Issue 02/2019
Highlights: Thermoforming Building & Construction Basics: Biobased Packaging
Highlights:
Thermoforming
Building & Construction
Basics: Biobased Packaging
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Applications<br />
Arla’s<br />
wood-based<br />
beverage<br />
cartons<br />
Arla (Söderkulla, Finland) wants to provide consumers<br />
with new opportunities to choose more responsible<br />
products. This year, Arla has been the first company<br />
in Finland to use renewable wood-based bioplastics in<br />
gable top paperboard cartons for milk, yoghurt and cooking<br />
products.The tall oil-based raw material is a Finnish<br />
innovation by UPM.<br />
As a result of the revamp, more than 40 million Arla<br />
packages will become more environmentally-friendly in<br />
<strong>2019</strong> to reflect consumers’ wishes.<br />
Bioplastic is well suited to dairy product packaging as it<br />
has the same technical characteristics as the conventional<br />
plastic used in cartons. Like the old material, the new<br />
packaging can be recycled with cardboard.<br />
“When we have a liquid product such as milk, a thin plastic<br />
film is needed inside the carton for reasons of product<br />
safety and shelf life. In our new packaging, the source of<br />
plastic is now even more responsible because it is made of<br />
wood-based raw material,” says Arla’s Brand & Category<br />
Manager, Sanna Heikfolk.<br />
Wood-based bioplastic reduces carbon footprint<br />
UPM’s Lappeenranta (Finland) biorefinery utilises tall<br />
oil that is a residue of pulp production in the raw material<br />
for the new bioplastic cartons. The packaging is made by<br />
Elopak (headquartered in Oslo, Norway), and the Dow<br />
Chemical Company (headquarters in Midland, Michigan,<br />
USA) is also involved in the collaboration. The use of woodbased<br />
bioplastics in Arla’s gable top cartons reduces the<br />
need for fossil-based plastics by 180,000 kilogrammes per<br />
year while also reducing the packaging’s carbon footprint<br />
by about a fifth.<br />
Launching more environmentally-friendly packaging in<br />
the food industry and for consumers has been a shared<br />
goal of Arla, Elopak and UPM. Arla and Elopak have been<br />
working together in this field since 2014, and now was the<br />
time to take the next step in the packaging development<br />
process.<br />
“A conventional milk carton is usually about 85 %<br />
paperboard. We wanted to launch a type of packaging that<br />
would be 100 % wood-based and in which the plastic would<br />
also be wood based,” says Elopak’s Managing Director,<br />
Juha Oksanen.<br />
Finnish innovation from forest to table<br />
With Arla’s new packaging, UPM’s excellent woodbased<br />
innovation, UPM BioVerno naphtha, can be used in<br />
bioplastics for paperboard packaging. UPM’s innovation<br />
has the Key Flag Symbol to prove its Finnish origin.<br />
“We are very pleased to be working with a pioneer such as<br />
Arla, with whom we can further reduce the carbon footprint<br />
of paperboard packaging for liquids using our renewable<br />
raw material, and this applies to the whole chain, up to the<br />
consumer. Also, by using wood-based raw materials we are<br />
not competing for raw materials with the food production<br />
industry, because tall oil is a residue of pulp production,”<br />
says Sari Mannonen, Vice President at UPM Biofuels.<br />
Mass balance approach<br />
The Polyethylene used by Elopak for the Arla gable top<br />
paperboard cartons is only one biobased plastic product<br />
that can be made with UPM BioVerno naphtha. This<br />
biobased naphtha can be also used for production of other<br />
types of plastics such as polypropylene depending on the<br />
customer need.<br />
The application example in this article, as well as other<br />
cases published so far with Dow, Elopak and later with Arla<br />
“are all based on a mass balance approach,” as Maiju Helin,<br />
Senior Manager, Sustainability and Market Development of<br />
UPM told bioplastics MAGAZINE. “All naphtha used in polymer<br />
industry cannot yet be replaced by biobased alternatives<br />
due to limited supply. Therefore, mass balancing is needed<br />
to allow gradual transition from fossil to bioeconomy.” she<br />
added.<br />
A plastic product produced based on mass balance system<br />
means that the physical renewable content in product may<br />
be low, but a similar amount of renewable and sustainable<br />
feedstock has been used in the production. Each tonne of<br />
renewable naphtha replaces one tonne of fossil naphtha<br />
saving fossil resources and emissions.<br />
“In the polymer industry, intermediate products such as<br />
naphtha are supplied in bulk and all feedstock streams are<br />
mixed during the cracking process. Mass balance makes<br />
it possible to bring the benefits of sustainable renewable<br />
feedstock to end users. Simultaneously the known and safe<br />
physical properties of the end product are maintained,” as<br />
Maiju explained. MT<br />
www.arla.com | www.upmbiofuels.com<br />
bioplastics MAGAZINE [<strong>02</strong>/19] Vol. 14 33