Siegwerk drives Cradle-to-Cradle inks development

Developing inks according to the C2C principle means that the design is based on materials that are inert to the environment, safe for the human health and enable the use in a closed biological loop system. Hereby, safe, and sustainable packaging components like printing inks are essentially important for the certification of the complete packaging.

‘The continuously rising awareness in respect of sustainable packaging has a strong impact on a consumer’s choice of brand. This further increases the pressure on brand owners of fast-moving consumer goods to innovate their packaging structures and materials in order to maintain their differentiation advantages not only at the point of sale and usage but also post-consumption,’ said Dr Stefan Haep, head of technology and innovation and brand owner collaboration at Siegwerk.

‘C2C presents a well-accepted and scientifically proven method to validate the characteristics of sustainable materials, products and systems by putting a major role on the human and ecological health impact of the chemical substances used as constituents. With C2C, brand owners have the opportunity to demonstrate their innovation efforts to deliver their sustainability pledges,’ added Haep.

A C2C Material Health Gold certification guarantees the absence of any organohalogen constituents in the formulation and of any substances which have highly problematic properties in terms of at least one or even more of the 24 toxicological endpoints used by the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute (like carcinogenic, mutagenic or reprotoxic effects).

‘Specifically, the holistic evaluation approach of the Cradle to Cradle principle including all individual packaging components makes it challenging for packaging developers to validate their packaging and gain the full C2C certification of the final product,’ added Haep. ‘That’s why finding the right partner is the key.’

In 2017, Siegwerk was the first ink manufacturer to be awarded Cradle to Cradle Material Health Certification Gold. Since then, the company progressed to certify more inks and currently offers a solid set of C2C portfolio industrially certified and suitable for different packaging types and printing technologies for both food and non-food applications.