BillerudKorsnäs eliminates the need for plastic film in industrial paper sacks

Performance White Barrier is a new sack paper from BillerudKorsnäs where a coating replaces the plastic film barrier commonly found in paper sacks. The sack paper is on par with traditional alternatives regarding shelf-life expectancy and other performance factors. Some of the main benefits are easy recycling in regular paper streams, a good printing surface for branding and product content display and no need for any changes in the supply chain.

Performance White Barrier can replace most slit and perforated plastic films without significant changes in shelf-life performance, and works for a wide variety of sack paper applications including animal feed, building materials, chemical substances, dry food and mineral products. Brand owners get sustainable product packaging, and users get packaging that only consists of paper, making the sacks easy to recycle in the well-established paper recycling process.

“Both surveys and customer insights show that sustainable packaging is still high on the agenda, driven by consumer preferences,” says Armin van Overbeek, vice president Business Area Sack & Kraft Paper, at BillerudKorsnäs. “With Performance White Barrier, we take another step to replace plastic in packaging. What might initially appear as an invisible advantage, as you cannot see the absence of the plastic barrier, becomes clear in the next phase – when somebody is about to recycle a sack or check the sustainability report for a company’s initiatives to reduce their carbon footprint.”

According to Eurostat statistics about actual recycling rates in the EU, 8 out of 10 people recycle their paper and cardboard packaging compared to 4 out of 10 for plastic packaging. The high recycling rate for paper is obviously important for the environment, but also contributes to higher financial margins for companies as taxes on non-recyclable packaging can be high. Using Performance White Barrier for sack paper makes a difference in many ways.

Performance White Barrier is easy for a converter to process, and no changes are needed in sack production equipment. Performance factors such as sack strength, handling and filling rates remain the same. Switching from conventional 3-layer sack construction with plastic film to the new 2-layer paper sack is a smooth transition.