DS Smith opens new laboratory to support customers’ circularity ambitions
Packaging Solutions
The company has invested £750,000 in the laboratory to work with customers in optimising the circularity of their packaging. The laboratory will be used for researching technologies that enhance the performance and sustainability qualities of fibre based packaging, including coatings and barrier technology, wet end chemistries, surface chemistries, repulpability, and recyclability.
The new laboratory also advances DS Smith’s research in alternative fibres as sustainable raw material for paper and packaging products. Last year, the company announced it was exploring the use of seaweed as an alternative fibre source to wood, as well as a barrier coating to replace petroleum based coatings.
The fibre and paper development laboratory is the latest development in DS Smith’s £100 million research and development programme, announced in May 2021, to accelerate its work in the circular economy.
Nick Thompson, materials development director, said: ‘Creating products that can easily support the reduction, reuse and recycling of raw materials is a core component of how we will support our customers transition to the circular economy. At DS Smith, we are constantly developing innovative new thinking to help our customers with this challenge and the new fibre and paper development laboratory allows us to optimise the performance and circularity of our customers’ packaging. Investing in research and development projects like this is a crucial way in which we will lead the way and redefine packaging for a changing world.’
Alan Potts, design and innovation director, added: ‘The new laboratory at Kemsley Mill will play an important part in our innovation strategy. By exploring new technologies and raw materials, we can expand our offering of innovative circular ready packaging solutions that have less impact on the environment, and support our customers’ transition to a circular economy.’
With sustainable packaging rising up the agenda for governments, and legislative changes including the UK Plastics Packaging Tax coming into force on the 1 April, DS Smith will use its innovative approach to help customers design circularity into their packaging. Through innovations such as its Circular Design Metrics, customers can rate the circularity of their packaging and help reduce their impact on the environment.
This builds on the company’s work on plastic replacement. Since the launch of its Now and Next Sustainability Strategy in 2020, it has removed more than 170 million pieces of problem plastics for industry, supermarkets, and online retailers with fully recyclable, fibre based packaging solutions.
DS Smith has also launched the Kemsley Mill virtual tour, which allows everyone to enjoy a virtual tour of the recycling paper mill and the latest innovations in the papermaking process all the way from the quality hub to dispatch. The tour can be accessed here: Virtual Paper Mill Tour - DS Smith
