MULTI-LAYER PACKAGING | PROCESSING


bakery products. Here, the product makes use of metallisation for the barrier. Other mono-material products include ultra-high barrier BOPP, thermo- stable BOPP (which has a special PP homopolymer on the outside), and heat-sealable BOPET (suitable for oven temperatures). The company also


offers a number of films containing recyclate, including BOPET, BOPP and BOPA. For instance, its ET8p-QN is a BOPET film with 80% recyclate that loses no performance. A BOPP grade uses 90% recyclate – and is designed for secondary packaging – while it also offers a BOPA grade made from 100% post-industrial recyclate.


Greater strength Polyplastics USA has also used the ‘different variants’ approach to create recyclable PE-based SUPs – by incorporating its cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) into the formulation.


Paul Tatarka, market development manager at


Polyplastics USA, said that COC shares many features with polymers such as LLDPE – including an ethylene co-monomer and a linear structure. “COC and LLDPE share similar chemical


features, making COC compatible with PE,” he said. “COC’s molecular structure also enables higher temperature


resistance.” COC was used to develop a recyclable, mono-material SUP. The challenges to overcome included: poor dimensional stability under load; low


temperature resistance; difficulty


of fabrication; and poor aesthetics. The answer was to add two layers of COC to recyclable PE mono-material films. The result was a recyclable SUP with a good balance of properties and attractive appearance that was easy to fabricate. The total structure uses around 20% COC in the


formulation – including two COC layers and two blended LLDPE-COC layers. The COC layers


Left: Baystar has used Borstar grades from Borealis to create stand-up pouches


IMAGE: BOREALIS


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