That carton packages today already consist of about 70% renewable material – from wood fibre – is a good start when it comes to sustainability. We spoke to Malin Ljung Eiborn from BillerudKorsnäs and Eva Gustavsson from Tetra Pak about how their two companies are collaborating to push that figure towards 100%.
The roughly 30% of a carton package that isn’t renewable consists of two materials: aluminium foil, which protects against oxygen and light to maintain the nutritional value and flavours of the food in the package at ambient temperatures; and polyethylene (plastic), which protects against outside moisture and enables the paperboard to stick to the aluminium foil.
But replacing these two layers with a renewable material is easier said than done, so Tetra Pak and Swedish paperboard supplier BillerudKorsnäs have joined forces to take on this innovation challenge, as one of several examples of where Tetra Pak is collaborating across the supply chain on the sustainable packaging solutions of tomorrow.
Eva Gustavsson, Vice President Materials & Package at Tetra Pak, says: “70% renewable material is a good start. But we also want to transfer the aluminium foil – and in the next stage the plastic layers – to something that comes from fibres. And we need a lot of innovation to find these new materials that can create a good barrier. We have to act together to transform the industry. And there are so many challenges, so much innovation to do.”
Malin Ljung Eiborn, Sustainability Director at BillerudKorsnäs, a Swedish supplier of packaging materials and solutions that sources the vast majority of its raw material from sustainably managed forests in the Nordics, stresses the need for collaboration to address such a technically complicated challenge: “The only way that we can solve the major sustainability challenges we face is to do it together.”
That collaborative innovation takes the form of a number of defined projects where experts from the two companies work together. They also work together under the auspices of Treesearch, a Swedish collaboration platform for fundamental research, knowledge and competence-building in the field of new materials and specialty chemicals from forest raw material. It involves academia, industry, private foundations and the Swedish government, and aims to turn pioneering fundamental research into high-tech innovations to meet the climate challenge.
Ljung Eiborn says: “Treesearch is important because we can get advanced research on new materials and new applications, but also because we have an opportunity to build competence, with skilled people coming into the industry who will be able to develop more innovative products in the future.”
The ambition for Tetra Pak and BillerudKorsnäs is nothing less than the world's most sustainable food package. “Our mission is to challenge conventional packaging for a sustainable future,” says Ljung Eiborn.
“That means that we want to package that is hundred percent from renewable resources, or all recycled resources,” adds Gustavsson. “And it's also fully recyclable, and it contributes to low carbon economy. So this is how we see our future carton package to be able to really stay competitive for the long-term future.”