Advances in waxes and the consciousness of the paper industry offer THE RESPONSIBLE RECIPE for sustainable packaging materials. 

"TAKE A NATURAL WAX COATING……."
Paper coating products based on traditional hydrocarbon waxes have been used for decades. Hydrocarbon waxes are oil-based and therefore products are dependent on the petrochemical industry.
However, there is an alternative source of ingredients for coatings, soaps and cosmetics - the "oleo-chemical" industry using natural oils and fats as base materials.

Paramelt, a EuroWaxPack member, has made vast R&D investments in developing waxes for the flexible packaging industry based on natural derivatives – Nowax has been in use since the beginning of the 1990’s and is extremely successful.
  
The Nowax technology creates paper coatings based on renewable raw materials, which are foods and or approved food additives. Nowax gloss and seal waxes have broad application in the sweets and confectionery industry, offering superior:
• gloss;
• release from sticky dry and fatty confectionery;
• non-blocking on the reel;
• runnability on the packaging machine with very low scuff.

In addition to these oleochemicals some polymer is used to add the necessary toughness and hold-out to the coating materials. All such polymers are approved for direct food contact.

"ADD A NATURAL BASE MATERIAL…."
Over the years, the paper industry had suffered from the image of ‘tree killers’. Not only is this totally unfair, it is untrue.  Such off-hand references in the media are irresponsible, especially from organisations (often NGO’s), which should know better. They perpetuate the false notion that equates saving paper with “saving a tree”.

The forest base is increasing far more where forest plantations are nurtured for commercial use.  Today, most responsible commentators recognize that poverty, social instability and a lack of law enforcement are the prime causes of illegal logging and the destruction of old growth forest around the globe. However, the myth that paper companies are somehow responsible for undermining the forest base is still not dead.

For PaperPlus (the Speciality Paper Manufacturers’ Association), this is a troubling issue, which has to be tackled bluntly by every stakeholder forest-based products industry. Contrary to many serious misconceptions about the environmental impact of using paper, paper boasts extremely positive environmental credentials.

The whole idea of paper companies being ‘tree killers’ is absurd. The pulp and paper industry depends on trees and recycled fibres for its raw material base and as such has to operate in a responsible fashion. This is clearly illustrated in pulp producing countries where the volume of forest is continually growing to meet increasing demand for wood – one constituent of the most natural and trusted product - paper.  Statistics indicate the UK has twice as much Forest as at the beginning of the century and many other countries like: France, Norway, Finland etc. etc. have 2-3 times more forest than a century ago.

’’PAPER BOASTS POSITIVE ENVIRONMENTAL ADVANTAGES’’
CEPI (European Confederation of Paper Industries) underlines the industry’s having taken responsibility for the environmental custody of its assets. Between 1990 and 2002, 7% of the Industry’s entire capital investment budget went into environmental improvements. In as capital-intensive industry as paper-making, that translates into billions of Euros.
These improvements also apparently helped the paper industry to achieve the impossible – producing more volume each year while reducing the specific output of pollutants. Over the last decade production has grown by 35%, but CEPI reports that there has been a :
• 25% reduction of CO2 emissions from solid fuel use;
• 10% reduction in primary energy consumption;
• 65% reduction of sulphur dioxide release to air;
• 70% reduction in BOD specific discharge in water;
• 90% reduction in AOX discharges;
• drop in COD output from 7 kg/tonne to around 1 kg/tonne.

"WOOD - ONE OF THE MOST RENEWABLE RAW MATERIALS IN THE WORLD"
Clearly, the industry is doing something right. Wood is one of the most renewable raw materials in the world. An interesting statistic: the volume of wood required for the joint production of all PaperPlus member companies - some 2,5 million tonnes of paper - grows in Finland in just two weeks during the summer. Moreover, this newly grown +/- 8 million m3 of wood will absorb and store 8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. This shows how powerful nature is.

The paper industry does not stop there - it is also well ahead of the game when it comes to recycling. Recovered paper and board is a major source of raw material for the paper industry and is now the EU’s biggest recycling industry.  The paper industry set its own target to boost paper recovery with a voluntary commitment to achieve a recycling rate of 56% by 2005. The latest figures for 2003 showed that the industry was already well on its way to meeting this target with a recycling rate of close to 54%.

In addition, the paper industry is also Europe’s biggest single producer of “green electricity” – i.e. power produced from renewable energy sources such as pulp mill waste and bio-mass. The industry produces 17% of Europe’s renewable energy and more turbines continue to be added.

Waxed Paper has excellent environmental credentials. Over the past decades industry has invested billions of euros in environmental sustainability to ensure it will continue to be the responsible choice for the future.

"THE RESULT IS A RECIPE FOR NATURAL PACKAGING SUCCESS…"

Based on interviews with Paramelt and PaperPlus (Speciality Paper Manufacturers Association AISBL, Brussels).