Unique home-compostable paper laminate for flexible packaging

The BASF and the Swedish packaging material manufacturer BillerudKorsnäs have produced a unique home-compostable paper laminate for flexible packaging. It can be used to create wraps with individually improved barrier properties, e.g., for cookies, ice cream, cereal bars, and dairy items, and wrappers for fish, meat, and cheese freshly sold in supermarkets. Also, it is a solution that meets today’s demand for sustainability by being organically recyclable.

The multi-layer laminate consists of three fundamental components: BillerudKorsnäs‘ paper ConFlex Silk, a sealing layer made of BASF’s certified hometown compostable and partly bio-based biopolymer ecovia, and BASF’s water-based adhering Epotal Eco 3675 X. All components are certified the home-compostable according to official European certification schemes for home-composting. The laminate includes a high share of renewables and extends the end-of-life choices for multi-layer flexible packaging by being organically recyclable.

The new home-compostable solution has similar performance features as conventional multi-layer packaging: it is puncture resistant, shows good printability, has excellent heat-seal properties, and can be processed on standard packaging machines.
“We needed to create a paper-based laminate with good heat-seal characteristics by using certified home-compostable components only,” said Amir Pourirani, head of global marketing Biopolymers at BASF.

“There is a massive trend in society, in some countries driven by legislation, to move from plastic to paper-based packaging. Besides, currently available multi-layer flexible laminates are hard to recycle, but the technical requirement is still present. In BillerudKorsnäs, we found the perfect partner to develop a home-compostable solution based on a paper with a broader end-of-life alternative for packaging while maintaining the technical performance of traditional laminates.“

The intention of “the European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy” complete plastic packaging should be recyclable or reusable by 2030.
“With the BASF’s certified home-compostable biopolymer and adhesive, we recognized the ideal components to take the following step towards a different sustainable solution for flexible packaging in our portfolio,” said Markus Saari, Business Development Manager at BillerudKorsnäs. “Our collaborative improvement expresses a shift to paper-based and compostable material to replace traditional laminates for food packaging meeting hygiene and limit demands, to control form and enabling many design probabilities just like conventional packaging but with the decisive united advantage that it is home-compostable.

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