Packaging Innovations 2025 live: Tipa showcases latest compostable materials, talks UK regulatory challenges

Packaging company Tipa’s vice president of Global Converting, Gary Tee, discusses the company’s three new certified home compostable solutions at the ongoing Packaging Innovations 2025 trade show in Birmingham, UK, February 12–13. These are the 312MET high-barrier film for laminated savory snacks and chips, a zipper for bags, and stickers for fruit and vegetables.

“The exciting development we have is our new high barrier material 312MET metalized. We have taken a brand new material, and we've added metallization to that, which gives fantastic gas, moisture, and light barrier,” Tee tells Packaging Insights.

“Importantly, this allows us to now move into sectors that would have traditionally been very difficult to get a high barrier for, such as bags of chips. This opens up that market to us as well. You would combine that as a heat seal layer with an additional layer to give you the finished laminate structure.”

The high barrier offers protection against salt, oil, and moisture, removing the need for an additional sealing layer, making it suitable for various packaging applications, including crisps, chips, snacks, granola bars, grains, coffee, and tea.

Home compostable packaging

This film is available for purchase globally in reels. When paired with cellulose or paper layers, it makes “one of the market’s thinnest two-ply home compostable” solutions. Additionally, it promises to ensure freshness and an extended shelf life, alongside “an eco-friendly end-of-life.”

Gary Tee, Tipa’s vice president of Global Converting, shows the 312MET high-barrier film.Further discussing Tipa’s new zipper, developed in collaboration with Presto, Tee says: “This is a brand new formulation in terms of zipper profile, and this will bring home compostable zippers to the market. It will enable bags to become easy to open and re-close. We’re very proud of that development, working with Presto’s Fresh-Lock in the US.”

“We’ve also been working with Bio4life on some new material developed for home compostable fruit and vegetable stickers,” he continues.

“This recently passed home compostable certification, and it opens up the market for bananas, outdoors, pears, and a wide variety of fruits and vegetables to make a choice to go compostable in the future. And we see this as a really key development in the future.” 

This move underscores Tipa’s commitment to combating the mounting plastic waste crisis. With crisps packaging making up a significant portion of non-recycled waste, Tipa’s solution aims to pave the way for brands to shift toward truly circular and environmentally responsible packaging alternatives.

“With the improvements to our high-barrier film, we’re taking a significant step forward in reducing plastic waste while ensuring snack brands and consumers have a viable, thin, high-performance, sustainable option,” says Tee.

Regulatory challenges 

Tee points to packaging regulations in the UK as a key ongoing challenge for Tipa.

“Certain retailers in the UK still ban compostables, so that’s a challenge that we’ll continue to discuss with them as time progresses. Simpler recycling is also a challenge. We’re not classified as recyclable, so we sit outside of that,” he explains.

“Price is always a challenge as well. These materials are a little bit higher than conventional plastics. That said, we have brands, converters, and retailers that are prepared to invest in this type of material to offer truly compostable solutions to the market.”

Tipa's home compostable stickers for fruits and vegetables.He says that the EU’s PPWR legislation is “encouraging in small areas.”

“For instance, there is talk of fruit stickers and vegetable stickers going compostable, which is great. That will give us a market, and it’s an obvious area to go compostable. These will end up in the food waste stream, either anaerobic digestion or compost. And it is a terrible shame that these days conventional plastic is used, so we do have some hope there for this.”

He adds that the regulation is more challenging in terms of conventional packaging. “That said, EU member states can make a case to continue to go compostable. We’re hearing places like Italy are supportive of compostables, and we hope that they will encourage them to consider more options in the future.”

“This is a four to five-year process, so when we go forward in time, there are opportunities to introduce more compostables to the market in the future. The products are here today. We need the legislation to be more supportive.”

Tee says that Tipa finds regulations in the UK difficult. “Food stickers are a great opportunity, as the UK is very focused on recycling. So within the simple recycling form, we sit outside of that.”

“We are working with food service companies and online businesses where this packaging can be collected away from curbside collection; as part of the Compostable Coalition UK, which Tipa leads, we are pushing to allow for compostable packaging to be measured as part of their recyclable targets as they submit their packaging data at the end of the year.”

“We are being listened to on that, and we’re hopeful that there will be a positive outcome.”

With live reporting from Joshua Poole at Packaging Innovations 2025