The Finnish company Walki is introducing sustainable trays for packaging ready meals and frozen food that can be recycled in the paper stream. They are an alternative to the usual plastic and aluminium trays.
„Grease resistance is normally achieved with a plastic barrier, but this makes it difficult to recycle the tray as the plastic is difficult to separate from the fibre content. That's why we wanted to develop innovative tray materials that can be fully recycled in the paper streams,“ explains Matthias Zimmermann, Business Line Manager for Barrier Board at Walki.
Packaging for ready meals and frozen food
Walki has three solutions in its portfolio: The Pack Tray PET from Walki is a tray material with a very thin PET layer, which allows the material to be categorised as a mono-material, making it suitable for recycling in paper streams. The PET-free Pack Tray UR has the best release properties. Both materials are approved for conventional ovens up to 220 °C and for a maximum baking time of 60 minutes. For applications that do not require heating, the Pack Food Service Trays suitable. They have a high fibre content, provide a good grease barrier and can also be recycled in the paper stream.
Walki expects that the Demand for ready meals and frozen food will continue to rise. „We have to realise that this trend does not mean that more plastic will be used. If you want to save on plastic, the tray is a good place to start,“ says Matthias Zimmermann.
Source: Walki
