Packaging Solutions
Innovia Films will unveil its full range of fully recyclable solutions tailored to customer needs at Packaging Innovations in Birmingham, UK.
‘Flexible packaging represents the lowest carbon packaging option for a wide variety of products. But we need to replace mixed polymer laminates with new mono material constructions that can and will be recycled – using polypropylene (PP) film is an excellent way to achieve this as PP has a wide variety of applications,’ said Megan Gilroy, senior product manager packaging at Innovia Films. ‘The main topics are high barrier solutions for retort pouches, polyester substitution, and foil substitution. For example, we will showcase mono material flexible packaging constructions for coffee or grated cheese – these products need special barrier functions to retain quality and freshness and are technically demanding.’
The company wil also present solutions for pet food pouches. Pet food is a growing market and the packaging needs to shift to mono material packaging to increase recycling of the pouches.
Brands are looking to redesign their packaging to comply with new legislation proposed by the EU. ‘The current version of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation clearly states that all packaging must be recyclable by 2030. There are existing recycling streams for PP and new ones are now under development which will allow waste film to be recycled back into film – to close the loop on packaging materials,’ said Marika Knorr, head of sustainability and communication. ‘We see a strong future for PP film as an environmentally friendly packaging material – with Innovia being the key supplier of functional films for packaging.’
‘Another important pillar of the PPWR legislation is that packaging will have to contain a certain percentage of recycled content to drive a more circular economy. We are investing a lot in research and development and have set up a dedicated team that looks into recycling technology to make sure that Innovia has the right feedstock to make films with recycled content,’ added Stephen Langstaff, head of recycling. ‘In addition to that we are implementing a material strategy to offer our customers futureproof solutions that enable them to easily follow EU regulations.’
Innovia Films will be on stand M56.
