DNP develops eco-friendly packaging material
Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. (DNP) has designed an easy-to-recycle paper mono-material eco-friendly packaging sheet with high oxygen and water vapour barrier qualities.
The company will propose the new product as packaging materials for food, cosmetics, and medical product producers and as industrial materials for a wider range of applications in domestic and international markets. The new product will be unveiled at TOKYO PACK 2022, to be held at Tokyo Big Sight from October 12 to 14, 2022.
The company has recently seen an increase in decarbonisation initiatives and ESG investment in several nations and regions to address environmental concerns such as climate change, global warming, and plastic pollution in the ocean.
Companies globally are collaborating to minimise, reuse, and recycle plastic products. Packaging suppliers are working to reduce environmental impacts by developing and selling plant-derived and biodegradable materials.
In response to these challenges, DNP is increasing its Eco-Friendly Packaging line, and as part of this endeavour, we market highly recyclable mono-material packaging.
The newly developed mono-material sheet with high barrier qualities will cut CO2 emissions and contribute to the achievement of a recycling-oriented society by being based on a plant-derived renewable resource, paper, rather than conventional petroleum-derived plastic film.
DNP has used its proprietary converting technology to combine barrier properties in paper, which was previously difficult to do, and as a result, will work to facilitate long-term storage and preservation of freshness in foods, resulting in reduced food loss.
Paper is porous, with fine gaps between the fibres. As a result, providing a barrier against oxygen and water vapour has proved problematic, making it difficult to protect contents for extended periods when utilised as a packing material.
In response, DNP used proprietary converting technology to develop barrier properties in paper materials with an oxygen permeability (OTR) of 0.5 cc/m2/day/atm or lower and a water vapour transmission rate (WVTR) of 0.5 g/m2/day or lower, which had previously been considered difficult to achieve only with paper materials.
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In addition, the company also improved resistance to bending and minimised the impairment of barrier properties following bending. Special paper is not necessary; general craft paper can be used.
The high-barrier coating layer, which is formed of a paper mono-material that improves recyclability, contains no metal components such as aluminium. This high-barrier paper is made up of a thin layer of a translucent substance that has no conductivity and does not affect radio wave transmission, making it suitable for RFID applications. Furthermore, the barrier layer does not contain polyvinylidene chloride (PVDC), and paper accounts for 80% or more of the total weight of the product.
The new product also has a heat-seal layer that may be sealed by heat welding and is a highly recyclable material because paper accounts for 80% or more of the total weight.
The company intends to market the mono-material sheet for packaging materials used with food, cosmetics, and medical products, as well as industrial materials given to a wider variety of applications, using the current development stage as a jumping-off point.
DNP will continue to harness its proprietary converting technology to increase our line-up of enhanced eco-friendly products and services with enhanced barrier properties, as well as expand into developing domestic and international markets.
Source: DNP
