Research agency Smithers Pira estimate that on current trends, the sector will experience a period of sustained growth of up to 6% annually through to 2017. This will result in a global market of over 30 million tonnes with an approximate value of $70 billion. What this means is that the demand for food contact paper and board will be nearly 7.5 million tonnes higher than in 2012 \u2013 offering a lucrative opportunity, especially for a paper and board industry on the hunt for new opportunities. The huge growth in food packaging demand \u2013 tied to population growth and the growing middle classes in emerging markets, has had a huge impact on the paper industry already \u2013 with a shift in the industry away from paper and board for print media and towards speciality grade products such as food contact paper and board. As a material type, paper and board is a uniquely popular material for food contact use \u2013 but as will be discussed, the latest inventions in barrier technology look set in my opinion to make it the material of choice in most packaging applications.<\/p>\n
Looking first at paper and board, it\u2019s attractiveness as a material type is clear; it\u2019s lightweight, renewable when responsibly sourced and both recyclable and compostable. It\u2019s also a flexible product and the grades and types of paper-derived materials available on the marketplace today are staggering \u2013 from simple wraps at one end of the scale, through to cartons capable of preserving their contents for years at the other. This means that when end users are considering their packaging choices from a packaging efficiency perspective, paper and board tends to compare fairly well to alternative materials.<\/p>\n
The challenge of course, is that paper and board only works safely and effectively in a food contact role with a barrier coating of some form. Traditionally this has usually been a paraffin wax coating where grease resistance in particular is required, or when full oxygen and liquid barriers are required \u2013 such as in a juice carton or coffee cup \u2013 then a barrier of polyethylene or aluminium is often employed. Plastic-derived food contact barriers are also essential in enabling heat-sealing, a vital requirement of most packaging formats and designs. These traditional barrier coatings perform exceptionally well and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Whilst the use of a traditional barrier coating has involved the use of a non-renewable material, the quantities involved are miniscule, and the latest advances in accurate coating application technologies reduce their use even further.<\/p>\n
However, the main issue with barrier coatings is not the use of a non-renewable material per se, but the impact on end of life. Barrier coated boards and papers tend to require specialist recycling technologies to enable the separation of materials. Where the infrastructure exists to facilitate recycling such as in Europe this is less of a problem, but it is an issue in emerging markets, which is also where demand will be strongest in the years ahead. Even in markets such as Europe, there\u2019s always the issue of packaging not making it into the recycling stream for whatever reason, and in this scenario its ability to biodegrade in landfill or in compost becomes an issue which a traditional barrier coating can limit.<\/p>\n
For this reason, there\u2019s been a huge focus in recent years on developing new barrier technology that is either renewably sourced, readily recyclable, biodegradable or all three. Bioplastic based technology is a huge growth sector but the associated terminology can be confusing, incorporating as an umbrella term both biomass-based-plastics (i.e. a plastic derived from biomass such as sugarcane which may not be biodegradable) and biodegradable plastics \u2013 which are not necessarily bio-based.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, bioplastics have advanced to the extent that they can rival traditional plastics in functional terms \u2013 just look at Coca-Cola\u2019s Plant-Bottle\u2122 as an example. Bioplastic barrier technology does, however, face some challenges. Firstly, confusion over terminology is holding the technology back with brand owners as they wrestle with questions such as are we talking renewable? Biodegradable or what? Secondly, bioplastics can confuse consumers; should they be separated? Can they be recycled? Can they be put in compost? Finally, there\u2019s the lifecycle issue, with first generation bioplastics in particular, is the feedstock used for production displacing food intended for human consumption? What\u2019s the climate impact?<\/p>\n
Luckily, on the question of lifecycle bioplastic technology is advancing to the point where it will soon be making use of waste materials as a feedstock. In the pulp & paper industry especially, work is currently underway to work out how lignin, a natural by-product of the pulping process, could be used as a feedstock.<\/p>\n
A complimentary approach is a move towards water-based coatings. Much like in the paint industry, a water-based coating is one where water has been used as the base or dilatant. The use of a water base means that the coating can be readily removed in recycling or in the worst case the product will be compostable in landfill. The introduction of water-based coatings is especially important for product applications where complete liquid and oxygen barrier technology is not required, such as in the Quick Service Restaurant sector where packaging is high volume and often misses recycling streams.<\/p>\n
Moving forward, I think we\u2019ll see a continued development of bioplastics as a barrier coating. The issue now is not technology or functionality, but comparative costs and the type and quantities of feedstock consumed. We\u2019ll also see increasing use of water-based coatings, especially for products that only require a grease-barrier. What this technology means at the strategic level is that paper and board will become even more competitive. It competes well with alternative materials today in packaging efficiency and lifecycle terms, but with tomorrow\u2019s barrier technology I believe that paper and board will be the material of choice in nearly all packaging solutions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Research agency Smithers Pira estimate that on current trends, the sector will experience a period of sustained growth of up to 6% annually through to 2017. This will result in a global market of over 30 million tonnes with an approximate value of $70 billion. What this means is that the demand for food contact […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[],"supplier":[6835,6834],"class_list":["post-19950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","supplier-asia-pulp-paper","supplier-smithers-pira"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19950\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19950"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=19950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}