Case Study: Amcor Flexibles introduces the first high speed, recycle ready solution for flow wrap
Sustainability
July 21, 2022Reading time: 3 minutes
This is an important breakthrough for the wet wipes category.
This is an important breakthrough for the wet wipes category.
Typically, wet wipe packs use OPET or OPP layers, rendering them unrecyclable. This presents a problem for brand owners who seek to improve the sustainability of their packaging.
It's time for a more sustainable and responsible solution...
With a growing commitment to move to more sustainable packaging formats that meet recyclability standards, brand owners are looking for innovative solutions to help them differentiate and grow in the market for cleaning and convenience products that require an extended shelf life including:
- Baby care
- Make-up removal
- Hand sanitizing
- Moist toilet tissue
- Hard surface disinfecting
- Petcare
These products rely upon both an effective moisture barrier to prevent evaporation through the packaging film, and highly durable hermetic seals along the pack edges and around any opening fitments.
Amcor Flexibles has developed a new, more sustainable flexible film structure for wet wipes that provides heat resistance, clarity, and stiffness comparable to standard laminations currently in use.
As part of the AmPrima® PE Plus portfolio of recycle ready solutions with no compromise on performance, Amcor’s solution for flow wrap applications is an important step forward and delivers significant value:
- First laminate for the flow wrap wet wipes market to be pre-qualified by How2Recycle® in the U.S.
- A custom engineered sealant layer allows for improved hermeticity, preventing leakage and micro-contamination, even on the tallest jumbo packs
- Improved heat resistance in the outer web permits faster processing speeds than conventional recycle-ready solutions, matching line outputs of non-recyclable OPET laminates. In one recent production run the throughput was increased by 100% compared to conventional PE-based solutions. This massively reduced the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
- Packs have passed elevated shelf life tests and have achieved Water Vapor Transmission Rates (WVTR) of 0.15 g/m2/day in lab controlled barrier tests. This will deliver longer than the minimum 2 year shelf life required
- Post-Consumer Recycled Content (PCR) can be included at loading levels up to 30% of the film structure, further reducing the overall environmental impact
- Using reverse-printing for graphics protection, the film can be printed with high quality graphics for enhanced shelf appeal
- Pack can be finished with gloss, registered- or floodcoated matte finishes according to brand preferences
- AmPrima® PE Plus Heat Resistant is listed as an enabling technology for flexible recycling in the APR and SPC Design Guides in the U.S.
Meet your brand, consumer and retailer sustainability expectations with the first high speed recycle ready flow wrap solution.
Amcor Flexibles and AmPrima® PE Plus is ready to run fast, now!
Significant sustainability benefits
According to an ASSET™ assessment of the production and manufacture of an AmPrima® PE Plus film vs. incumbent PET/PE solution, the AmPrima® film, when recycled, delivers:
68% reduction in non-renewable energy use
50% reduction in carbon footprint
40% reduction in water consumption
Data from an Amcor ASSET™ life-cycle assessment
AmPrima® recycle ready with no compromise on performance
AmPrima® is the result of many years of research into how to remove the OPET or other outer layers (which currently render mixed-material films unrecyclable), and replace it with a film structure that is compatible with the flexible PE recycling stream. The challenge was to ensure that what we replaced it with still delivered on all those features and capabilities that our customers expect.
The AmPrima® portfolio provides customers with a packaging solution designed to be recycled, if clean and dry, through existing store drop-offs or curbside where available. The portfolio is designed to meet customers’ individual requirements against multiple performance criteria, such as stiffness and strength, clarity, line speeds, fitment requirements, graphics and print finishes.
Our expert teams will discuss each customer’s individual needs across all of these criteria and identify the ideal AmPrima® film structure for a recycle ready solution with no compromise on performance. AmPrima® PE Plus formats are available to address more complex customer applications.
In January 2018, Amcor was the first packaging company to sign a global commitment to develop all our packaging to be recyclable or reusable by 2025, to increase our use of post consumer recycled content and drive greater recycling, worldwide.
At AFNA we’ve also been working toward that goal for years. In fact, over 80% of our portfolio is recyclable or has an alternative that is designed to be recycled.
But it’s not enough to design packaging that is recycle ready. For decades, our packaging innovations have worked to protect products better, to lengthen shelf-life, to reduce food waste, to meet distribution challenges, and to reduce the package’s carbon footprint. This, to us, is the definition of responsible, sustainable packaging, so it is vital that our recycle ready solutions also deliver on these core benefits for our customers and their consumers.
ASSET™ is Amcor’s proprietary Carbon Trust-certified life cycle assessment (LCA) service designed to improve the environmental performance of packaging solutions by providing a complete and fact-based comparison of different options.
