A conscious golfer's eco-feat is to buy golf balls in packaging that has a new life as an insect hotel once the packaging has been used. This innovative idea and packaging solution has recently received the most public votes in the spring 2022 New Wood project competition. It is a concrete example of circular economy, where a product, after its primary use, has another function before it ends up in the recycling. The Finnish Golf Coat Ltd wanted to create a packaging solution for its best-selling product that supported biodiversity and promoted the circular economy. Golf Coat's brand is based on eco-friendliness and biodegradability of products, so the use of a reusable box was particularly suited to the company's values and mindset. "Our aim was to create a simple, smart and cost-effective structure that would be easy to assemble and fill with, for example, leaves, saw dust or dry grass after its primary use as a golf ball box. Metsä Board and its partners developed an insightful packaging that provides an artificial nesting structure and shelter for insects and pollinators," says Aki Kuivaniemi, CEO of Golf Coat Oy.

Waddington Europe, a division of Novolex®, has joined forces with its longstanding packaging distribution partner Produce Packaging to introduce containers made with 100% recycled material that are also 100% recyclable after use. Produce Packaging’s new containers will be made with Waddington Europe’s Eco Blend™ 100 material that consists entirely of a combination of post-consumer (PCR) and post-industrial (PIR) recycled PET (rPET). The new containers will be available to all Produce Packaging customers, including growers, packers and importers that supply major retail outlets. The switch to Eco Blend 100 reflects the decision by Produce Packaging to focus increasingly on packaging that is environmentally sustainable.

With Pure DecorX™, BillerudKorsnäs is introducing the latest development in White Top Kraftliner. The launch opens up great improvement potential for decorative corrugated packaging, in terms of strength, print appearance and sustainability. Pure DecorX is a 3-ply construction made of 100% primary wood fibres, which makes the liner strong, stiff and with high thickness. In practice, this means great lightweighting opportunities, high runnability in converting machines, reduced risk of washboarding, and enhanced packaging performance. The use of only primary fibres also makes Pure DecorX a climate-smart choice: it is renewable, recyclable and biodegradable, and the fibres can be traced back to responsibly managed forestry.