Mondi, a global leader in packaging and paper, has improved the circularity of material flows in two release liner production sites in Germany and the Netherlands. 95 % of the production waste is now used as secondary raw material for other industries, thanks to its strategic partnerships. By collaborating closely with industry stakeholders along the value chain, Mondi has tackled the siliconised and coated paper waste produced at its release liner plants in Jülich, Germany, and Heerlen, Netherlands. It is now repulped and valorised as secondary raw material in a range of other applications. Mondi Jülich and Mondi Heerlen kicked off a partnership with Veyzle, a Dutch specialist in the recycling of paper and plastics, and the Dutch site of the WEPA Group, an expert for sustainable hygiene papers, two years ago. Since then, Veyzle collects Mondi’s production waste from the two plants and sorts, shreds and bails the different papers before transporting them to WEPA. WEPA has developed an advanced repulping technology to valorise laminated and siliconised papers and uses them to create hygiene paper, such as toilet paper and paper towels. All three partners are located close together to keep transportation to a minimum.

Mondi has added to its range of sustainable premium food and pet food packaging solutions with the launch of RetortPouch Recyclable. The new high-barrier pouch will replace complex multi-layer and unrecyclable packaging for a range of food and wet pet food products. Moist or semi-moist foods that are heat-treated in steam or hot water retort vessels to achieve commercial sterilisation for shelf-stable foods require retort packaging. The aluminium typically used in most solutions has been substituted with an innovative high-barrier film that keeps temperatures high and maintains short processing times during the retort process. The new mono-material retort packaging is fully recyclable, offering a solution that protects the product, provides exceptional shelf life for a mono-material solution and reduces potential food waste.

Sonoco announced it has signed an agreement to sell its Europe contract packaging business to Prairie Industries Holdings, a Wisconsin-based contract packaging and contract manufacturing firm backed by The Halifax Group, a Washington, D.C.-based global investment firm, for $120 million in cash. The transaction is subject to normal closing requirements and is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2020. Sonoco’s Europe contract packaging business (Sonoco Poland Packaging Services Sp. z o.o.) produced net sales of approximately $300 million in 2019 and provides full-service custom packaging and supply chain management solutions to global consumer product goods companies through six contract packaging facilities in three locations and a warehouse all in Poland. The business is part of Sonoco’s Display and Packaging segment and has approximately 2,600 employees.