Elopak, a Norway-based company supplying 15 billion cartons around the world annually, has joined forces with Finland-headed forest industry major UPM Biofuels and global chemical major Dow Chemical Company, a subsidiary of DowDuPont holding company comprised of Dow and DuPont, to offer 100 percent renewable cartons that are both recyclable and responsibly sourced.
Choosing the right packaging solution can make a big difference. UPM points out that beverage cartons have the lowest carbon dioxide (CO2) footprint among liquid food packaging. Now even the plastic coating of cartons can be wood-based – using renewable polyethylene reduces the footprint further.
In addition to renewable diesel, the UPM Lappeenranta Biorefinery produces renewable naphtha – an excellent raw material for bioplastics. It can be transformed into renewable resins needed to create bioplastics, which can, for instance, be used by the packaging industry.
Every tonne of UPM’s wood-based naphtha that Dow converts into bioplastics reduces one tonne of fossil raw materials used. The sustainability of the entire value chain is verified with ISCC PLUS certification, explained Sari Mannonen, Vice President, UPM Biofuels.
Creating a 100 percent wood-based carton has been a great example of collaboration across the value chain to find sustainable solutions.
In Elopak we are constantly looking for ways to reduce the carbon footprint of our packages. Thanks to our partnership with Dow and UPM Biofuels, we can now substitute the fossil-based polyethylene with a 100 percent wood-based solution – and we are able to make fully renewable cartons without compromising quality, said Kristian Hall, Director of Corporate Environment at Elopak.
UPM Biofuels is one of the few renewable naphtha producers in the world.
We are very excited and proud of this collaboration and ability to offer a high-quality wood-based raw material to replace fossil raw materials in packaging, concluded Mannonen.
