Siegwerk has developed a fully recyclable mono-PE bag for dry pet food using its Cirkit functional coatings. Together with printing machine manufacturer Windmöller & Hölscher (W&H) and bag making and machine producer B&B, the company jointly produced a new high-barrier mono-material packaging, offering the same packaging and process performance as the commonly used multi-material structure for dry pet food while also being fully recyclable.
Following the EU’s new regulations and directives, increasing the pressure on brand owners and packaging manufacturers to rethink the design of packaging towards circularity, the company, who provide printing inks and coatings for packaging applications and labels, looked for an option to address these directives.
‘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.’
Pet food packaging must meet food safety criteria. It must require certain barrier properties, such as resistance to oils and fats, to keep the food fresh and maintain the packaging’s structural integrity. This has meant multi-material structures with a metallized layer are commonly used. An issue highlighted by Mr Habib who stated, ‘they are not recyclable.’
He continued, ‘This is where innovative barrier coatings applied in thin layers and inline 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.’
By using Siegwerk’s Cirkit GreaseBar, an inline printable grease barrier coating, and Cirkit HeatGuard, a coating for high-end sealing process efficiency (heat resistance on film surfaces), the newly developed recyclable mono-PE bag can achieve the same packaging performance as non-recyclable complex multi-material systems while being fully recyclable. Both Cirkit coatings are solvent based, fully de-inkable after delamination and can be printed inline without any loss in print performance. Full PU inks can be used which are not only suitable for mechanical recycling but also offer a process performance comparable to NC/PU flexo inks in terms of printing speed and quality. All used inks and coatings comply with the latest recycling guidelines including the German Minimum Standard and RecyClass for recyclable packaging.
‘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,’ said Mr Habib. ‘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.’
Samples of the new pet food pouch will be available at Interzoo between 7-10 May in Nuremberg, Germany at B&B’s booth 4A-413 in hall 4A and at drupa between 28 May – 7 June in Duesseldorf, Germany at W&H’s booth A51 in hall 15.
