Water-based Barrier Coatings Can Help to Change Behaviour and Improve Sustainability Credentials
Tony Bedford, CEO of Greenpac Solutions Ltd, is very enthusiastic about compostable barrier coated boards “what started out as a method of replacing plastic sandwich packs with water based barrier coatings has actually led us into many other exciting products, including ovenability and grease-resistance grades”.
Tony Bedford, CEO of Greenpac Solutions Ltd, is very enthusiastic about compostable barrier coated boards “what started out as a method of replacing plastic sandwich packs with water based barrier coatings has actually led us into many other exciting products, including ovenability and grease-resistance grades”.
Globally supermarkets and fast food chains are proudly wearing their environmental and sustainability credentials on their shirt sleeves. With much focus placed on the sustainability of packaging materials there is one area with great potential for improvement; recycling problems and pollution caused by PE coatings on paperboard. In many instances companies can actually adapt their systems and use specialist aqueous coated paperboard in place of PE coated board or even a plastic tray. Greenpac Solutions Ltd in the UK specialise in creating and applying these water based coatings and are expanding production to cope with new and growing demand.
Recyclability and compostability are keywords with Greenpac’s client base and working with different papermills Greenpac Solutions Ltd has been using their unique UK coating operation to add value and increase end-use applications on a variety of packaging board grades. “The sandwich pack sector was an obvious area where paperboard regained popularity” states Tony Bedford “freshness is governed by temperature and moisture control, so by developing a water based coating to restrict moisture-vapourmovement boards coated by our process are now proving very popular”.
Sandwich packs are not the only interesting application. Greenpac Solutions has developed speciality coating processes for other areas including grease resistance, ovenability, and water resistance to name but three. So fast food, microwave, dry goods and pet foods can all benefit from the switch to aqueous coatings from PE. “Our main business to date has been as a coating service provider to papermills due to our flexible approach and sound technical methodology, but the demand is growing and by working directly with packaging and end-user partners we can also help them evaluate strategic directional changes in their packaging flows, working simultaneously with various papermill partners and driving change in the waste and landfill implications of product packaging”.
Why do specifiers switch from PE film coated to water-based barrier coatings? “Compostability is the key” states Tony Bedford. Paper is generally accepted as having better environmental qualifications than plastics and, especially with used sandwich packs invariably ending up in landfill, compostable water-based barrier coating has a far lower environmental impact than plastic or a PE coated material. Waste board from the production process is also repulpable so can be easily recycled as another paper product.
Recyclability and compostability are keywords with Greenpac’s client base and working with different papermills Greenpac Solutions Ltd has been using their unique UK coating operation to add value and increase end-use applications on a variety of packaging board grades. “The sandwich pack sector was an obvious area where paperboard regained popularity” states Tony Bedford “freshness is governed by temperature and moisture control, so by developing a water based coating to restrict moisture-vapourmovement boards coated by our process are now proving very popular”.
Sandwich packs are not the only interesting application. Greenpac Solutions has developed speciality coating processes for other areas including grease resistance, ovenability, and water resistance to name but three. So fast food, microwave, dry goods and pet foods can all benefit from the switch to aqueous coatings from PE. “Our main business to date has been as a coating service provider to papermills due to our flexible approach and sound technical methodology, but the demand is growing and by working directly with packaging and end-user partners we can also help them evaluate strategic directional changes in their packaging flows, working simultaneously with various papermill partners and driving change in the waste and landfill implications of product packaging”.
Why do specifiers switch from PE film coated to water-based barrier coatings? “Compostability is the key” states Tony Bedford. Paper is generally accepted as having better environmental qualifications than plastics and, especially with used sandwich packs invariably ending up in landfill, compostable water-based barrier coating has a far lower environmental impact than plastic or a PE coated material. Waste board from the production process is also repulpable so can be easily recycled as another paper product.
Source: Greenpac Solutions Ltd
All content and features on this website are copyrighted with all rights reserved. The full details can be found in our privacy statement
