Continuing the topic of changes introduced by legislation to the use of disposable tableware, in particular the rejection of plastic and the use of recyclable materials, it should be told about the innovation of the American company World Centric, which has recently introduced the latest coating for disposable tableware made of fiber.
It is no secret that the Covid pandemic has given a very strong stimulus to the development of e-commerce and online sales, and as a result, the number of postages has increased. Progress does not stand still, and the global struggle for environmental friendliness of packaging has also affected packaging for shipping goods. In our opinion, two innovations deserve special interest, which will be discussed below.
Since July 2021, the law prohibiting the use of disposable plastic tableware comes into force in the European Union, which certainly creates a lot of problems for manufacturers. This prohibition concerns not only plates, cups, but also forks, spoons, knives, coffee sticks, cocktail tubes, etc.
Frozen food is another product area that requires specific materials for their packing. It is no secret that films for packing such goods must retain their barrier properties at low temperatures, comply with all standards for food packing and not lose their appearance in refrigerators.
It is not a secret that the material for packing precisely medical products, for example, various powders, portioned gels, ointments, syrups, requires increased protective properties and because of this it becomes less suitable for further processing.
The world famous Japanese company Toyobo Co., Ltd., one of the activities of which is the production of films for food packing, has developed a new biaxially oriented polypropylene film, which has high gas tightness and can replace multilayer packing.
It is not a secret that the wide distribution and usage of non-degradable PET is currently a very serious environmental problem throughout the world. Many companies try to reduce the use of plastics in their products as much as possible, but, unfortunately, this is not always acceptable. But developments do not stop and it is likely that PEF-based bioplastics will soon appear as an alternative to PET. PEF is a high quality, fully recyclable plastic.