At the FuturePrint Tech Fest in June, Nick Copeland, R&D Director, Barrier Solutions at BOBST, presented a keynote session on Global Megatrends in Packaging Materials and the Advance to Sustainability. Of course, the most significant flexible packaging trend is the global push towards developing and offering more sustainable environmentally friendly packaging solutions and structures to support a more circular economy, but what’s driving the change? Simply put, organisations are setting out ambitious sustainability commitments, which are having a substantial impact on general packaging and flexible packaging value chains.

In Nick’s presentation he highlights a few high-profile sustainability announcements from global businesses, including Nestle, Amcor, Marks and Spencer, and Dow.

• Nestlé is intensifying its actions to make 100% of its packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025 and to reduce its use of virgin plastics by one-third in the same period.

• Amcor is pledging to develop all our packaging to be recyclable or reusable by 2025, significantly increase our use of recycled materials, and help drive consistently greater recycling of packaging around the world.

• By 2022, we will also assess the feasibility of making all M&S plastic packaging from one polymer group, which will help maximise the use of recycled content.

• By 2035, Dow will help “close the loop” by having 100% of its products sold into packaging applications be reusable or recyclable. Dow is committed to redesigning and offering reusable or recyclable solutions for packaging application.

Nick explains: “As a global machine provider, this is having a significant impact on the BOBST flexible packaging business, as the material behaviours and the materials from a processability and performance perspective are quite different, and we need to develop new solutions to support the sustainability pledges.”

BOBST’s observations of global market trends in the sustainability space led the business to develop its three main pillars of sustainable flexible packaging:

• Mono-material polyolefin (PP/PE) – the main market driver is to use more polyolefin-based solutions which are based on a single polymer family, which helps to enable improved recyclability

• Compostable, biodegradable, and bio-based – the real ambition in the market is to find home compostable solutions to avoid the need for consumer collection and prevent ocean plastic pollution

• Paper/fibre-based – also based on mono materials, but this time based on fibre or paper-based flexible structures to enable recyclability

Although the packaging substrates and the materials are changing to provide more circular or sustainable opportunities, the performance requirements, unfortunately, are still the same,” Nick continues. “The market expectation is to provide the same like for like performance as the traditional non-recyclable and compostable or biodegradable solutions, and this creates a real challenge for the packaging designers, as the inherent properties of the new generation materials are generally inferior to the materials that we try to replace or substitute. In general, the more circular or sustainable materials are on the whole more mechanically extensible, thermally more sensitive, and they also have inferior barrier properties, and this can impact the shelf life of the product that the packaging structure is trying to protect.”

The complexity of developing sustainable high barrier packaging solutions to meet the sustainability targets means that stakeholders across the value chain are more inclined to work together, developing partnerships and collaborations from the resin producers through to brand owners and even the retailers themselves. BOBST is actively working with these businesses towards these goals.

In the next section of the presentation, Nick details two significant megatrends in terms of packaging structures and what this means specifically for flexible packaging:

• A push towards packaging simplification, layer reduction, and the layering of the laminate structures

• A global ambition to move from non-recyclable mixed polymer solutions to more recyclable mono-material solutions as a way to support circularity and recyclability

He then outlines a new packaging structure concept or approach for supporting a more circular economy and the many benefits offered. “We believe there needs to be some level of packaging structure standardisation as a way to really simplify the market solutions,” Nick continues. “This new concept we’re illustrating here tries to address this need by offering a standardised high barrier solution based on a pre- made mono-material, polyolefinic polypropylene or polyethylene laminate structure. That pre-made laminate can then be last minute tailored with a relevant surface print technology selected when needed for the application.”

Nick also provides some context around the challenges of such materials from a print perspective, the collaboration between BOBST and other manufacturers within the industry and touches on the ways in which BOBST’s digitization and connectivity focus dovetails with its sustainability mission. Nick concludes: “It's not something that we can develop alone. We have to work with our customers, our customers’ customers, and our customers’ suppliers throughout the value chain to achieve the goals and the ambitions. BOBST has the motto, ‘shaping the future of the packaging world’ and it's true, but we have to do this in collaboration and partnership with the whole value chain.”

Watch the FuturePrint Tech Fest keynote session from BOBST, ‘Global Megatrends in Packaging Materials and the Advance to Sustainability’, here

Press contact:

Gudrun Alex
BOBST PR Representative

Tel.: +49 211 58 58 66 66

Mobile: +49 160 48 41 439

Email: gudrun.alex@bobst.com