Enabling circularity: Mono materials in flexible packaging

As concern around natural resource depletion increases for businesses and consumers alike, so does the drive toward a circular economy, where recycling is a fact of life. For the packaging industry in particular, recyclability is no longer a ‘nice extra’, but an essential. However, achieving this can be challenging for packaging manufacturers, especially when it comes to flexible barrier packaging, such as retort pouches and multilayer laminate. Often, recycling this packaging requires separating various polymers and metal foils – which can be expensive or impractical. Manufacturers face the challenge of simplifying their flexible barrier packaging. This often involves moving toward mono-materials constructed from similar or identical polymer grades that can be recycled as a single substance. Nevertheless, many traditional mono-material packaging solutions fail to deliver the levels of functional performance that consumers expect. Specifically, maintaining sufficient barrier performance – the ability to keep food or other perishable goods safe – is a key concern in reduced-material or mono-material designs. In line with the growing need for mono-material solutions that retain functional performance, Covestro offers a portfolio of coating resin solutions. These enable manufacturers to replace extra material layers with thin functional coatings – enabling high performance mono-material packaging.

Speakers: Jacqueline Revet & Juan Guerrero