In a development for the Swedish market, Mondi has collaborated with Skanemejerier to create a mono-material PP-based packaging for, among other products, ICA’s Hushallsost cheese.
The new packaging comprises a mono-material base web and lidding film, all of which is produced and printed by Mondi before being converted for 1kg and 2kg blocks of cheese by Skanemejerier. It will be sold in leading Swedish supermarket ICA and now comes in packaging that is designed for recycling.
Mondi’s mono-material solution provides high-barriers against oxygen and water vapours, keeping the product fresh on the supermarket shelf. It offers high-puncture resistance to protect the cheese, and great printability for better communication on-pack of brand and recycling messages.
“Thirty per cent of the world’s food is lost or wasted, which equates to 1.3 billion tonnes – so, fit-for-purpose packaging design has a crucial role to play,” Helene Brynell, regional sales of Nordic Consumer Flexibles at Mondi, explained.
“Fresh products like cheese need to be packaged properly, and protection must go hand-in-hand with sustainable packaging.
“Our new mono-material solution is fulfilling exactly that – it keeps the cheese fresh, while also keeping the packaging materials in circulation through design for recycling.”
This new innovative packaging is being launched at the same time period as Site Zero, which claims to be the world’s largest sorting facility for used plastic packaging, and will open its doors in Sweden.
“Our collaboration with Mondi has been a thorough process – we started our first test and trials in 2019, and are delighted to be bringing this fully recyclable packaging to market before the end of 2023,” said Ingemar Jonsson, packaging manager at Skanemejerier.
“The great working relationship we had meant that we were able to adapt materials and machinery efficiently, resulting in a successful, fit-for-purpose solution.
“We have strong, effective and good-looking packaging that keeps materials in the loop and responds to consumer demands for more sustainable solutions.”
The state-of-the-art facility will process used plastic waste from both Sweden and Finland, and, thanks to the new packaging’s mono-material design, will be easily and effectively sorted for recycling at the facility.
“We are very positive about the new packaging that Mondi has developed together with Skanemejerier for ICA,” added Rickard Jansson, development engineer at Swedish Plastic Recycling.
“By using mono-material film instead of laminate consisting of different types of plastic, we can sort out and recycle the packaging that is left in the system, thus avoiding incineration.
“With Site Zero’s new technology, this PP film-based packaging will be able to become new products, which has not been possible in any facility in Sweden before. It provides circular plastic flows that reduce the need for fossil raw materials and combustion.”
The mono-material cheese packaging on ICA’s shelves won this year’s PackNorth Award in the Food category, and was also recognised at the Empack fair in October in Stockhold, Sweden.
