Par­tially bio-based res­in enables recyc­lable food packaging

The world of pack­aging is chan­ging quickly. Legis­lat­ors, food brands, and soci­ety at large are all demand­ing pack­aging that is less waste­ful. At the same time, con­sumers don’t want to com­prom­ise on food safety and convenience.

The latest innov­a­tion from Cov­estro provides a solu­tion to meet these grow­ing needs: a par­tially bio-based bar­ri­er coat­ing res­in, Decov­ery^® CQ 6010, which helps ​‘close the loop’ for recyc­lable paper packaging.

Redu­cing waste by repla­cing PE and alu­min­um layers

Many pack­aged food products are sens­it­ive to mois­ture, so con­trolling the mois­ture vapor trans­mis­sion rate (MVTR) is crit­ic­al to main­tain­ing the qual­ity of the food. To pro­tect the product inside a pack­age, paper and board food pack­aging is often lam­in­ated with poly­ethyl­ene (PE) or alu­min­um. These mater­i­als lim­it the packaging’s recyc­lab­il­ity, mean­ing it often ends up going to land­fill or being incin­er­ated. Covestro’s innov­at­ive bar­ri­er coat­ing res­in reduces waste by repla­cing these PE or alu­min­um lay­ers in paper food pack­aging to make it recyclable.

By enabling low MVTR val­ues, Decov­ery^® CQ 6010 provides a mois­ture bar­ri­er to pro­tect the food, as well as deliv­er­ing good oil and grease res­ist­ance. This makes it suit­able for use in pack­aging for a wide range of food, from dry high-fat products such as chocol­ate bars to ice cream, frozen food, and fresh fruit. The res­in is made with 37 per­cent plant-based and trans­par­ently sourced ingredi­ents, such as bark, castor beans, and corn. This sub­stan­tially reduces its car­bon foot­print in com­par­is­on to vir­gin PE and stand­ard fossil-based coatings.

Dav­ide Rever­dito Bove, Sec­tor Mar­ket­ing Man­ager Print­ing & Pack­aging at Cov­estro: ​“While PE lam­in­ates do a good job of pro­tect­ing food con­tents, they make food pack­aging vir­tu­ally impossible to recycle. As a res­ult, a lot of them go to land­fill or are incin­er­ated. Our new res­in is a game-changer in address­ing this issue. It gives food pro­du­cers and pack­aging makers an excel­lent oppor­tun­ity to deliv­er the pro­tec­tion that pack­aging requires while hav­ing less impact on the envir­on­ment. That’s just one reas­on why we are so proud of this new coat­ing, and so excited to be telling the world about it.”