Bio-naptha boom: Arla Oy to bring entirely wood-based packages to the Finnish market

06 Feb 2019 --- Arla Oy has become the first company in Finland to use renewable, wood-based bioplastics for the thin plastic film necessary in gable top, paperboard cartons for milk, yogurt and cooking products, in collaboration with UPM Biofuels. As a result of the sustainability-oriented revamp, an estimated 40 million Arla packages will be made entirely wood-based and ready for the market this year.

Bioplastic is well suited to dairy product packaging as it has the same technical characteristics as the conventional plastic used in cartons, according to Arla. A further perk is that the bioplastic can be recycled in the same conventional streams after use. 

The use of wood-based bioplastics in Arla's gable top cartons reduces the need for fossil-based plastics by 180,000 kilograms per year while also reducing the packaging’s carbon footprint by about a fifth. Such environmental impacts are in high demand, an Arla spokesperson tells PackagingInsights, with a recent survey noting that 68 percent of Finnish consumers prefer sustainably produced products.

“When we have a liquid product such as milk, a thin plastic film is needed inside the carton for reasons of product safety and shelf life. In our new packaging, the source of plastic is now even more responsible because it is made of wood-based raw material,” says Arla’s Brand & Category Manager, Sanna Heikfolk.

UPM’s bioplastic
Production for wood-based renewable diesel and BioVerno naphtha – both biofuels and raw materials for bioplastics – started in 2015 at UPM’s biorefinery in Lappeenranta, Finland. However, the company needed a partners to pilot the innovations in using naptha as a raw material for wood-based plastics, Sari Mannonen, Vice President of UPM Biofuels, tells PackagingInsights.Bioplastic is well suited to dairy product packaging as it has the same technical characteristics as the conventional plastic used in cartons, according to Arla

“After the idea of our naphtha being used as wood-based raw material for plastics, it took time to find a partner to pilot it with us. Several samples were analyzed and R&D with our partners proved that the concept worked. So, chemical company Dow was needed to convert our naphtha into wood-based plastics and EloPak was needed to produce the packaging containing our bioplastic for Arla,” she explains.

Currently, the naphtha-based plastic is used for coating cartons and it has not yet been tested for use in other applications. However, Mannonen suggests that there could be many potential avenues, such as films. 

“We are very pleased to be working with a pioneer such as Arla, with whom we can further reduce the carbon footprint of paperboard packaging for liquids using our renewable raw material and this applies to the whole chain, up to the consumer. Also, by using wood-based raw materials we are not competing for raw materials with the food production industry, because tall oil is a residue of pulp production,” says Mannonen.

Arla shares that it is continuing to work on developing more responsible packaging solutions. In addition to the gable top packaging, the company is also renewing its 150-gram Luonto+ yogurt packaging by replacing the plastic pots and lids with paperboard. As a result, consumers will be able to recycle all parts of the new packaging in their cardboard collection.

The rise of plant-based packaging and plastics
What will be the “sustainable” material alternative to plastics in 2019? Based on the evidence of 2018, paper-based packaging is a probable answer. Last year, this type of packaging experienced a notable resurgence, fueled by anti-plastic sentiment, with numerous new paper-based and plastic-paper hybrid packaging launches, such as JUST Water. 

JUST Water, developed by Tetra Pak, consists of 54 percent paper, 28 percent bioplastic, 3 percent aluminum and 15 percent protective plastic film.

However, the company has told PackagingInsights that they are aiming to develop a bio-based aluminum so that its packs can be entirely biobased. This will take their carton packs to a 100 percent renewable status.

Mario Abreu, Tetra Pak’s Vice President for Sustainability and Chairman of the Sustainability Forum notes that although the company is heavily investing in biopolymer use, the market needs to be there for it to fully “take off.”

“We are the largest user of biopolymers today, but the market is not there. It’s a very small market in its early days. What we are doing is pulling materials from the market to help the biopolymer industry to create better infrastructure to produce more of that biopolymer so we can produce it too. As a leader in this field, we are bringing the products to market although the availability is limited and we want to be the ones helping to change the market,” he notes. 

Moreover, a newly formed group, Plant Based Products Council (PBPC), is aiming to encourage the expanded use of plant-based materials for packaging, signaling that the market is ready. Among its founding members are food and beverage companies Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland and Tate & Lyle. A premise for its formation was the strong consumer push for bioplastics, with a poll finding that while only 13 percent of consumers are “very familiar” with bioplastic, once described, 90 percent become favorable to bioplastics. 

By Laxmi Haigh