Metsä Board Magazine – Spring 2024

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Ilkka Harju Packaging Services Director, Metsä Board

50 % Lighter

The cosmetic jars have been manufactured by Sulapac, a company developing renewable alternatives to plastics. Their Sulapac Premium material is made of wood chips from industrial side streams combined with biodegradable biopolymers.

Case 3: Redesigning rigid boxes with a new lightweight structure

Another example is the so-called ”rigid box”, a real staple of the packaging industry. The original rigid box is thicker than regular folding cartons, and does not fold or collapse – how do you match the performance but make the product more sustainable? The big game-changer turned out to be micro-flute, which is a significantly low fluting in corrugated boards.

Here’s how it works: the packaging consists of a separate base and lid made of micro-flute. Its surface liner can be either uncoated, white kraft- liner or coated white kraftliner. Of these three, the coated white kraftliner gives the package the best printing properties. As a result, the packaging is up to 50 per cent lighter in weight which has a positive impact on its carbon footprint as well.

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