Innovia Films, a material science pioneer and major producer of BOPP films, has announced the launch of an extension to their range of sustainable films, that have been marketed under the Encore brand name.
The portfolio reflects growing demand for films with recycled content to comply with upcoming PPWR regulations within the EU. The new additions include mechanically and advanced recycled content for BOPP films as well as a Prevented Ocean Plastics option to drive circularity
“One big cornerstone of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) is the integration of a certain percentage of recycled post-consumer content into plastic packaging. This regulation will have a huge impact on how brands are going to design their packaging and the motivation for this regulation is to reduce the per capita quantity of packaging”, says Simon Huber, Managing Director Innovia Europe.
“Flexible packaging, being lightweight and highly resource efficient, can help reduce the total amount of packaging being used and has a much lower CO2 footprint regarding transportation than many rigid alternatives. Innovia is working with the whole value chain in initiatives like CEFLEX (Circular Economy for Flexible Packaging) to increase the recycling of this flexible packaging back into film. The inclusion of recycled content in new films is top of the list for much of the industry – moving from a linear to a more circular system” explains Steve Langstaff, Head of Recycling at Innovia Films.
More recycled content options for converters and brand owners
The extension to the Encore range of sustainable BOPP films include the use of chemical recycled polymer for food contact applications and the addition of mechanically recycled PCR for non-food. Innovia are also working closely with Prevented Ocean Plastic and have developed a film with 30% POP material. In all cases the key functionality of the BOPP remain intact and are comparable to virgin grade materials.
The environmental credentials of the films can be improved further, by reducing the quantity of fossil based virgin materials and replacing with bio based polypropylene. This reduces the carbon footprint of the films further and again with no detrimental effect on film properties.
