MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF and the Swedish packaging manufacturer BillerudKorsnas have cooperated to develop a home-compostable paper laminate for flexible packaging, said the company.
The move comes amid the market shift from plastic to paper-based packaging and towards more recycling. Conventional multi-layer flexible films are difficult to recycle.
The multi-layer film consists of three basic components: BillerudKorsnas‘ paper, a sealing layer made of BASF’s certified home compostable and partly bio-based biopolymer and BASF’s water-based adhesive which joins the film to the paper. It can be used to produce wraps with individually adjusted barrier properties, e.g. for cookies, cereal bars and dairy items. All components are certified home-compostable according to official European certification schemes for home-composting.
It can be used to produce wraps with individually adjusted barrier properties, for example for biscuits, ice cream, cereal bars and dairy items as well as wrappers for fish, meat and cheese.
“Our joint development represents a shift to paper-based and compostable material in order to replace traditional laminates for food packaging - meeting hygiene and barrier requirements, maintaining form and enabling many design possibilities just like conventional packaging but with the decisive added benefit that it is home-compostable,” said Markus Saari, business development manager at BillerudKorsnas.
As MRC reported previously, German chemicals maker BASF said in early November it had put a project to build a petrochemicals complex in India worth up to USD4 billion on hold due to the economic uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. BASF signed a memorandum of understanding with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), Adani Group and Borealis AG in October 2019 to evaluate a collaboration to build the chemical site in Mundra, in India’s Gujarat state.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
ccording to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,594,510 tonnes in the first nine months of 2020, up by 1% year on year. Only high denstiy polyethylene (HDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 880,130 tonnes in the nine months of 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports plus imports, exluding producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply increased exclusively of PP random copolymer.
BASF is the leading chemical company. It produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries.
MRC