BASF, Borealis, Südpack and Zott present prototypes of food packaging made from 100 per cent recycled material.
Thanks to their product properties, multilayer packaging reliably secures Food quality and freshness. They offer product protection and hygiene and therefore extend the shelf life of food. This is also important against the backdrop of global nutrition: one third of the world's food spoils before it reaches the consumer. Intelligent packaging solutions using multilayer packaging can reduce this unnecessary waste.
Multilayer packaging is sustainable: it requires little material and can now be made from chemically recycled material.
„Modern film packaging consists of several materials and layers with different properties, such as an oxygen barrier. They are high-tech. And by optimising the use of materials, we have been able to reduce the volume of the packaging to a minimum“
Johannes Remmele, Managing Director of Südpack
Multilayer packaging consists of up to eleven individual, very thin layers. This makes them significantly lighter and thinner than comparable packaging. This not only saves on the raw materials used, but also contributes to considerable savings in CO2 emissions during transport. Multilayer packaging is therefore significantly more resource-efficient than its alternatives.
However, multilayer packaging is only considered Limited recyclability, as mechanical recycling processes are not suitable for composite materials.
„As part of the ‘ChemCycling“ project, we at BASF are working on advancing the chemical recycling of plastic waste, as this process can be used to reuse previously unrecycled plastics, such as mixed plastics. We have now produced prototype packaging made from chemically recycled polyamide and polyethylene with partners for the first time. We have thus shown that the cycle could soon be closed for multilayer packaging too"
Christoph Gahn, responsible for the polyamide business at BASF
This pilot project was made possible by the cooperation of the four partners BASF, Borealis, Südpack and ZottBASF supplied chemically recycled polyamide and Borealis provided sustainably produced polyethylene. Südpack, a leading producer of film packaging for foodstuffs in Europe, used these materials to produce a multilayer film that was processed into a specially sealed mozzarella packaging for the Zott dairy.
The advantages of this new multilayer film are appreciated in Mertingen.
„In our dairy, we are continuously reviewing the entire value chain to see where we can be even more sustainable and how we can sensibly expand our sustainability standards. In addition, consumers today expect more than ever that high-quality and sustainably produced food is also packaged in the most resource-efficient way possible. It was therefore important for us to be involved in this pilot project right from the start and to contribute our experience as well as our high demands on packaging and its barrier function and to contribute to a functionally identical but ecologically more favourable solution. We are positive and hope that this project will be ready for series production“
Andreas Strunk, Head of Production Technology & Supply Chain Management at Zott
„The special thing about the pilot project is that both components of the packaging - polyamide and polyethylene - are made from chemically recycled material“
Maurits van Tol, Borealis Senior Vice President Innovation, Technology & Circular Economy Solutions.
„This innovative solution was made possible by the selection of special polymers. In addition, the cooperation made it possible for the first time to achieve end-to-end certification from raw material to packaging.“
Maurits van Tol, Borealis Senior Vice President Innovation, Technology & Circular Economy Solutions.
For the polyamide and polyethylene, the raw materials were obtained as part of the „ChemCycling“ produced in very small quantities. Pyrolysis oil obtained from plastic waste supplied by a partner was used as a raw material in BASF's Verbund production in Ludwigshafen. The 100 per cent recycled content of both plastics was calculated using the certified mass balance method
Source: BASF
