A decade of more sustainable choices: Celebrating 10 years of UPM Raflatac’s Label Life service

Amcor has announced a five-year deal with ExxonMobil to purchase certified-circular polyethylene material in support of its target to achieve 30% recycled material across its portfolio by 2030. The volume of material will increase incrementally each year, and is expected to reach 100,000 metric tons annually at the end of the five-year period. Made possible by ExxonMobil’s ExxtendTM technology for advanced recycling, Amcor intends to leverage this material across its global portfolio, with a particular focus on the healthcare and food industries, which are required to meet stringent safety requirements for recycled plastic. The agreement expands upon Amcor’s initial purchase of certified-circular polyethylene material from ExxonMobil earlier this year.

Felix Schoeller Group expands packaging product portfolio: Environmentally friendly packaging solution made of 95% paper – suitable for disposal with waste paper The Felix Schoeller Group of Osnabrück, Germany, has expanded its packaging product portfolio – with great success. An international audience of industry professionals got their first glimpse of the varied new range at the Fachpack trade fair in Nuremberg at the end of September.One of the highlights was the innovative FlexPaper pure, which is made using an extrusion lamination process and renewable, FSC-certified pulp from sustainable forestry. FlexPaper pure packaging is an eye-catcher at every point of sale thanks to the outstanding properties of the specialty paper, which lead to optimum flexographic and gravure printing results. But that’s not the only reason it is already causing such a stir – thanks its high total paper content of 95 percent, Felix Schoeller’s new packaging solution can be disposed of easily with the waste paper once it has been used. This has been confirmed in an independent packaging analysis using the “Made for Recycling” test method, which concluded that FlexPaper “recycles well”.

Metsä Group’s innovation company Metsä Spring and Valmet begin construction of the 3D fibre product pilot plant in Äänekoski, Finland. The pilot plant enables testing and further development of the novel process for producing of a new type of packaging solution.The greenfield building will host the pilot line, which converts wood fibre into ready-to-use 3D fibre products, which, in turn, can replace similar packaging solutions made from plastic and aluminium. The goal of the pilot plant project is to develop a new competitive product and the supporting production process and equipment. “Our project is a good example of our role as a pioneering company. We have an ambitious goal to build a significant business based on the top-class know-how of Metsä Group, Valmet and several other companies. We use familiar, sustainably-produced wood fibre as our main raw material and strive to process it into first-class packages while minimising the environmental impact. The pilot plant is developing and testing many new innovations that support, for example, our goal to replace plastic in various packaging solutions,” says Jarkko Tuominen, Project Lead at Metsä Spring.