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    compostable ecobarrier paperboard

We offer sustainable choices

 

Pure fresh  fibre

The fresh fibre that Metsä Board uses to make paperboards is a premium raw material. It is renewable, highly functional, light and strong, whilst also naturally pure and safe making it ideal for demanding end uses, including food packaging.

Fresh fibre is also needed to safeguard the fibre supply. The same fibres cannot be recycled infinitely, because the fibres become gradually shorter and weaker loosing their good properties. If no fresh fibre entered the circulation, it would immediately result in a shortage of recycled fibre.

All of the wood fibre we use comes from either our own pulp mills or from our associated company Metsä Fibre’s mills. The wood supply to all Metsä Group’s business areas is managed centrally through Metsä Forest, meaning that we have the entire wood supply chain within the group. This provides Metsä Board with a secure pulp supply, high quality consistency, and an unbroken product safety chain through full control of chemicals used in production. 100% of the fibre we use is traceable and originates from sustainably managed forests.

All Metsä Board’s mills have international ISO quality and food safety certification. Metsä Board’s suppliers and subcontractors are also required to adhere to the same strict hygiene requirements, to ensure that our paperboards are protected against contamination.

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Sustainable packaging

The most important function of packaging is to ensure a product’s safety to consumers. Packaging protects products during transport, prolongs their useful life and even conveys vital information about the product’s composition and use. Well-designed packaging facilitates the role of good transport and shelving and helps reduce waste throughout the supply chain. 

Metsä Board's paperboards are lightweight and manufactured resource-efficiently using renewable fresh fibre that originates from sustainably managed northern forests. 

Paperboards can reduce or replace the use of plastics in many packaging end uses and the application areas will widen as the properties of paperboards are further developed. For example, Metsä Board's dispersion barrier coated paperboard helps reduce the use of plastics in end uses requiring medium grease and moisture resistance such as food service, fresh food, dry food and frozen food. 

Designing packaging in a smarter way can have a big impact on sustainability – raw materials can be used more efficiently, and the package can be made more easy to transport, use and recycle.  In cooperation with our customers, Metsä Board's  packaging analysis and design services develops innovative, ecological and user-friendly packaging solutions that meet the needs of consumers of the future.

In terms of sustainability, the ideal packaging protects the packed product, is fit-for-purpose, saves resources and minimises the environmental impact across the value chain. Explore Why packaging matters.



Our products can be recycled or composted

Metsä Board’s paperboard products are designed to be recycled. Using recyclable materials such as fresh fibre is an important way to save natural resources and support circular economy. In Europe, paperboard packaging has the highest rate of recycling when compared to other packaging material categories such as glass, metal and plastics. However, ultimately recyclability is still dependent upon the local collection and recycling options available in each market.

Paper and paperboard have many advantages when it comes to recycling:

  • Paperboard is already now widely recycled – in Europe  83% of paper and paperboard packaging is collected for recycling. In the USA, the corresponding figure is 81%.
  • Consumers can easily identify recyclable paper and board. Households are used to and willing to sort and separately bin paper and paperboard without any refund or cash incentive.
  • Municipal collections for waste paper are well established.

In case recycling is not possible, Metsä Board’s paperboards can be composted. Our paperboards have DIN CERTCO certificates in industrial compostability complying with DIN EN 13432 and ASTM D6400 standards. The certified paperboards include all Metsä Board grades without a PE coating. In addition, some of our paperboards hold a home compostability certificate (NF T 51-800). See our DIN CERTCO certificates.


 

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Lightweight products

Responsible production, consumption and the overall environmental awareness are all gaining importance. Therefore, maximising material efficiency and minimising packaging material consumption and waste are now more relevant than ever. Metsä Board is the forerunner in the development of lightweight paperboard, and this will continue to be a key focus area for our research and development.

We focus on lightweight paperboards that offer the advantages of heavier grades in terms of stiffness and thickness, whilst using considerably less raw materials for the same application. Because our fresh fibre paperboards can be over 30 per cent lighter than competing grades, they provide the required strength at lower grammages. The result being that the required printing area or package can be produced using lower quantities of raw materials.

Lightweight paperboards reduce CO2 emissions across the value chain

Lighter packaging products mean reduced environmental impacts at every stage of the product life cycle – using less raw materials, less energy and water as well as enabling lower transport weights and less waste. Thanks to their quality-consistency, our products also perform smoothly and reliably on printing and converting machines and packaging lines, therefore reducing production waste too.

We follow the environmental impact of our paperboards with life-cycle analyses prepared in accordance with the ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 standards. From the perspective of paperboard’s climate impact and carbon footprint, the energy used in the production carries the most relevance. As we move on to the use of entirely fossil free energy in our production, the carbon footprint of the products will become even smaller. 

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Lightweight paperboards reduce CO2 emissions across the value chain

Safe materials

Product safety is our top priority. As Metsä Board’s paperboards are made of fresh fibre, they are suitable for products with high quality and purity requirements, for high-end packaging, and for demanding applications with strict safety standards such as food packaging.

We manage hygiene and product safety risks throughout our supply chains from product development to production and distribution, by using materials of known origin which meet or exceed legislative requirements. All of our board mills are certified as complying with either ISO 22000 or the FSSC 22000 food safety management standard.

These certifications require that our operations are audited regularly both internally and by third parties. Moreover, our products are tested to be safe in accredited external laboratories. We also ensure that all chemicals used in our products are safe for consumers which requires close cooperation with our chemical suppliers.

Our product development considers even the smallest details to make sure that our products are safe both for the environment and for the people who will use them. All Metsä Board products are manufactured without fluorochemicals, and we do not accept any genetically modified raw materials or nanotechnology-based substances in the products.

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