DS Smith backs new barrier material

United Kingdom-based paperboard packaging maker DS Smith has commissioned a study along with U.K.-based Aquapak Polymers they say demonstrates that “innovative, biodigestible barrier coatings increase paper recycling rates and fiber yield, without compromising functionality, providing a viable new packaging alternative which is ready and available for use.”

The study, titled ‘’Considerations for process, product and environmental fate testing of soluble bio-digestible barriers for paper and board packaging,” proposes that new barrier technologies such as Hydropol provide an alternative to many existing plastic coatings used in paper packaging thus “removing plastic waste from the recycling process.”

Aquapak calls Hydropol, a commercially available fully soluble, biodigestible barrier polymer that can be adhesive or extrusion coated onto paper. It can provide oil and grease resistance, act as a gas barrier, is non-toxic, marine safe, dissolves in water and “subsequently biodegrades but still provides the much-needed functionality required for food, drink and household product packaging,” says the firm.

Perhaps most importantly for recyclers, “The tests used in the study show that Hydropol is compatible with the processes used by high-volume [paper] mills and enables high fiber recovery, whilst reducing insoluble single-use plastics that are ejected and sent to landfill or waste-to-energy,” say the study’s promoters.

Nick Thompson, an R&D materials development director with DS Smith Group, says, “It’s clear that materials used in paper-based packaging have to be designed into the packaging with recycling in mind from the start. This is why DS Smith developed circular design principles; to ensure repulpability, recyclability and no negative impact on the end of life of the materials used. It seems like the Aquapak Hydropol product during recycling has now been shown to help fiber separation and can itself be eliminated from the process with no negative impact and with no need for finding an outlet for unwanted waste material, such as difficult to recycle plastics.”

Extrusion coatings and laminates for paper and board applications are in a customer production trial stage, say DS Smith and Aquapak, “including a number of home delivery and e-commerce applications, packaging for dried pet food, snacks, cooked meat and convenience food applications.”

The published study can be requested on this web page.