Stora Enso, a global leader in renewable materials, is actively seeking innovative solutions to enhance the efficient recycling of all components in multilayer coated board materials. These boards typically combine layers of fiber, plastic, and sometimes aluminum, creating a structure that is durable in use and guarantees specific valuable functionalities.
Opportunity overview
In the renewable materials sector, achieving full circularity across all stages of the packaging value chain is a constant priority. In Stora Enso’s running ReMatCh (Recycled Material Challenge) project, we are focusing on a core mission to improve the circularity of board materials with polymer barrier coating. This development work benefits from sharing a wide range of expertise and technologies through the ReMathCh program and network.
Considering the activities in the ReMatCh project for barrier and fiber separation, Stora Enso aims to develop multilayer materials such as polymer-coated boards, enhance material recycling by maximizing resource efficiency, and ensure that recycled materials are reused as many times as possible in the most efficient and effective ways.
Building on current mechanical separation methods, we aim to further reduce contamination in the separated layers, such as plastics mixed with fibers. As the demand for renewable and circular packaging solutions increases, we seek a solution for separating these layers in a scalable, efficient, and sustainable way.
Ideally, the recovered materials would be recycled into similar applications following the cascading principle. Targeting the recycling of the material multiple times, the recycled material should be used after each recycling cycle in applications to replace virgin materials while guaranteeing the right functionality, environmental footprint, and high utilization value.
Your opportunity with Stora Enso
We are looking for partners with innovative ideas that challenge the status quo and push the boundaries of what’s possible in material circularity. With large-scale board production and a recycling facility for used liquid packaging containers in Poland, we provide a unique platform to test and scale your solution. Join us in making a lasting impact on the renewable materials industry!
We’re inviting solutions that address one or more of the following focus areas below.
Examples we're looking for
Separation of polymer layer from board fiber
The layers of the polymer-coated board must remain securely bonded during use but separate effectively during recycling. How can we achieve an efficient separation during repulping to enable material-to-material recycling?
Cleaning of recycled fiber pulp and polymer rejects
After separation, both the fibers stream as well as the separated polymer stream (pulper rejects) often contain impurities such as food residues, dirt, or microbial growth from their applications (e.g., beverages or food packaging). Cleanliness is critical to enable these materials to be recycled into similar applications to avoid downcycling. Do you have a solution to ensure thorough cleaning?
Tuning
Recycled fiber quality can degrade over time, with shorter fiber lengths and reduced bonding capabilities. Can your solution avoid the reduction in fiber performance during recycling or improve fiber quality to enhance its usability and longevity?
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