Compostable Barrier Solutions with Stora Enso

Opportunity overview

Many of the critical properties of food packaging are provided by barrier materials: they control the transmission of oxygen, humidity, grease, heat and aromas to name a few. At the same time, recyclability of food packaging materials is essential for Stora Enso, its customers and consumers. While Stora Enso already has a wide range of renewable packaging materials, we believe that there could be synergies between our current offering and innovative compostable barrier solutions.

We are looking for home and/or industrial compostable barrier solutions produced of renewable feedstock. Our objective is to provide a packaging materials, of which at least 95% shall be recyclable at scale with the relevant recycling processes. The material solutions we are looking for would need to eventually fulfil food safety regulation and meet compostability standards but no previous experience from food packaging solutions is required. Our packaging materials are typically used in various food and beverage end-uses such as cups, boxes, trays, clamshells etc. When we find solutions that provide added value, we are highly motivated to scale the solution across the value chain together with our customers and global brand owners.

Technologies as solutions

Common technologies for applying barriers are, for example, extrusion and dispersion. Besides, tapping into these technologies, we are also willing to learn about other opportunities that might already exists but are not commonly used in packaging industry.