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Description
Packaging solutions available today for the food industry are made of either metal, e.g., aluminium/tin cans), glass (e.g., glass jars), paper (paper and cardboard packages) or plastics (a wide variety of different purposed packages). Out of these four, plastic is the most commonly used material for packaging food produce, because it is cost efficient, lightweight but strong, has the best barrier properties in terms of being water- and airproof and it can be combined with other materials to change their barrier properties. However, plastic packages in general are less eco-friendly because they are usually produced from crude oil and are less likely to be recycled than other materials, due to plastic packages usually consisting of many different layers of polymers (plastics).
The main objective of this project is to develop the capability of producing environmentally friendly (70% less plastic used) packages that are made from eco-friendly reusable or compostable plastic materials (such as mono-material packages and bio based polymers), which would replace rigid plastic packaging such as plastic containers, canisters, bottles, boxes, packs, and others. This will help reduce the CO2 emissions required to produce a package and the required amount of plastic for each package, increasing sustainability and helping reduce plastic waste. As a result, the company will influence the food and drinks production sector positively, by enabling the companies to use more sustainable packaging solutions instead of non-recyclable plastic packages.
In addition, the secondary objective is to lower the overall ecological footprint of Estiko Plastar’s production processes by modernizing the production machinery and processes with modern, resource and energy efficient machines, while also increasing the percentage of production scraps being reused in the production of packages