DS Smith partners with Nafici to transform “second harvest” materials into fiber packaging

12 Jan 2024 --- DS Smith has launched a new trial in partnership with environmental research start-up Nafici to create packaging from “second harvest” materials.

The collaboration represents a progression within DS Smith’s Now & Next strategy initiated last year, a strategic response to the growing call for a more circular approach in the company’s supply chains. 

DS Smith’s research team suggests that utilizing second-harvest materials such as straw and brewers’ spent grain could potentially conserve up to 10% of the virgin fibers typically employed in the papermaking process. This presents a viable means to supplement traditional sources, say the researchers.

Path to circular economy
Utilizing straw remnants post-annual grain harvest presents an alternative source for manufacturing paper products instead of relying on trees. In North America, for example, the surplus of straw each year is substantial enough to fulfill a big portion of the overall paper demands without detriment to delicate forest ecosystems.

Nick Thompson, materials development director at DS Smith, says: “Businesses are keen to understand how they can adopt more circularity into their supply chains and finding secondary uses for what are currently seen as waste materials are key to that.”

Encouraging the production of straw-based paper is promoted within the forest products supply chain as a sustainable alternative.“DS Smith has built a reputation for innovating in the recycling aspect of its operation, in part demonstrated by the investment into the R&D Fibre & Paper Development Lab and our ongoing partnership with Nafici.” 

“The Now & Next Sustainability strategy propels us toward aiding the transition to a circular economy. Collaborating with customers and partners across the supply chain to keep materials in use for as long as possible is an important part of that drive,” says Thompson.

Sustainable packaging innovations
Nafici Environmental Research (NER), a West Sussex company, has created a process to transform agricultural waste into papermaking pulp with strengthening properties. 

DS Smith is leveraging its research and innovation facility located in Kent, Kemsley, to investigate the utilization of pulp developed by Nafici from previously overlooked materials in the creation of eco-friendly packaging products.

Florence Miremadi-Nafici, co-founder and CEO of NER, says: “Our work with DS Smith is crucial in addressing the sustainability challenges associated with the increased demand for packaging.” 

“Through the pilot program at Kemsley, we hope to prove that alternative fibers, and particularly second harvest materials, can and will play an important role in the future of sustainable packaging.”

Edited by Sichong Wang