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SUSTAINABLE PACKAGING
Sustainable thinking and acting in the Wipak Group
ThE WIPAK GroUP
The Wipak Group develops and produces sophisticated packaging
solutions for food and medical products. Part of the Finnish
Wihuri Group, Wipak is one of the leading European providers of
multi-layer ﬁlms – with a special focus on barrier ﬁlms. one of our
key strengths is the ideal combination of research and development competence with the global production and sales capacities
of our group. The result is synergy on all level – for the beneﬁt
of our customers.
“ For us, sustainability means using our
innovative packaging solutions to provide ideal
protection for food and medical
instruments and devices, thus preserving
precious resources“.
Antti Aarnio-Wihuri, Chairman of the Board, Wihuri Oy, Finland
SoCIAL ComPATIBILITy, ENvIroNmENT ANd ECoNomy
our pillars for sustainable thinking and acting
Social compatibility
Environment
Economy
Wipak cares
about employees
and society
Wipak enhances
the environmental
protection programs
Wipak develops and
produces innovative and
sustainable products
Wipak’s employees have
an outstanding significance
for the Wipak Group. objective
agreements and suggestion
schemes are just as firmly
rooted in our philosophy
as are occupational safety,
healthcare, education of
young people, and qualification
of specialists and managers.
Wipak also gets involved with
society. The Wihuri Foundation
e.g. supports young artists
and scientists.
our environmental protection
programs are aimed at meeting
both EC requirements and the
requirements of the products
to be packaged in an ideal way.
The Wipak Group primarily
develops packaging films that
are based on reusable polymers, thus allowing for a combination of different properties
and at the same time meeting
the challenging ecological
and economical requirements.
Productivity is of key importance for the production of our
films. This is achieved by using
state-of-the-art technology
and efficient processes that
are constantly improved. We
are thus able to considerably
reduce along the value creation
chain the amount of waste
generated, the amount of
material used and the amount
of energy consumed by means
of excellent product protection
and conservation, by means
of the low weight of our films,
and by means of highly flexible
product development.
QUALITy mANAGEmENT
For quality management, environmental protection and hygiene we are geared to the highest
international standards. All Wipak sites have been certiﬁed according to ISo 9001:2008.
We apply stringent criteria for the selection and processing of raw materials and additives as well as
for recycled materials. These are continuously examined, analysed and classiﬁed in our laboratories.
We develop new processing technologies and quality management concepts in cooperation with
certiﬁed partners. We also develop alternatives to petroleum-based materials. For this we integrate
renewable resources (e.g. paper) into the development of innovative ﬁlm solutions.
The Wipak Group’s standards
Management system
3 ISo 9001:2008
Environmental protection
3 ISo 14001:2004
Hygiene
3 ISo 22000:2005
3 BrC/IoP
Medical products
3 ISo 13485:2003
Occupational safety
3 ohSAS 18001:2007
3 Smeta 4 Pillars
Energy management
3 ISo 50001:2011
Supply chain safety
3 AEo
rESIdUE ANd WASTE mANAGEmENT
We are constantly optimizing our production in order to reduce the total amount of productionrelated waste. Alignment rolls are kept as small as possible in order to reduce the edge cuts.
All production waste generated by the Wipak Group is completely processed by certiﬁed waste
management companies, with almost 55% of this waste being recycled. The permanently growing
demand for recycled material cannot be covered by internal recyclates alone. Based on these
activities, we are prepared for future EC regulations (European Waste directive, Packaging &
Packaging Waste directive).
Use of recycling material
The quality of ﬁlms and the individual requirement proﬁle are the criteria which decide whether or not
we will use recycled material. Externally purchased material such as r-PET is entirely produced by
means of state-of-the-art processes (Erema process). They meet FdA requirements (US Food and drug
Administration) and have been approved for food applications. If required by our customers and if
technically possible, we are returning homogeneous production waste and raw materials of known
origin to the production cycle.
100 %
90 %
-6,8 %
Carbon footprint
80 %
-5 %
-13 %
70 %
60 %
50 %
up to
40 %
23 %
30 %
reduction of
carbon
footprint
20 %
10 %
0%
without
re-granulates
15 %
re-granulates
25 %
re-granulates
50 %
re-granulates
Carbon reduction with
re-granulate
Use of re-granulate in reclosable
bottom films
Example: repakBTm hm 250 XXT
Recycling of
production waste
In Nastola (Finland), Wipak
recycles production waste and
uses the recyclate for the production of plastic cores with
diﬀerent diameters and surfaces. The raw materials used
here meet EC requirements for
plastics and objects which
(may) get in contact with food
products. Wipak also produces
other plastic products such as
core plugs for 3” and 6” plastic
cores as well as core sleeves for
the storage of 6” plastic cores.
rAW mATErIALS
The production of multi-layer ﬁlms involves the use of polymers
which meet the most stringent quality and food law standards
and which can be recycled to a large amount. In order to satisfy
the high ecological and economical demands, Wipak develops
packaging ﬁlms consisting of diﬀerent combinations of raw
materials and mixtures. The ﬁlms can be ideally recycled under
energy and material aspects.
