SubscribeAs Plaspro enters its 8th year I have to say I am pleased with progress, even though the market appears to be shrinking – ‘thanks to imports’.
Like our customers we are always striving to improve in the ever changing world of plastics and to that end we have been looking for new materials to add to our range.
Plaspro will soon be offering Rigid PVC and have already supplied a number of tonnes of RPET for packaging/box making which ended up on the shelves of M&S.
Currently the APET/RPET is delivered direct from our facility in Israel, but like the PVC we intend to hold stock due to the extended lead times from European suppliers.
Our main drive over the past 6 months has been Compostable substrates as pressure to reduce unsustainable packaging grows.
Plaspro have secured 500tonnes of Clear PLA material which will be aimed at the packaging market. Although PLA is a brittle material we have managed to develop an impact modifier which remains clear and allows the material to be die-cut.
An in-line sheeting facility is currently being implementing in order to supply flat sheet for the box making industry.
We can also offer white (impact modified material) which can be used as a good substitute to HIPS for the telephone card market.
With the new corn starch material, we can supply carrier bags and bin bags that are in fact superior to the PE and PP being used today and they will compost down in an industrial composter within 47 days, to CO2 and water.
We can supply Mulch film that when finished with can be ploughed into the land which could also contain fertiliser to increase the benefits.
Pouches can be produced in 10 or 20 µ that have good contact clarity
This new polymer plus our Cellulose granulate can be injection moulded and although there is little PLA regrind available, as the thermoformers start using PLA, we are prepared to buy back their scrap in regrind format for injection moulding cutlery and plates.
An exciting new area is that of coating PLA and our new polymer onto a wide range of papers and different thicknesses of board. From our developments of PLA and the other materials, we can offer high barrier finished films, metalised films, lamination of high barrier PLA flexible films for flow wrapping, VFFS and HFFS packaging.
Paper coated paper has suddenly gone berserk as companies realise the potential of compostable packaging. We have produced replacements for BOPP bags for cereal boxes like Muesli. We can offer a range of packs with windows, strip laminating paper onto PLA. We can cut windows to register prior to laminating, all in line. Packs can be much stronger with much improved presentation than the current materials.
We can do the same with Board, including a high barrier finish with out the present Board/PE/foil/PE allowing producers to look seriously at 100% compostable juice, milk and wine cartons
With our new compostable polymers we can offer paper or board that can withstand microwaving and even ovenable to 2000C. We are able to produce preformed trays made from a flat sheet of uncut board that when sealed does not leak and can be used in the oven. We can also supply the board as a standard ovenable carton board that can be pre-cut and erected as would a carton ready to be filled and oven cooked.
This all has the potential of replacing CPET ovenable trays.
As part of our developments with our Coater, we have been working on developing a range of compostable adhesives (we have some and others are well on the way).
- seal peal lid stock
- seal peal reseal labels
- self adhesive labels
- cold and hot melts
- laminating adhesives
Finally we have a stretch film that is made from Aliphatic acid (an ester). The thickness is 8 µ and we have proved that 'it does what it says on the tin',we know suitable lines that are successful with it and we can train other lines to accept the film
We use the word Compostable as this defines what our materials do. Most Customers understand 'Biodegradable' which is a generic term, like the word Hoover for a vacuum Cleaner.
In many cases the word means breaking down by adding 5% cactus juices etc to a 95% PE or PP, or even (they are saying) PVC! Taking 2-5 years to breakdown into shards, PE, PP and PVC take 100 years to completely degrade.
All this enables us to offer 'A complete 100% Compostable package' which in the long term has to help the environment.
All we need to do now is train our good selves to put the stuff in the right bin!