Smart Planet Technologies Inc., Newport Beach, Calif., USA, a manufacturer in innovative materials that address sustainability challenges in packaging, this week reported that select paperboard grades with EarthCoating® have successfully completed recyclability and repulpability testing at Georgia Tech's Institute of Paper Science and Technology, Atlanta, Ga. EarthCoating is a highly mineralized barrier coating containing less plastic than traditional 100% polyethylene coating, while providing superior performance metrics and environmental advantages.
Traditionally, barrier packaging materials used in forming hot/cold cups, ice cream containers, and folding cartons coated with 100% polyethylene or similar materials, are poor candidates for recycling and often destined for the landfill. However, EarthCoating, when used with select grades of paperboards, can be commercially recycled as light and heavy print virgin bleached board cuttings, thus providing significant economic and environmental gains. In addition, this solution provides high potential for the post-consumer recyclability of barrier-coated packaging.
EarthCoating technology offers a recyclable solution for the approximately two million tons of 100% polyethylene-coated boards produced in the U.S. annually. Recycling collection pilots are being planned such that specific packages can be labeled recyclable subject to FTC Green Guide stipulations.
"EarthCoating continues to prove itself as a superior technology to 100% polyethylene in packaging applications that require high performance heat seal and barrier requirements equal to or exceeding polyethylene. The recyclability of these paperboard materials with EarthCoating overcomes an important technological challenge for the paperboard and packaging industries," says Chris Tilton, CTO of Smart Planet Technologies.
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