Novolex® announced that it is adding easy-to-understand recycling instructions to more of its plastic bags and packaging. The announcement comes just weeks after Novolex revealed plans to increase its capacity to recycle plastic bags. Novolex, an industry leader in packaging and foodservice products, will add the How2Recycle® Store Drop-off label to products across its business units. These include products from Shields® such as poly mailers for shipping applications and security bags frequently used in the banking industry; and products from Hilex®, including the iconic “Thank You” plastic T-shirt bags, produce bags for conventional and organic items, and the Load & Seal™ Tamper Evident Deliver Bags, which are growing in demand as to-go orders increase at restaurants.

Finnish food and beverage company Paulig is testing UPM BioVerno naphtha, made from tall oil, as a raw material for its packaging. The first test batch with Paulig Café New York has been successfully packed and released to market. UPM BioVerno is produced from tall oil, a residue of pulp making, in the UPM Lappeenranta Biorefinery. In the new laminate tested over the half of the material used in the Paulig coffee packs is tall oil-based. “We are committed to replacing fossil-based raw materials with renewable ones. Paulig’s initiative to use our wood-based UPM BioVerno as a raw material in the laminates of their coffee packs is a further step towards creating more circular and sustainable packaging,” says Panu Routasalo, Vice President of UPM Biofuels.

Smurfit Kappa has designed a new integrated packaging system following close collaboration with Signify, the world leader in connected LED lighting systems, by designing the BioShift UV-C Chamber Case, used to ship and transport UV-C lights that have significant antibacterial properties, which kill germs and viruses. The new packaging solution is a 100% mono-material paper-based solution, that removes all plastics and reduces the number of packaging materials used, from five to one. The BioShift case is secured by a fit-to-size hood with special multi-use locks. The case is then placed on a corrugated pallet. In addition to providing a more sustainable solution, the new integrated packaging system also reduces costs. The BioShift UV-C Chamber’s lightweight design reduces assembly labour by 50% and reduces storage space by 30% which allows for 16 additional pallets per truck. The new packaging also guarantees 100% security during transport.