Coim, an Italian multinational company producing specialty chemicals, has recently presented new Novacote coatings for sustainable mono-material flexible packaging.
Sergio Doldi, Technical Manager - Adhesives, Coatings, Inks for Flexible Packaging explained: “There are significant changes happening currently in the world of flexible packaging for food and pharma products, and it is no longer just about performance, but also the sustainability of the materials we use. In this situation, a key role is being played by solutions that allow the creation of mono-material packaging, in other words using multiple layers of the same material: this means a common management approach to the EoL of all components, which can be recycled more easily and therefore more sustainably, than packaging manufactured using multiple layers of different materials”.
“Coim has always been involved with research and development in this field, and now presents its new Novacote range of coatings, which have been developed to suit the three main families of packaging materials, namely plastic, aluminium and paper. These are solutions that have come from our applied research activities, which aim to anticipate and meet the needs of a market increasingly focused on sustainability”, said Matteo Bettinelli, R&D and TS Specialist for Coatings.
Coim Novacote coatings for aluminium packaging
In the case of aluminium packaging - used typically for coffee capsules, processed cheeses, chocolate, pharmaceutical blister packs and yoghurt tubs – Coim offers new heat-sealable solutions free of PVC and styrene, with a view to raising the level of care for consumer health. These solutions guarantee improved sustainability of the packaging in terms of performance, compared to traditional ones: secure sealing action, optimum levels of chemical resistance and resistance to blocking, but still having a regulatory profile in line with the most stringent statutory requirements.
Coim Novacote coatings for plastic packaging
Where plastic is concerned, the real challenge is managing to develop mono-material solutions for flexible packaging that will achieve the aim of making the material easy to recycle. Polyester has its own specific recycling stream: plastic bottles, for example, are almost completely recycled these days, whilst the recycling of yoghurt tubes and transparent trays used for fruit and vegetables is on the increase. Applying the new Novacote solutions, a polyester lid can be provided with a layer of heat-sealable lacquer, which means it can be bonded to a polyester tray - made of R-PET, in particular - so as to create a 100% polyester pack. As a result, the number of layers in the packaging can be reduced, dispensing with the classic PET/PE combination and the layer of polyethylene generally applied to PET trays.
Coim Novacote coatings for paper packaging
Paper is one of the most popular packaging materials in use, but since it has no barrier properties and is not sealable, it will often be bonded with plastic film to obtain the desired performance attributes. There are still many types of packaging in the food sector, for example, those used for snacks and paper cups, which consist of a layer of paper and a plastic film, normally polyethylene, which seal the package to prevent it becoming wet or greasy. But now, with the new Novacote coatings developed by Coim, paper can be coated and given the desired performance characteristics without applying plastic films, and consequently turned into a mono-material packaging that is reclaimed without difficulty in the paper collection and recycling stream.
