BillerudKorsnäs and BASF boost pollution fight with home-compostable paper laminate

04 Dec 2020 --- BillerudKorsnäs is releasing a home-compostable paper laminate for flexible packaging. Created in partnership with German multinational chemical group BASF, the material has many food applications and boasts adjustable barrier properties.

The collaboration says its new material is an answer to environmental sustainability requirements by being organically compostable without the need for collecting or disposal by public waste systems.

It can be used to wrap products such as dairy, fish and ice creams.

The multilayer laminate consists of three basic components: BillerudKorsnäs’ paper ConFlex Silk, a sealing layer made with BASF’s certified home-compostable and partly bio-based biopolymer ecovio, and BASF’s water-based adhesive Epotal Eco 3675 X.

All components are certified as home-compostable according to official European certification schemes for home-composting.

The laminate contains a high share of renewables and extends the end-of-life duration for multilayer flexible packaging by being organically recyclable.

The new home-compostable solution also has the same performance features as conventional multilayer packaging. It is puncture resistant, shows a high-visible printability, has heat-sealing properties and can be processed on standard packaging machines.The paper laminate meets certification schemes for home-compostability.

“We wanted to create a paper-based laminate with good heat-seal properties by using certified home-compostable components only,” says Amir Pourirani, head of global marketing biopolymers at BASF.

“There is a huge trend in society, in some countries driven by legislation, to move from plastic to paper-based packaging. Moreover, currently available multilayer flexible laminates are difficult to recycle, but the technical need is still present.”

“In BillerudKorsnäs, we found the ideal partner to develop a home-compostable solution based on a paper with a broader end-of-life option for packaging while maintaining the technical performance of traditional laminates.”

Meeting forthcoming legal standards
According to European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy targets, all plastic packaging should be recyclable or reusable by 2030, and in an economically viable way.

“With BASF’s certified home-compostable biopolymer and adhesive, we found the ideal components to take the next step toward another sustainable solution for flexible packaging in our portfolio,” says Markus Saari, business development manager at BillerudKorsnäs.

“Our joint development represents a shift to paper-based and compostable material to replace traditional laminates for food packaging – meeting hygiene and barrier requirements, maintaining form and enabling many design possibilities just like conventional packaging but with the decisive added benefit that it is home-compostable.”

Composting away pollution
Creating packaging that is compostable has been touted as a potential environmental solution for waste problems.

This year, global material sciences company Avery Dennison achieved the OK Compost certification for its thermal label adhesive material.

However, critics have also highlighted that compostability may not be as progressive as it is often claimed because it maintains linear, throwaway culture.

Compostability can also have various meanings, and “home-compostable” packaging usually takes up to a year to degrade and requires well-managed home or community composting methods that consumers often do not have access to.

By Louis Gore-Langton

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