Reaching the top level of sustainability for food packages: CKB® with a bio-based PE coating

CKB^® packaging board from Stora Enso Skoghall Mill in Sweden is now available with a polyethylene coating made from renewable raw materials. The development and launch of the bio-coated packaging board is made possible through cooperation with the Swedish company Trioplast / Ekmans. The first consumer products that will be available in packages coated with the new laminate are fish gratin products of the Norwegian fish and seafood company Domstein ASA, manufactured in Kungshamn, Sweden.

Domstein ASA gives high priority to sustainability issues. Their environment policy states: "Our operations are to be environmentally benign, and uphold a high environmental standard." The company wants to ensure that their own and associated activities take place in accordance with the principles of sustainable development. The launch of the renewable fish gratin packages is scheduled for early 2013.

"It is important for us at Domstein to find opportunities where we can help the consumer to make a choice which is good for the environment. We want to see the product and the package as one unit and try to find new things for both", says Ulrica Wahlund, Sales Manager at Domstein in Sweden.

Polyethylene (PE) is the most widely used type of plastic in the world, used extensively as a humidity or grease barrier of packaging boards. The bio-based PE used for coating the CKB^® board is manufactured with sugar cane as raw material in Brazil.  It has exactly the same performance characteristics as traditional, fossil-based PE, making it usable in a variety of applications.

In line with Stora Enso's mission

"Adding a barrier coating based on renewable materials to our product portfolio is totally in line with our mission to offer our customers sustainable and innovative packaging materials. We see an increasing interest in the market for sustainable barrier coatings, and the advantage with this particular bio-based PE is that it has the very same properties as fossil-based PE. The customer will not notice any difference in performance and the laminate can be recycled as usual", says Fredrik Werner, Market Support & Product Manager at Skoghall Mill.

Trioplast is one of Europe's leading manufacturers of polyethylene film with almost 1450 employees in nine countries. "For our supplier Braskem^[1], Trioplast is a reliable partner with a profound knowledge and the ability to market their bio-based polyethylene products to demanding end uses. In a longer perspective, it is not unreasonable to imagine manufacturing polyethylene by using raw material growing in the Nordic forests. Meanwhile, Trioplast proceeds with the launching of products manufactured elsewhere and use the brand name Triogreen^TM. Our cooperation with Stora Enso enables the launch of Triogreen in combination with tree-based packaging boards and thus broadens the availability of bio-based PE", says Pär Wik, Marketing Manager at Trioplast  / Ekmans, Sweden.

Source: http://www.storaenso.com