Paper Packaging Providing More "Purpose" for a More Sustainable World

Mark Ushpol currently serves as Executive Vice President for Ahlstrom’s Food & Consumer Packaging Division, globally manufacturing fiber-based packaging and processing papers that serve multiple sectors in the food industry worldwide. Ushpol has more than twenty years of experience in the paper and packaging industry and is specifically motivated by Ahlstrom’s current leading position in the sustainable packaging space.

How is paper playing a role in the movement towards more sustainable packaging?

Paper is an ideal material for flexible packaging applications, and already has a broad field-of-use from good flexibility and folding characteristics to printability. Paper is easily sealable and glueable and it laminates well to other structures. In addition, paper functions effectively through challenging converting processes and we continue to push the boundaries on how paper can be used on existing film or plastic converting equipment.

Explain Ahlstrom’s ‘from Plastic to Purpose’ campaign. How do you define this?

Ahlstrom’s ‘ƒrom Plastic to Purpose’ campaign aims at raising awareness regarding the possibility of fiber-based solutions as a renewable packaging option. When we talk about “purpose” we are challenging brand owners and the packaging supply chain to think beyond the final structure – find more eco-friendly purpose in your product. This purpose could be achieved through sustainable fiber sourcing, or perhaps reducing the weight of structure and in turn reducing your logistics footprint. While a fiber-based paper structure can provide a solution to an initial sustainability goal, we want our customers and their customers to think beyond that.

How is Ahlstrom’s approach unique?

Ahlstrom has a distinctive set of capabilities and a wide breadth of technical applications to allow us to develop some of the strongest performing base papers available. Highly developed base papers are key to solving the barrier requirements for flexible packaging, while still utilizing the inherent end-of-life benefits that paper has to offer. Most flexible packaging solutions require barrier properties to function and preserve food, and the primary requirements for these applications are typically oil and grease barrier (OGR – oil & grease resistance), oxygen barrier (OTR – oxygen transmission rate), and moisture barrier (MVTR – moisture vapor transmission rate). These barrier properties are not inherently present in paper structures, but through our engineering processes and additives used, paper can exhibit these properties and enable barrier coatings to work more effectively.

What do you think is the key to creating a truly sustainable packaging supply chain in the world?

The full supply chain, from primary manufacturers to brand owners and consumers, are all responsible for considering unique and new solutions such as a paper-based package. It is imperative that we continue to increase composting and recycling infrastructures, so sustainable packaging development continues, and it has a positive end-of-life scenario. As consumers, we must ask our brands to provide us with these eco-friendlier offerings, realizing that our package may look or feel, or even sound a little different when we open it. If we all make these step changes and challenge what we have become accustomed to, we will all play a part in making the world better, and truly creating more “purpose” in our packaging.