How eco friendly is your packaging?

With the product diagnostics service, Arcoplastica offers itself up as the benchmark for food packaging users aiming to convert to green to win new market shares. High performance and environmental sustainability: the perfect mix for a superior quality tray.

Less plastic, more sustainability. And this applies first and foremost to food packaging: Arcoplastica  research has taken many steps forward in the direction of the green economy, interpreting - and in some cases anticipating - market developments. Vision and planning have always been the hallmarks of the company based in Andezeno (Turin), which today makes its knowhow available to companies in the sector interested in innovating their products in terms of environmental impact.

It is in this perspective that the new packaging diagnostics service that Arcoplastica provides to its customers has been developed. «How eco-friendly is your packaging? This is the question we start from», explains Marco Torta, owner of Arcoplastica, «and the check-up is designed to find out; innovation does the rest».

High gas barrier compostable trays.

The entrepreneur continues: «This is an all-round intervention: in fact, we aim to maximize the amount of raw material coming from recycling inside the trays*; we intervene to reduce thicknesses, and we evaluate the use of compostable bioplastics - even with barrier properties - up to using recyclable paper. Relying on Arcoplastica also means counting on packaging customization: thanks to our extrusion and thermoforming technologies, we guarantee both the formulation of materials and the design of made-to-measure formats».

Mono-material high gas barrier rPET trays (100% recyclable).

Evolution in the field. Underlying these processes is the constant research and development activity conducted by Arcoplastica.
In terms of high-barrier monomaterials, the company proposes ready-to-recycle monopolymers with gas permeability comparable to that of traditional EVOH-based multilayers. There is also room for innovation in terms of compostable materials. Arcoplastica has created high-barrier PLA multilayer structures comparable to the EVOH barrier. Also worthy of note are heat-resistant compostable compounds: multilayer barrier structures resistant to high temperatures (+90°C) are the ideal solution for ready meals and coffee capsules.

Trays made 90% from recycled bottles.

A winning strategy. Behind this commitment lies a corporate culture whose guiding star is respect for the environment. A culture that is well expressed in Arcoplastica’s figures. One figure above all (referred to 2019): over 80 million bottles (flakes of bottles) purchased and reused inside the trays, equal to 2,400 tons of recycled plastic. Yet another significant figure: 41,469 kwh is the amount of photovoltaic energy produced (with a 36 kWp plant currently being expanded for an overall total of 114 kWp).

«Arcoplastica - concludes Marco Torta - is committed to this path, so much so that we are planning further investments in research. From this point of view, the food packaging diagnosis service takes on ever greater value, strengthening our role as a player in the sector in terms of experience, reliability and ability to provide innovative solutions».