Ceepackaging

Environment

Organic film for organic pasta

The organic boom. In 2006 the market for organic produce in Germany recorded, according to the Federation of Organic Agriculture (www.boelw), a total sales increase of 16 per cent compared to the previous year, and with this holds a volume of 4.5 billion Euro ─ and the potential for organic products has by far not been exhausted. The same goes for packaging made of organic plastic: subsequent to a survey carried out by the European Bioplastics association (www.european-bioplastics.org) amongst its members, the branch recorded a strong surge in demand in 2006 of, for the most part, more than 100 per cent compared to 2005; the companies reckon with a continued strong growth for 2007. Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and particularly Great Britain have already established organic packaging on the market; Germany is still in the early stages of this development. All the same the consumption of this packaging made of organic plastics rose by more than 30 per cent compared to the previous year in this country (Gesellschaft für Verpackungsmarktforschung (translated meaning the association for packaging market research), www.gvm-wiesbaden.de).

„As a branded company we cannot pass by this development“, explains Thomas Schmid, Product Manager at Birkel and also responsible for Birkel’s Organic segment. The organic pasta has been available on the nationwide market since March 2007 ¾ in fact it has been consistently packaged in a compostable film made of renewable raw materials since then. Birkel’s integrated overall concept, which is new to the German market, is their way of preserving resources and offering their customers an additional specific usefulness: besides the high-quality product a good conscience by buying the „Allround-Organic-Pasta“ and contributing to environmental protection.

The organic packaging film used is made of renewable raw materials and based on cellulose from a supervised cultivation, and therefore certified according to the European standard (EN 13432:2000) and the American standard (ASTM D6400-99) for composting. The film is printed in a specially treated high-quality 8-coloured-flexoprint by Kobusch-Sengewald, the specialist for plastic packaging. The art is to print the non laminated monofilm in such a way that the colours develop a good adhesion to the film. Aside from this the total of 5 per cent non-compostable materials on the whole of the packaging must not be exceeded. The label and its print colours must also be calculated in this total percentage. Given that this packaging is equivalent to the test standard, it may be tagged with the protected Keimling-Logo that distinguishes it as compostable.

Moreover, Kobusch-Sengewald has reacted to an increase in demand and launched an extruded film made of a PLA-blend within its product range which is biodegradable and compostable. The final certification will, however, still take some time. At the moment, this film is available in white, coloured or opaque. The transparent version is under way.

The cooperation between Birkel and Kobusch-Sengwald has been in place for several years. The good operating experience with the packaging manufacturer, as a „reliable partner, says Thomas Schmid, prompted Birkel to set up this joint organic film project in the middle of 2006.

Kobusch-Sengewald is an internationally active manufacturer and fabricator of flexible packaging films, as well as a provider of special packaging solutions for food, chemical, technical and hygiene products, as well as medical products. A total of more than 500 employees work at both the Warburg and Halle/Westfalen site. Kobusch-Sengewald earned a turnover of around 126 million Euro in 2006.

Photo: Bartling Grafik