28/10/2019
Packaging re-design:from traditional laminated plastic to recyclable paper-based packaging.
The case history of Sgambaro
When speaking of sustainable packaging, one refers increasingly often to the 4 Rs: reduce, recycle, re-design, and reuse. The reason is that packaging is nowadays part and parcel of our daily lives and of our lifestyles and solving the problem of plastic pollution by eliminating packaging feels like wishful thinking. What could actually be done, instead, is to re-design it, avoiding waste and guaranteeing an end-of-life aiming to optimise the recovery of resources or reuse.
We would like to present a good example of this process: the case of Sgambaro, a pasta company known for the quality of its products, and for its attention to all aspects pertaining to the sustainability of its production. When the Veneto-based company designed the restyling of its Yellow Label packaging, it opted for paper, a material that looks luxurious and bears the hallmark of craftsmanship with an added value, not just for the company’s image but also for sustainability. In fact, one way of making packaging eco-friendly is to use a paper-based laminated material that can be collected separately and recycled. It is a fact that not all paper-based packaging is recyclable with paper at its end of life. The recyclability of cellulose-based packaging is assessed with reference to the UNI 11743:2019 standard and the Aticelca® 501 Evaluation System.
The Aticelca® 501 Evaluation System allows the level of recyclability of cellulose-based materials and products to be established, by means of a laboratory test, by simulating some of the main phases of the industrial processes of the paper to be recycled so as to produce new paper and cardboard.
Sgambaro decided to opt for a packaging solution that has successfully passed the laboratory tests and was found to be recyclable with Level C paper, thus replacing the plastic laminated film with recyclable packaging. We should also point out that the paper used for Sgambaro and all SDR PACK production comes from responsibly managed sources: as a matter of fact, the company is FSC® certified.
For more information about our recyclabile with paper solutions: