Innovia Films launches carbon-neutral polypropylene films in climate change win
30 Mar 2021 --- Innovia Films is adding to its Encore range of sustainable polypropylene (PP) films with REF30cn, which the company says is carbon-neutral from “cradle-to-gate.”
The film’s performance matches fossil-based equivalents and can be used in both high-speed horizontal flow-wrap and overwrap applications. It is also fully food contact compliant.
Paul Watters, product development manager for packaging at Innovia Films, tells PackagingInsights how the company achieved carbon-neutral certification from the International Sustainability & Carbon Certification (ISCC).
“The carbon neutrality is measured on a cradle-to-gate basis using an internal Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tool. We assess the material input for REF30cn along with the process inputs; we tailor the input materials to result in a film that leaves our gate in the UK with a carbon-neutral footprint.”
“The verification of how we assess LCA is part of our ISCC PLUS certification.”
Innova Market Insights recently identified “The Carbon Catalyst” as its second top packaging trend for 2021, detailing the increasing relevance of a product’s carbon footprint as the key indicator of environmental sustainability amid increasingly stark climate change warnings.
Achieving carbon neutrality
Watters says the challenge in achieving the certification came primarily in finding the appropriate input material with a low carbon footprint when compared to fossil-based materials.
Achieving carbon-neutrality has earned Innovia the ISCC PLUS certification.“This is overcome by selecting polymers produced from renewable feedstocks via the mass balance principle.”
Another important element is having an efficient manufacturing process, he says, which specialty Biaxially Oriented Polypropylene (BOPP) film production has.
A large portion of Innovia’s energy use is electricity, and some of this is also sourced from renewables.
Carbon labeling?
Watters says Innovia will not be including any carbon labeling on the film for the time being, as further analysis would be required.
“As the supplier of the film for further conversion and distribution, this is not something we have looked at currently.”
“We would see this message more at the end of the supply chain, visible to the consumer. To do this, further LCA data would be needed to assess the other processes.”
Recycling PP
REF30cn can be recycled wherever infrastructure exists to recycle PP, asserts Watters.
The recyclability of REF30cn has been independently assessed by Interseroh in Germany and achieved the “Made For Recycling” logo.
However, in the UK, studies have shown PP to be the cause of much pollution. A report published by Valpak and Wrap found 266,000 tons of plastic packaging waste in 2019 came from PP.
Moreover, 80,000 tons came from PP film. The report found that if mono-material polyethylene (PE) and PP films were recycled, 79 percent of UK packaging would be classed as recyclable.
According to Sainsbury’s, a lack of public infrastructure is exacerbating the situation. In response, the supermarket chain recently launched a PP recycling scheme in its stores.
Edited
By Louis Gore-Langton
