Company insight
Alexander Rauer, product manager flexible packaging paper
Jens Kriete, sustainability manager
The interesting thing about the packaging market is that there are many ‘right’ ways to do something. “The packaging industry is an enormous market, and there are multiple material solutions and ways to make packaging,” Kriete intones. Sustainability is, however, a diverse subject that affects many decisions.
The trouble with plastic Flexible plastic packaging has been a great success story. It delivers protection combined with a very low packaging material use, and has been developed further into even lighter multi-material composites. What plastic manufacturers forgot, however, was the end-of-life. The consequence is that this highly engineered material is not recyclable at reasonable costs, and ends up, at best, in thermal recovery. Now, the issues with plastic are widely understood.
The industry puts enormous efforts into finding ways to make flexible film packaging more circular: turning to monomaterial means sacrificing the weight advantage, or – even more sophisticatedly – using markers to tell the sorting machines what type of material composite it is. But, the principal end-of-life advantage of paper-based packaging is that there is simply a giant market for waste paper. The market does not need to be created, it is already there. This is paper’s ready-made sustainability advantage. In pursuit of this, Kriete believes that sustainability is a collaborative effort, and knows that any moves towards greater packaging sustainability should not come at the expense of its quality. “When it comes to these major changes that are taking place, such as the EU moving towards a circular economy, consumers want less waste and more effective
Paper combines reliability with the surface on which to make great, colourful designs, as with pouches.
sustainable solutions. But the quality of their products should not suffer.” The packaging supply chain is full of innovations, and no single company is going to be able to make substantial leaps alone or at once. “The whole supply chain needs to work together to pave the road ahead of us,” he enthuses.
is a product with excellent water vapour barrier properties that provides a wider set of application markets, such as food, non-food or pet food. “Ultimately, we are continuing to look at where we can increase functionality of paper without sacrificing performance,” says Rauer. “Every time we add a barrier or a
“The whole supply chain needs to work together to pave the road ahead of us.”
Jens Kriete
But, after its Koehler NexPlus Seal release, what is next for the company? Rauer says that there are a couple of immediate new products that are reaching the market, including Koehler NexPlus Advanced, which has potential applications within the chocolate bar and confectionery sector. Koehler NexPlus Performance
Packaging & Converting Intelligence /
www.pci-mag.com
layer of complexity, it can impact the overall performance. Our focus is on engineering excellence, where Koehler can provide the most impact and benefit to our customers, and to continue to provide sustainable, recyclable flexible paper packaging.” ●
www.koehlerpaper.com/en 47
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