Top 5 Pillars of Sustainable Paper-Based Barrier Packaging

As global demand for plastic reduction, landfill waste diversion and increased recycling rates continues to grow, it’s important that any innovative material advancement for sustainable paper barrier packaging address the following five areas:

Performance – when it comes to a paper cup or foodservice package, it can’t leak, should run on conventional high-speed converting equipment and needs to withstand the rigors of its intended use.

Environment – the first step to getting paper cups and foodservice packaging recycled is to make them valuable and easy for recyclers to process into high-grade recycled paper products using conventional paper recycling equipment. (Less plastic, recycled content, etc. is also a priority.)

Economics – nobody wants to pay more to be ‘green’ but municipal/state/EPR mandates, consumer pressure and increased media coverage are moving companies in this direction.

Commercial Availability – Alternative solutions need to be commercially available in order to be considered as a sustainable solution. Being asked by your packaging company to wait for a future product to come online is a stall tactic used by those who don’t want anything to change, regardless of how better, faster, cheaper the new solution may be. Don’t let the ‘perfect’ solution stand in the way of making ‘great’ progress. We need incremental change in order to solve our waste problem. There is no silver (or should I say ‘green’) bullet.

Safety – paper-based barrier products made using PFOA, BPA, BPS and heavy metals should not be used due to health concerns per recent studies.