A new digitally printed PP-monomaterial pouch developed through a multi-company collaboration is aiming to tackle one of flexible packaging’s biggest sustainability challenges – achieving high barrier performance without complex multi-material laminates.
At interpack 2026, Frank Jacobs, senior product manager at Xeikon, showed PKN a recyclable polypropylene film structure developed with POLIFILM Performance Films, with primers and overprint varnishes supplied by Actega and pouch conversion by Gruber Folien.
The development combines a PP-monomaterial film with strong oxygen and water vapour barrier properties suitable for more demanding applications such as coffee packaging – a category that has traditionally relied on complex laminated structures combining multiple substrate types.
“Historically, flexible packaging has not been very sustainable because it’s typically a combination of different layers of materials,” Jacobs explained.
“If you take a bag of potato chips, you have combinations of PE with PET or PP laminated together in very thin films. After use, it’s very difficult or impossible to recycle.”
According to Jacobs, the move towards mono-material structures is being accelerated by evolving European packaging regulations and recycling targets.
The POLIFILM substrate demonstrated at interpack is a PP-monomaterial film designed to deliver the barrier properties required for sensitive products while remaining compatible with recycling streams.
Xeikon’s contribution lies in the digital printing process itself. The pouch was printed on a Xeikon TX500 digital press using TITON technology, enabling direct printing without the need for additional lamination or protective varnish layers traditionally required in flexible packaging production.
“What we bring to this is that we can print on that with our digital press without the necessity afterwards to varnish or laminate,” Jacobs said.
“The toner is scratch resistant, so you can skip that step entirely.”
Jacobs said removing the lamination stage not only simplifies the structure for recycling, but also eliminates a significant production bottleneck.
“In conventional flexible packaging production, after lamination you often need to wait two or sometimes three days before converting because of drying time,” he said. “We can skip that.”
The collaboration was formally launched at interpack, where the pouch was shown alongside other digitally printed sustainable packaging applications, including paper-based confectionery packaging designed for disposal in the paper recycling stream.
Jacobs said the project highlights how digital printing is increasingly being integrated into broader packaging sustainability strategies – not only through shorter print runs and reduced waste, but also by enabling simplified material structures better suited to circular packaging systems.