In order to sustainably grow our basis
of raw materials, we constantly work
on the introduction of alternative
solutions to replace petroleum-based
materials. renewable resources that do
not compete with food products are
therefore of key importance for the
development of our innovative ﬁlm solutions. The key question always is which
material combinations and packaging
concepts are able to oﬀer ideal protection
for food products. It is the same situation
for medical devices and pharmaceutical
products. The safety of patients is always
given top priority when selecting a certain
package. For this reason we only use
recycled material if we are certain to know
its source and if we are able to trace the
manufacturing processes.
renewable
resources
3 Example paper/plastic
composite solutions:
Wipak works on packages that
integrate renewable resources.
Paper is an important raw
material which can be used both
for lidding ﬁlms and for tray
ﬁlms. The amount of paper can
be more than 50%. Using stateof-the-art laser technology,
we can equip paper lidding ﬁlms
with windows. The underlying
functional layer with optional
barrier oﬀers ideal product
protection.
ENvIroNmENTAL KEy PErFormANCE INdICATorS
Systematic improvement
Waste/recycling, raw materials, energy, water, and global warming are core areas of Wipak’s sustainability strategy. All sites of the
Wipak Group have committed to measure and to communicate their environmental performance by means of environmental key
performance indicators (EKPI). Future sustainability goals of the Group will be deﬁned on this basis and suitable action will be initiated.
one goal is that our raw material basis e.g. shall consist of 20% renewable or recycled raw materials until 2020.
Measuring performance – deﬁning goals –
controlling actions
The Wipak Group uses environmental key performance indicators
(EKPI) for ﬁve categories to determine the environmental performance of all Wipak sites:
Carbon emissions Wipak Group
(Co2 equivalent amount in %)
Annual update as environmental key performance indicator (EKPI)
3 Waste/recycling
e.g. production waste, internal/external recycling
3 Raw materials
Travel 0.43 %
raw materials
71.70 %
e.g. use of raw materials and residues
Transportation 7.00 %
other 0.56 %
3 Energy
demand and consumption of diﬀerent energy carriers
3 Water
Energy
14.00 %
Production waste 0.11 %
consumption of drinking and industrial water
3 Global warming/carbon footprint
End-of-life discharge 6.20 %
ThE PATh To
SUSTAINABLE PACKAGES
The better a product is protected – and e.g. food stuﬀ is kept
from spoiling–, the more eﬀectively can precious resources be
preserved. This is one reason for us to focus our expertise on the
development of innovative packages and we work out optimized
integrated concepts in close cooperation with our customers.
other important issues include the analysis of packaging processes,
optimized logistics, productivity improvement
measures, material selection, and package design.
These are the parameters we are trying
to inﬂuence in order to not only
3 Eco-design
improve our ﬁlms, but also the
analysis of altersustainability balance of the
native packaging
packaged products. Based
solutions
3 Intelligent
(under preparation)
on eco-design analyses and
package design
3 Eﬃcient use
“Product Environmental
of energy
Footprints” (PEF) calculain production
tions we want to support
our package and product
developments. We are
3 Higher quota
also well prepared for
of recycled raw
future EC regulations.
3 Process
materials
optimization
3 Use of
3 Optimized ﬁlm
renewable
resources
compositions
and material
combinations
3 Reduced
ﬁlm thickness
Small percentage –
large effect: What
is the impact of
the package?
From the production of raw
materials to manufacturing,
transport, consumption and
discharge – greenhouse gases
are produced during all stages
of the value chain. Packaging
material on average has a 10%
share of a product's carbon
footprint – a comparably small
percentage. But packages still
have a major impact on the
product-related carbon dioxide
parameters.
LIFE CyCLE ImPACT ASSESSmENT (LCIA)
Assessment of sustainability of Wipak products
Impact on the environment
Percentage of paper: 0 %
Weight: 9.6 g/m2
Package size: 127 x 200 mm
overall thickness
(Lid and tray): 312 µm
Percentage of paper: 53 %
Weight: 9,4 g/m2
Package size: 127 x 200 mm
overall thickness
(Lid and tray): 340 µm
Energy consumption: -27 %
ozone:
-39 %
Global warming:
-36 %
Eutrophication:
-21 %
Acidification:
-5 %
en t
Properties
atm
Properties
on behalf of Wipak, the sustainability experts
of PE International analyzed the impact of
raw materials, the production of paper and film,
their common processing, as well as waste treatment
based on five ecological categories: greenhouse effect,
energy consumption, acidification, eutrophication,
and ozone formation. The data is related to the
German market. The functionalities of the
compared packages were identical. Process steps
such as food production, packaging,
transport, or storage at the customer site
were not part of the analysis.
