Styrenic block copolymer additives enabling circularity of packaging
by Aparajita Bhattacharya and Yuliya Streen, Kraton
The flexible packaging industry is working on multiple fronts to achieve its set 2030 sustainability goals amidst increasing consumer interest in sustainable packaging. Along with sustainability, consumers expect packaging to be highly functional and convenient for use. Increased ecommerce purchases are another driver; whereas the packaging needs to support greater shelf life of products, such as pouches, and allow more durability during shipping and handling. Producers of flexible packaging are presented with a challenge to make sure that the performance benefits of packaging remain unaffected, while enhancing the sustainable design.
Multifaceted approaches are being explored to make the packaging product design or manufacturing process more sustainable, which includes improving equipment efficiency on one hand, and on the other, downgauging films, designing products for recyclability, and incorporating recycled or renewable materials. In the case of recycling, the industry is more inclined towards mechanical recycling from the standpoint of both product life cycle, carbon footprint and recycled content incorporation in comparison to advanced recycling.