Our approach:

Being curious about how to improve packaging sustainability

At hubergroup Print Solutions, we are guided by the spirit of a sustainable circular economy. We believe that direct mechanical recycling is the most promising solution and, therefore, work hard to ensure that our products support recycling. When this is not possible, we look for alternatives such as composting or deinking. In our research, we closely collaborate with other industry partners to generate new ideas and insights into how packaging needs to be designed for a sustainable future.

Our solutions:

Smart applications tailored to your needs

Mono-material packaging

A major obstacle to more recycling is the high proportion of packaging that consists of several materials. Such a mix of materials is difficult to recycle. In contrast, mono-material packaging, i.e. packaging that only consists of paper or one type of plastic, mostly leads to good recyclate quality. Our dedicated research teams developed two coatings that enable such mono-material packaging for applications that previously required a material mix:

HYDRO-LAC GA Oxygen Barrier Coating: Our oxygen barrier coating enables mono-polyethylene or mono-polypropylene packaging for oxygen-sensitive foods such as nuts or fresh pasta as it protects the contents from oxygen. For the application, manufacturers use film laminates made of the same polymers (usually polypropylene or polyethylene), between which they apply the oxygen barrier coating. An OTR (oxygen transmission rate) of less than 10 cubic centimetres of oxygen per square metre and day can be achieved under industrial conditions, when using polypropylene.

HYDRO-X Water Barrier Coating: Thanks to a special combination of binding agents, this water-based barrier coating for flexo and gravure printing protects against water and eliminates the need for a PE film lamination as water barrier. Paper packaging with our barrier coating can be recycled in the already well-established paper recycling system and is, thus, an environmentally friendly packaging solution. The barrier coating was developed for the packaging of moisture-sensitive food such as sugar or dry pet food as well as for applications from the non-food sector such as cement packaging.

Recyclable inks & varnishes

All components of printed products must be suitable for recycling so that they can return to the material cycle – including the inks and varnishes. Our broad range of Cradle to Cradle certified products for offset as well as flexo and gravure printing clearly shows that we take the issue of sustainability seriously and carefully select our raw materials. But, even beyond that, we made sure that the majority of our inks and varnishes can be recycled in the paper recycling system or allow for high-quality recyclates in the case of plastic packaging – because we think direct recycling is the future. We are also intensively researching how to positively influence recyclability. In the PrintCYC project, for example, we found that the binder of solvent-based inks has a major impact on recyclability and therefore recommend switching to PU-based inks whenever possible.

Compostable inks & varnishes

At hubergroup, we have developed compostable printing inks and varnishes for applications that are specifically suitable for compostable packaging.

Deinkable inks & varnishes

Sometimes it is no option to use recyclable inks – for example, when you use UV products. In these cases, we at hubergroup ensure that our products can be removed in the so-called deinking process. In this process, the inks and varnishes are washed off the substrate and filtered so that one receives a clean substrate, a clean washing solution to be reused for another deinking process and a small amount of ink-varnish residue that needs to be disposed of. We have inks and varnishes in our portfolio that are deinkable on both paper and foil.

Do you want to learn more about our eco-friendly solutions?

Search our product finder or tell us more about your applications via our contact form. We look forward to providing you with customized and sustainable solutions.