A French company has started a partnership with a Finnish packaging giant to create something that could revolutionize the snack packaging industry forever.
According to Packaging Gateway, Lactips, a French company specializing in natural polymer production, has partnered with the Walki Group, a Finnish company, to create a fully biodegradable, plastic-free food packaging. The new product would also be fully recyclable in the paper stream.
The new product will be paper-based, with a natural polymer coating to help keep food contained. Lactips' specialty is fully plastic-free polymers that are both water-soluble and biodegradable.
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According to the University of Colorado Boulder, the creation of single-use plastics releases 184 to 213 million tons of planet-warming gases into the atmosphere each year, and the waste from those plastics further pollutes our world. Packaging like this would go a long way toward lowering that impact.
"This partnership is a win-win," said Annika Sundell, Walki Group's executive vice president for consumer packaging and innovation and sustainability, "We appreciate the speed and innovation that Lactips as a startup comes with and are happy to provide our expertise and state-of-the-art production lines for piloting the solutions."
Walki is making the move to help comply with European Union regulations that encourage the food packaging industry to replace petroleum-based plastic packaging with biodegradable options, specifically for single-use packaging like yogurt cups or snack pouches.
Many food companies have been trying to shift toward more eco-friendly packaging. Mondelēz foods, which makes Oreos, Toblerone, and more, has announced a partnership to create paper-based packaging.
Meanwhile, the largest independent McDonald's franchise has shifted to a special paper-based packaging to prevent greasy food containers. And Milkadamia, an alternative milk company, has announced a flat-pack packaging that will save 94% of waste while also saying they expect to save 20% to 30% on the costs.
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