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Sustainability
16.09.2020
Latest News Products / Blog

KM Packaging’s New Mono Material Recyclable Lidding Film

We have launched a new range of mono-polymer material recyclable lidding films made from polypropylene (PP).

The sustainable lidding film seals and peels to PP and PE-lined PP trays and is suitable for microwave cooking and ambient, chilled, or frozen applications

Recyclable Lidding Film Properties

Part of our K PEEL range, this recyclable lidding film allows food manufacturers to meet the growing demand, particularly from supermarkets, for mono material packaging designed for recycling.

The lidding films are ideal for packaging poultry, meat, and chilled prepared foods. Features include:

  • Mono structure consisting of one material type.
  • Designed for recyclability.
  • Ideal for use during food preparation and microwave cooking.
  • Peelable from the tray.
  • Suitable for ambient, chilled, or frozen applications.
  • Exceptional transparency.
  • Excellent anti-fog capability.
  • Available with or without a barrier.

As well as satisfying the needs of supermarkets and consumers who seek more recycle-ready solutions, the new recyclable lidding films help to future-proof our food packaging range.

Our commercial director, Graham Holding, explained: “If you have a piece of flexible packaging that, for example, is a combination of paper, plastic, and aluminium foil, then that would be a really difficult thing to segregate and put into a recycling stream. 

“It is anticipated that the UK government’s Extended Packaging Producer responsibility regulations, due in 2023, will quite highly penalise packaging like this that is difficult to recycle.”

PP Film and Cast Polypropylene for Food Packaging

The new PP lidding film is also designed for recycling worldwide, with some countries already having well-developed recycling infrastructures for polyolefin (polyethylene and polypropylene) plastics. 

In the UK, front-of-store recycling facilities allow consumers to return polyolefin-based flexible packaging. Other markets take a similar approach. For example, in Australia's REDcycle initiative and in South Africa, polyolefins are the largest plastic commodities recycled by weight.

Cast polypropylene is an especially popular choice of pp film for food packaging as its molecular structure makes it:

  • Resistant to impact.
  • Resistant to cold temperatures.
  • Effective at sealing in heat.

Our K PEEL range includes lidding film manufactured from CPP with additional properties such as anti-fog and high-pressure processing to prevent contamination and spoilage of food products.

Therefore, putting a tray/film combination of polypropylene onto the market feeds into an already well-established recycling system.

Also, the new “Designing for a Circular Economy” guidelines from CEFLEX focus on polyolefin-based flexible packaging. This is because the material makes up an estimated 70-80% of the flexible packaging waste stream, and is already proven at an industrial scale in Europe. 

Our main purpose is to “protect, present, preserve”. This involves:

  • Protecting products throughout the entire process, from factory to table.
  • Presenting food in an attractive, professional, and recognisable way.
  • Preserving food and extending shelf-life across the food industry.

Graham said: “The main goal of our packaging is to look after and protect food. We don't compromise on that. But we're also trying to make sure it’s designed for recyclability and, when appropriate, it's thinner and lighter. These are big drivers in our product-development process.”

The new polypropylene lidding film products follow our recent launch of all-polyester (PET), weld-seal, mono-material lidding films within the K Seal range

Both solutions are recyclable and allow customers to avoid putting multi-layer trays and films with different plastics combined into the market.

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