Achieving a High Oxygen Barrier Recyclable Extrusion Coated Polyethylene – Paper Package

Presented by Robert H Clare, Borouge International

Paper is being used in many more packaging applications through clever structure design and packaging technology to meet the demand for sustainability by brands and their customers. Functionality and strength for non barrier applications is achieved relatively easily while retaining the credentials required for the materials to be recycled in a paper waste stream. But paper lacks moisture and oxygen barrier, meaning many Paper based packaging webs require heavy coatings of aqueous or polymeric materials to achieve this performance, rendering the resulting packs too contaminated to enter an FSC approved recycling system. This presentation will demonstrate how a new combination of NOVA Chemicals high performance SURPASS HDPE barrier resins with HyperBarrier additive technology from SmartPlanetTech can be used to produce food packages with substantially higher moisture and oxygen barrier performance while meeting the FSC standard of 80% minimum paper content in a multi-material structure, without compromising on sealability, package integrity, or using additional material layers such as EVOH.