Stora Enso has conducted a trial with Fiskeby Board in Sweden to explore possibilities to recycle used paper cups into white-lined chipboard (WLC).
The trials confirmed that paper cups can be utilised as viable raw material to produce WLC without any investments or changes to the process conditions at the Fiskeby mill. With paper cups as part of Fiskeby’s normal raw material input, the quality of the WLC board showed no defects, and no problems were experienced in the pulp and board production processes.
Arvid Sundblad, CEO at Fiskeby Board, said, ‘Recycling saves our planet’s resources and energy in board production. Since paper cups are made from virgin fibre, they provide strong, high quality raw material for the production of recycled board. The trials showed that we can recycle all kinds of paper cups at Fiskeby. The results also indicated that cups made of Cupforma Natura Solo would be the most energy and resource efficient to recycle, providing the highest fibre yield, comparable to non-polymer coated board materials.’
Cupforma Natura from Stora Enso is a food service board produced from virgin fibres to offer purity and cleanliness. It is food-safe, taste and odour neutral, and 100% recyclable and renewable. It uses a three-layer fibre construction with CTMP in the middle layer. The product can be printed using offset, flexo and digital. Solo is a more recent addition to the Cupforma Natura portfolio, and has a dispersion barrier instead of polyethylene coating to make the cup leakproof. The dispersion barrier breaks down in the recycling process, ensuring that all fibres can be fully recovered.
Stora Enso noted that used paper cups are, ‘largely an unused resource, which could be recycled into new products.’ Past trials conducted by Stora Enso at its Langerbrugge paper mill in Belgium have already shown that cups can serve as a raw material for magazine paper, and now the trials with Fiskeby Board confirm the suitability of cups for recycled board production.
Hannu Kasurinen, senior vice president, head of liquid packaging and cartonboard at Stora Enso, said, ‘By exploring the recycling of paper cups, we are promoting circularity while supporting our customers in the food service industry in their efforts to become more climate-friendly. We are open to collaboration with other recycling partners to build an ecosystem of circularity for food service companies.
‘Paper cups have a low carbon footprint, which is still cut by half if cups are recycled and carbon remains stored in the fibres during their next life. The high-quality fibres become used for other renewable products in a circular economy.’
Ebba Mannheimer, head of new barrier solutions in Stora Enso’s Consumer Board division, added, ‘Stora Enso is actively developing new innovative solutions and business models to support coffee houses and fast food chains in responding to consumer needs for sustainable choices. The recycling trials at Fiskeby confirm yet another use for the valuable fibres in paper cups, while strengthening our expertise in material recycling. We are proud of our innovations that drive value in the circular bioeconomy.’
Read more about ongoing sustainability efforts from packaging substrate suppliers in the September/October edition of Digital Labels & Packaging, and here
