EarthCoating completes environmental tests

EarthCoating has successfully completed tests for recyclability and repulpability to show that select paperboard grades using the coating can be commercially recycled.

EarthCoating is a coating developed and supplied by Smart Planet Technologies, and is a highly mineralized barrier coating containing less plastic than traditional 100 percent polyethylene coatings. Smart Planet Technologies is a materials intellectual property company focused on sustainability for the packaging industry.

Testing of EarthCoating was completed at Georgia Tech’s Institute of Paper Science and Technology, located in Atlanta, Georgia.

Traditionally, barrier packaging materials used in forming hot/cold cups, ice cream containers and folding cartons coated with 100 percent polyethylene or similar materials are poor candidates for recycling.

The tests show that EarthCoating, when used with select grades of paperboards, can be commercially recycled as light and heavy print virgin bleached board cuttings. In addition, EarthCoating provides great potential for the post-consumer recyclability of barrier-coated packaging.

Smart Planet Technologies said EarthCoating technology offers a recycling option for the approximately two million tons of 100 percent polyethylene-coated boards produced in the US annually. Recycling collection pilots are being planned such that specific packages can be labeled recyclable subject to FTC Green Guide stipulations.

Chris Tilton, chief technology officer of Smart Planet Technologies, said: ‘EarthCoating continues to prove itself as a superior technology to 100 percent polyethylene in packaging applications that require high-performance heat seal and barrier requirements equal to or exceeding polyethylene.

‘The recyclability of these paperboard materials with EarthCoating overcomes an important technological challenge for the paperboard and packaging industries.’

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