Siegwerk announced its partnership with Borouge, a leading petrochemical company that provides innovative and differentiated polyolefins solutions, to co-develop 100% recyclable mono-material solutions.

The goal of the collaboration is to build a pipeline of solutions enabling converters worldwide to produce advanced mono-material packaging, addressing the growing demand for sustainable packaging in the market.

“The majority of flexible packaging still consists of mixed materials. This is challenging to recycle in the conventional recycling streams,” explained Stephane Bertaux, head of brand owner collaboration and circular economy for southeast Asia at Siegwerk Thailand. He added, “Here, the switch to mono-material packaging is an essential lever to ease the recycling of packaging and thus, enhance its circularity.”

Moving to mono-material structures is also accompanied by several challenges, such as ensuring reliable sealability, certain mechanical properties or thermal stability, or realising specific levels of barrier performance depending on the end-use application.

“Enabling mono-material structures using Borouge’s polyethylene products with the combination of innovative ink and coating technologies can achieve the desired packaging outcomes. We contribute to addressing global challenges to increase sustainability and circularity,” said Anton Wolfsberger, vice president of global marketing, packaging and circular economy, at Borouge.

“Upcycling is becoming possible through mechanical recycling, resulting in high-quality recyclates to boost circularity and lower carbon footprint versus the current multi-material packaging, which is mostly incinerated,” Wolfsberger added.

One of the first co-development projects between the two partners will be a barrier stand-up pouch using the Borealis Borstar HDPE FB5600 from Borouge, Siegwerk’s oxygen barrier coating Cirkit OxyBar BC1582 and its primer solution Cirkit Clearprime for the deinking of the laminates.

“By incorporating our de-inking and delamination primer into this mono-material structure with mechanical properties, all used inks and coatings can be removed from the printed film during the recycling process. This results in high-quality recycled polyethylene that is suitable for re-use in new packaging materials,” said Bertaux.

In addition, Siegwerk and Borouge are already collaborating with selected converters worldwide to make solutions available to produce high-barrier mono-material packaging with an oxygen transmission rate (OTR) and moisture vapour tgransmission rate (MVTR) of less than 1 per day.

Borouge offers a range of virgin polyolefins such as polyethylene and polypropylene developed regarding their recyclability. Siegwerk offers a variety of ink and coating solutions that can improve the recyclability of plastic packaging without compromising on the performance and productivity required.