fats, to keep the food fresh and maintain the packaging's structural integrity. For this purpose, complex multi-material structures with a metallized layer have commonly been used so far.
“
The problem - they are not recyclable,” continued Habib. “
This is where innovative barrier coatings applied in thin layers and inline with regular printing inks can help to switch from an incompatible multi-material structure to a fully recyclable mono-material solution in the sense of a Circular economy.”
Offers Same Packaging Performance
Siegwerk’s CIRKIT GreaseBar is an innovative inline printable grease barrier coating. CIRKIT HeatGuard is a coating for high-end sealing process efficiency (heat resistance on film surfaces). It can also be applied inline with regular flexo or gravure machines.
By using CIRKIT GreaseBar and CIRKIT HeatGuard, the newly developed recyclable mono-PE bag achieves the same packaging performance as non-recyclable complex multi-material systems. Both CIRKIT coatings are solvent-based and fully deinkable after delamination. Both can be printed inline without any loss in print performance.
Besides, full PU inks were used that are suitable for mechanical recycling. They offer a process performance comparable to NC/PU flexo inks in terms of printing speed and quality. All used inks and coatings comply with the latest recycling guidelines. This includes the German Minimum Standard and RecyClass for recyclable packaging.
“
This development success once again underlines the importance of collaborating along the packaging value chain, combining the specialized know-how of industry experts. Together, we have succeeded in developing an innovation that is circular, delivers on performance and maintains current process efficiencies due to inline and high-speed conversion,” stated Habib.
“
This shows that, by joining forces, we are in a position to make recyclable mono-plastic packaging a reality and thus counter the still wide presence of multi-material laminated structures with future-oriented flexible packaging solutions made for circularity," added Habib.
Sample Availability
From raw material selection to packaging recycling, Siegwerk bundles knowledge across all disciplines in the packaging lifecycle. Siegwerk can also help redesign entire packaging structures to be sustainable according to existing guidelines.
Samples of the new pet food pouch will be available at Interzoo at B&B’s booth 4A-413 in hall 4A. It is to be from May 7
th to 10
th ,2024, in Nuremberg, Germany. Samples will also be available at drupa at W&H’s booth A51 in hall 15. It is scheduled to take place from May 28
th to June 7
th, 2024, in Duesseldorf, Germany.
Visitors to Interzoo can also attend a presentation on 'Recyclable Packaging Solutions for Pet Food', which will be held by Siegwerk and B&B experts on May 8 at 4 p.m. CEST.
Source: Siegwerk