Siegwerk develops recyclable mono-PE bag

Siegwerk has partnered with Windmöller & Hölscher and B&B to develop a recyclable mono-PE bag for dry pet food which offers the same packaging and process performance as the multi-material structures.

With all its new regulations and directives, the EU is increasing the pressure on brand owners and packaging manufacturers to rethink the design of packaging towards circularity.

‘New approaches are needed to meet the upcoming regulatory requirements for circular packaging,’ said Belal Habib, head of brand owner collaboration at Siegwerk. ‘The challenge is to find a recyclable design that also meets the respective performance requirements of the packaging.’

For example, pet food packaging must be food safe, but also requires certain barrier properties, such as resistance to oils and fats, to keep the food fresh and maintain the packaging's structural integrity. For this purpose, complex multi-material structures with a metallized layer have commonly been used so far.

‘The problem is they are not recyclable,’ adds Habib. ‘This is where innovative barrier coatings applied in thin layers and in-line with regular printing inks can help to switch from an incompatible multi-material structure to a fully recyclable mono-material solution in the sense of a circular economy.’

According to the company, by using Siegwerk’s Cirkit GreaseBar and HeatGuard, the newly developed recyclable mono-PE bag achieves the same packaging performance as non-recyclable complex multi-material systems but with the advantage of being fully recyclable.

Both Cirkit coatings are solvent-based, fully deinkable after delamination and can be printed in-line.

‘This development success once again underlines the importance of collaborating along the packaging value chain, combining the superior know-how of industry experts,’ commented Habib. ‘Together, we have succeeded in developing an innovation that is circular, delivers on performance and maintains current process efficiencies due to inline and high-speed conversion. This shows that, by joining forces, we are in a position to make recyclable mono-plastic packaging a reality and thus counter the still wide presence of multi-material laminated structures with future-oriented flexible packaging solutions made for circularity.’