Pr
A-PET
PE
Paper
BoPET
Barrier PE
PE
A-PET
Paper
Barrier PET
st
e
Paper/plastic composite
Pro d
Plastic reference package
r ia
t re
ti o
Life Cycle Impact
Assessment
uc
Package with a window
Raw m
at
e
ls
n
how sustainable can a package be? And what does ‘sustainability’ really mean with respect to packages? The Wipak Group
intensively works on questions like these. Using scientiﬁc studies, performed by Wipak in cooperation with external partners, and
using tools developed in-house, Wipak assesses the impact which materials and packaging concepts have on the environment.
one example is a Life Cycle Impact Assessment to examine the sustainability of material combinations
consisting of paper and plastics. The study that was conducted on behalf of Wipak compared standard packages
and composite paper solutions in order to analyze the environmental impact of both categories.
oc
es
s ing
a
W
SUSTAINABLE PACKdESIGN
our expertise for sustainable packages
The Wipak Group supports customers to develop eﬃcient and ecologically sustainable packages and
to launch them in the market successfully. It is always the product that determines the direction.
When it comes to migration protection or high barrier eﬀects, changing the ﬁlm structure may just be
the right strategy in order to positively inﬂuence the environmental balance of the product and the
package.
3 Innovative lidding ﬁlms for mono trays
mono trays consist of just one material and can more easily be recycled. For this purpose, Wipak has
developed highly functional lidding ﬁlms such as the polyamide-based composite solution (S-peel)
with polypropylene sealing layer. rugged and tight seams protect fresh meat or poultry against
contamination and the tray against strain. however the package can still be opened easily. S-Peel is
considerably thinner than comparable ﬁlms available on the market. The special structure allows
for the sustainable and eﬃcient use of raw materials.
3 State-of-the-art coextrusion
More
easily
recyclable
Up to 30%
reduction of
material
Ten layers oﬀer high stability and product protection. Using a technology based on water cooling,
an extraordinary transparency of the ﬁlm is achieved in comparison to cast ﬁlms. State-of-the-art
co-extrusion technology allows for the eﬃcient and careful use of raw materials: depending on the
application, the ﬁlm thickness can be reduced by up to 30%.
3 Clever functionality for reclosing
The lidding ﬁlms have been optimized for closing on mono-polyester. They provide an absolutely tight
seal on pure APET trays, oﬀering the usual reclosing functionality. This ensures product protection
even after the ﬁrst opening. The use of mono-material in the bottom web oﬀers the advantage of
better recycling capabilities. As the sealing layer is not required, the amount of required material can
be reduced.
Product
protection even
after first
opening
SUSTAINABLE PACKdESIGN
Sustainable packaging solutions are developed in cooperation
with our customers and industrial partners. our Wipak specialists
in r&d, Packdesign, Printing and Technical Support are well networked throughout Europe. By means of both economic and ecologic Packdesign, the amount of waste, required material, and
energy consumption can be reduced considerably along the entire
supply chain.
3 Use of renewable resources
Percentage
of renewable
resources:
>95%
Up to now, bio-plastics have mainly been used for wrapping ﬁlms, fruit and vegetable trays, carrying
bags, rubbish bags, or disposable dishes. The increased water vapour permeability and the breathability of bio-plastics can now be used for certain food packaging applications, e.g. sour milk cheese.
3 Intelligent material mixture replaces aluminium barrier
For a Norwegian ﬁsh food company, Wipak developed a composite plastic solution to replace the
previously used aluminium package. It consists of a steady tray and a peelable lidding ﬁlm. Barrier
layers provide optimum product protection.
Plastics
replacing
aluminium
3 Separate recycling due to optimized ﬁlm properties
For a portion pack in the ready-made meal segment, Wipak developed a ﬁlm that can be sealed
against paper/cardboard. The beneﬁt of this approach is the possibility to separate the snack box
materials for recycling purposes.
Material
separation:
separate
recycling
Wipak Central
Annett Kaeding-Koppers
Bahnhofstraße 13
d-29699 Bomlitz | Germany
Phone +49 5161 4880 286
[email protected]
Wipak South
Antoine Cassel
Zone des Bois | BP 20006 Bousbecque
Fr-59558 Comines Cédex | France
Phone +33 320 115 622
[email protected]
Wipak Nordic
Timo ouninkorpi
Wipaktie 2
FI-15560 Nastola | Finland
Phone +358 20510 3249
[email protected]
Wipak West
Andrew Newbold
Unit 3 | Buttington Business Park,
UK-Welshpool | Powys Sy21 8SL | Great Britain
Phone +44 1938 555 255
[email protected]
www.wipak.com

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