Innovia Films will unveil their full range of fully recyclable solutions tailored to the customer’s needs at Packaging Innovations in Birmingham, UK. “Flexible packaging represents the lowest carbon packaging option for a wide variety of products. But we need to replace mixed polymer laminates with new monomaterial constructions that can and will be recycled – using polypropylene (PP) film is an excellent way to achieve this as PP has a wide varety of applications”, says Megan Gilroy, Senior Product Manager Packaging at Innovia Films. “The main topcs are high barrier solutions also for retort pouches, polyester substitution, and foil sustitution. For example we will showcase monomaterial flexible packaging constructions for coffee or grated cheese – these products need special barrier functions to retain quality and freshness and are technically demanding”.
Moreover, Innovia is presenting solutions for pet food pouches. Pet food is a growing market and the packaging needs to shift to monomaterial packaging to increase recycling of the pouches.
Redesigning packaging for EU legislation compliance
Brands are looking to redesign their packaging to comply with new legislation proposed by the EU. “The current version of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation clearly states that all packaging must be recyclable by 2030. There are existing recycling streams for PP and new ones are now under development which will allow waste film to be recycled back into film – to close the loop on packaging materials”, says Marika Knorr, Head of Sustainability and Communication. “We see a strong future for PP film as an environmentally friendly packaging material – with Innovia being the key supplier of functional films for packaging.”
“Another important pillar of the PPWR legislation is that packaging will have to contain a certain percentage of recycled content to drive a more circular economy. We are investing a lot in research and development and have set up a dedicated team that looks into recycling technology to make sure that Innovia has the right feedstock to make films with recycled content”, adds Stephen Langstaff, Head of Recycling. “In addition to that we are implementing a material strategy to offer our customers future-proof solutions that enable them to easily follow EU-regulations.”
Packaging Innovation 2024 Birmingham takes place on 21st – 22nd February at the NEC, Hall 7, Birmingham, UK and is open to visitors from 10.00 to 17.00 for the first day and then 10.00 to 16.00 on the second day. Innovia Films will be on Stand M56.