Cellulose films and sustainable paper – Made for each other.

Submitted by: The Two Sides Team November 21, 2011

What happens when a leading global producer of cellulose films for packaging and labels meets the worlds leading producer of sustainable specialty papers? The chemistry between the two generates an innovative laminate solution, at least in this case. The companies in question are Innovia Films and Sappi Fine Paper Europe, and they have now joined forces to develop new laminate solutions for flexible packaging applications.
The new laminates provide technical functionality, are made from renewable resources and are suitable for industrial and home composting or even for use in anaerobic digestion plants, providing a good source of renewable fuel.

Flexible Packaging: Bane or boon?

Hailed with enthusiasm by packaging manufacturers and end users, the use of flexible films has enabled the development of cost-effective packaging solutions coupled with excellent product protection characteristics. In this way, all packaging films contribute to waste reduction throughout the packaged-goods supply chain.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that, over the years, the flexible packaging market has developed from simple paper wrapping and bags to very sophisticated multilayer and multimaterial packaging for barrier protection and shelf life extension. Flexible packaging films can be made of single-web substrates such as flexible plastics (PE, PP, polyester or PA), flexible foils and flexible papers or can be coated, laminated or coextruded with other materials to enhance their physical properties in various ways. The increasingly sophisticated mix of materials, inks and adhesives used to produce flexible packaging, however, severely reduce the number of end-of-life options available.

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