ePac Flexible Packaging Sets Strategy for Continued Double-Digit Growth

Stora Enso’s brand-new board line in Oulu, Finland is well under way to completion. It brings with it a promise to introduce up to 750,000 tonnes of renewable packaging materials to the market, all sourced from well-managed forests. With the increased capacity to produce more premium renewable solutions, we will grow our support for food and beverage brand owners in answering consumers’ wishes for more sustainable packaging. In anticipation of the line’s startup in 2025, we’re introducing the first of such products, a new folding boxboard (FBB) that will take center stage in Oulu – Performa Nova. The promise of Performa Nova is all in the name. For years, our Performa product range has stood for exceptional performance, embodied by the strength and dependability of the material at a low weight. “Nova” signals a new era in fiber-based packaging, reflecting enhanced efficiency and product experience. Performa Nova is poised to redefine industry standards and consumer expectations.

Finnish startup Fiberwood, a producer of 100% ecological wood fibre insulation and packaging materials made from mechanical wood industry side streams, has raised a late seed funding round. The round was led by Metsä Group’s innovation company Metsä Spring, and the round included public financing from Business Finland. The funding will be used to develop and scale up the production capabilities of its pilot plant as it heads into industrial-level continuous production. Valued at EUR 25 billion, the global insulation market is currently dominated by two groups of products: inorganic mineral wools, such as stone or glass wool, and fossil-based cellular plastic products, like polystyrene. However, these products have more environmental consequences as they are not recyclable or biodegradable. Fiberwood’s bio-based, plastic-free, and compostable insulation sheets are made from wood pulp and side streams from the mechanical wood industry with special foam-forming technology. The insulation sheets include natural traits of trees as well as air pockets that increase the material’s insulation capabilities. The products are carbon negative as they store and bind carbon dioxide to the wood for as long as it exists. The insulation sheets are easy, safe, and quick to install. Once they are ready to be recycled, the insulation sheets will biodegrade into plastic-free soil.

Sonoco announced tit has partnered with AMP Robotics, a pioneer in AI, robotics and infrastructure for the waste and recycling industry, to create a new material category within AMP’s neural network specific to rigid paperboard cans. The U.S. partnership will result in increased recycling rates for the spiral wound paper canister with steel bottom produced by Sonoco and other manufacturers. The use of recycled steel has a 45% lower environmental impact than producing the equivalent amount from virgin material, reducing the need to mine for virgin iron ore. Additionally, when compared to landfilling, recycling the paper container with steel bottom through the steel or other streams has a greater than 40% lower environmental impact than landfilling. Any materials recovery facility with an AMP Cortex™ intelligent robotics system can now accurately and efficiently sort Sonoco’s paper can to the desired stream.