Stora Enso doubles European formed fiber production as low-carbon material demand grows

03 Feb 2022 --- Stora Enso is investing €8 million (US$9.1 million) to double its formed fiber production capacity in Europe. With new machinery in Hylte, Sweden, the company is aiming to meet increasing demand for low-carbon material. 

The investment will further strengthen its position as a leading provider of renewable materials, it says. 

Formed fiber is recyclable and biodegradable, and can be used to replace plastics in a wide range of applications.

Sohrab Kazemahvazi, senior vice president and head of formed fiber at Stora Enso tells PackagingInsights: “Consumers want eco-friendly foodservice packaging that is convenient to use and easy to recycle. PureFiber by Stora Enso is appealing to eco-conscious brands who want to communicate eco-friendliness, circularity and low-carbon choices.” 

Plastic-replacement potential 
Stora Enso’s formed fiber products are currently popular for food packaging such as bowls, trays and lids. “They are also used in different forms of consumer and industrial packaging, where they replace alternatives made of fossil-based materials,” notes Kazemahvazi.

The company is also developing fiber bottles in partnership with Pulpex, using formed fiber technology.

Innova Market Insights identified Fiber-Based Frenzy as one of the top packaging trends in 2021. Innovation in fiber-based solutions is booming as brands explore plastic waste escape routes and new connections with the enlarging eco-conscious consumer base.

Boosted fiber capacity
After the investment is completed, the Hylte site’s annual formed fiber capacity will grow from 50 to approximately 115 million product units, making Stora Enso one of Europe’s leading suppliers of formed fiber, the company says. 

Stora Enso has pledged to offer 100% regenerative products and solutions by 2050. The company has also committed to new 2030 targets for its key environmental sustainability priorities: climate change, biodiversity, and circularity. Its new climate target is aligned with the Paris Agreement and Science-Based Targets.Formed fiber is renewable, recyclable and biodegradable, and can be used to replace plastics in various applications.  

Rising formed fiber demand
Kazemahvazi explains that besides consumers wanting eco-friendly and recyclable foodservice packaging, EU regulations are playing a crucial role in the fiber demand increase. 

“The EU is taking serious action to implement reusable or recyclable packaging by 2030 with the upcoming Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive revision. The EU taxonomy criteria for food and beverage packaging is promoting reuse and recycling, and renewable materials.”

“The Single Use Plastic Directive aims to reduce waste reduction, which in practice means billions of single-use plastic products need to be replaced with alternative options. As a consequence of this, countries such as the UK, Spain and Italy are planning on introducing different types of plastic taxes.”

Kazemahvazi stresses that these drivers are increasing demand for packaging to replace plastic. A large benefit with formed fiber is its flexibility in creating similar (or sometimes identical) 3D shapes to plastic.

“This is important from a design and appeal perspective but also from an industrial perspective, where the formed fiber products can work as drop-in solutions into automated packaging lines,” he says. 

Pandemic impacts
Meanwhile, the senior vice president says the pandemic has changed packaging-related societal preferences. 

“Initially we were seeing a sharply increasing demand for home-delivery packaging and less so for on-the-go foodservice packaging. That seems to have evened out now and people are coming back to their “on-the-go” lifestyles again,” he tells PackagingInsights.Stora Enso’s latest investment will more than double its formed fiber production capacity in Europe.

“Another factor is that we believe there is a growing awareness for packaging [environmental] sustainability and waste reduction in the society as a whole – this also drives the need for solutions like formed fiber.”

Inside PureFiber
PureFiber by Stora Enso is a range of formed fiber products that contain no per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and has up to 75% lower CO2 footprint compared to alternative packaging materials such as plastic or bagasse.

The formed fiber products are manufactured from various chemical pulps and chemi-thermomechanical pulp by pressing it into a desired shape in a molding machine. The raw material is pulp made from wood from sustainable sources in Sweden and Finland. 

Stora Enso manufactures the raw material at its mills in Sweden and Finland while the material conversion takes place at the Hylte site.

Last year, the company announced plans to restructure its business due to a global decline in the paper market, increasing its focus on packaging and biomaterial innovation.

By Natalie Schwertheim