Identifying packaging options to meet both functional and sustainability needs

Our client asked:

Our client wanted to use paper packaging that was fully recyclable in order to meet sustainability goals, but that also met their specific functional requirements, in terms of its barrier and sealing properties.

The project story:

We proposed several strategies with the potential to meet our client’s functional criteria and technologies were identified across numerous industries that would fit these strategies. Interviews were then undertaken with paper packaging technology developers to better understand these options. We assessed the options available, including how they could be combined to achieve the required functional properties.

Paper recycling requirements in different countries were explored in parallel, including interviews with recyclers, to establish and evaluate the requirements and constraints of existing paper recycling processes. This gave a set of country specific criteria which would need to be met for the packaging to be recyclable in practice. Potential technologies were evaluated against the recycling criteria.

Results: deliverables and outcomes

We made recommendations on the best technical solutions for different regions and how to implement them, so that the packaging could be recycled in practice as well as in theory.