An embossable BOPP film (Innovia Films) The cold embrace of the sleeve (Luxoro) A bottle that speaks of origins (San Benedetto

An embossable BOPP film

Innovia Films are launching Rayoface™ mBoss their BOPP film that has been especially engineered to offer long-lasting premium embossing performance. The new film offers increased shelf appeal and consumer engagement through bold tactile features as well as the eye-catching print and foiling capability of the paper-like surface. At 130 micron, it has a premium feel and offers high conversion and labelling efficiencies due to its exceptional dimensional stability. Rayoface mBoss™ has a high level of opacity, even when wet and is suitable for use with a wide range of inks and foils as well as textured varnishes. Richard Southward, Global Product Manager, Labels explains «Third party trials have demonstrated the longevity and robustness of the embossed features through the supply chain, ensuring the on-shelf impact and brand experience that Rayoface™ mBoss can generate».

The cold embrace of the sleeve

Cold finishing becomes sustainable in a sleeve designed by Luxoro to clad an amaro bottle, a perfect synthesis between tradition and modernity.

Among the best-selling “spirits” in Italy, amari have been part the Italian food and wine culture since time immemorial, since herbal infusions were used as medicines to gradually turn into digestifs present on every dinner table. Presented on the occasion of the digital event “See.Click.Feel - Luxoronline 2020”, the packaging for amari proposed by Luxoro manages to blend, with technological savoir fair, the codes of a long-standing tradition with those of an original modernity, notably featuring respect for the environment. Enthusiastically printed by the partner Multistampa Srl, the sleeve project is by the Art Director Stefano Torregrossa (O’nice Design). Tear me off and recycle me. Thanks to a pre-punched vertical band, the “Tear me off and recycle”, the PET sleeve can be easily removed and separated from the glass, thus facilitating segregated collection. The sleeve wraps the bottle in a precious embrace, closely following its shapes catching the eye and the imagination of the consumer: leaves and flowers hark back to the alchemical origin of the amari, and the colors celebrate the natural soul of the product.The cold finishing, in this case, has been used in different ways, taking advantage of both the transparency of the sleeve itself and the main feature of the cold transfer, which enables perfect overprinting, thus making the overlying color brighter. Interesting then the fact that you can freely play both with colors and with metallization. One can notice the different stages in which Luxoro

ventured, where the cold silver is diluted in the shades of the four-color process: some small graphic elements reflect the various shades of the effect which, in some points and thanks to the overprinting, takes on different tones of intense color and brilliant and homogeneous metallization.

The cold printing products - excellence of the Kurz range, of which Luxoro is distributor in Italy - have a versatile quality and stand out for their high covering power and the perfect definition of even the smallest details. In the case of the sleeves made for the amaro bottle, these characteristics are evident in the graphics of the leaflets and in their veins, whose extreme brilliance can be admired on full backgrounds. An added value, in terms of performance and technique, of the cold effects line is immediate drying, which allows you to use the printout immediately after production, even when the substrates and inks change. Last, but not least we have the cold silver used for the sleeve finishing: perfectly recyclable, it does not in any way affect the substrate on which it is printed, complies with all European and international safety standards and is produced as “zero impact”.

A BOTTLE THAT SPEAKS OF ORIGINS

San Benedetto Mineral Water presents the restyling of Pura di Roccia, the minimally mineralized water that flows out of the Biellese Alps. The size of the 1.5 l bottle is new, chosen to be more in line with the “main target” represented by families. The design, done ex novo, enhances the Alpine peaks that give rise to the water, emphasizing its belonging to the territory with the reproduction of typical floral elements. The logo, enclosed in a frame that gives further value and delicacy to the brand, already evocative in itself, has also been completely redesigned. On the pack the product pluspoints are also highlighted, to be immediately recognized and perceived by the consumer from the moment of purchase.

“Futura”: a ribbon for sustainable cosmetics

With a long-standing entrepreneurial history of excellence and originality, NastriTex is a reference partner for the make-up large service manufacturers, with whom it has developed technical solutions aimed at improving the pressing of cosmetic powders with technologically advanced fabrics, also certified in terms of human safety. Today the company offers 100 different ribbons, between catalogue references and prototypes: technical fabrics made on request, non-woven fabrics, polymeric films and combinations of fibers and cellulosic materials, designed and produced in the NastriTex Lab*. Hence in 2020 the company crosses the 40year milestone and consolidates the founding values and firmly affirms a vision for the future oriented towards a model of sustainable development and circular economy, the only possible way to ensure the protection of the environment, the well-being and safety of the new generations. Just thinking about the new generations, NastriTex launched the “Futura”, the first pressing ribbon made with 100% recycled materials.

«Innovation can no longer only concern the optimization of the technical-functional characteristics of a product - underlines Federico Mocchetti, the company’s key executive - but must aim higher. At respect for health, improve the integrity and safety of human relations, protect the environment. We industrialists - continues the manager - must put in place new forms of production of goods and services, based on investments in innovation that can stimulate responsible growth for an increasingly sustainable development: this is the message that NastriTex wants to convey to its customers and partners with the new compacting belt made of completely recycled material, which is not a point of arrival for us, but simply the new stage of a circular economy path started in 2012, imagining an increasingly sustainable tomorrow».

* NastriTex Lab is the internal laboratory that works with the aim of offering customers adequate tools to support ambitious production objectives, the innovation incubator where ideas, theories and tests are developed and applied at the service of cosmetics manufacturers.

SOSTENIBILITA

KNOW-HOW AVANGUARDIA

Industrial strategies Printing inks and compostable packaging

Sun Chemical’s “Guide to compostability” presents itself as a simple and comprehensive working tool for packaging converters, useful to clarify the meaning of a term often misrepresented or misused.

Starting from the scientific concept of compostability, it goes deeper into the American and European standards and regulatory frameworks that regulate this aspect, which is fundamental for the circular economy. In particular, the certification process for inks for printing compostable packaging is tackled. In this regard, a reminder that Sun Chemical has already had most of its inks and coatings “OK compost HOME” and “OK compost INDUSTRIAL TUV Austria” certified (and plans to further expand its range). This is also explained in its Q/A section in the last pages of the Guide, with the aim of preventing and solving technical perplexities or doubts that might arise in this regard.

LET’S START FROM THE FACTS Home and industrial compostability of inks and coatings

• As far as compostability standards are concerned, most of the certified compostable Sun Chemical ink products (with the exception of some coatings and lamination adhesives) would fall below the critical percentage level requiring extra tests . • Package components present at additive levels are not required to play an active part in the composting process, but still undergo strict eco-toxicity and chemical analysis tests carried out by

independent accredited laboratories to make sure that they don’t negatively affect the process by introducing contaminants which would deter plant growth. • Compostable inks offer the additional advantage of being suitable for producing certified compostable packaging, allowing customers to invest in a growing, increasingly popular and sustainable segment. Chemical Sun Chemical has chosen the independent TUV Austria certification body, expert and recognized all over the world, for a wide portfolio of OK compost HOME and OK compost INDUSTRIAL certified inks and related products. TUV Austria certificates authorize customers to print the relative TUV Austria logos on packaging products, provided that the substrate and all packaging components are also TUV Austria certified and provided that each ink component remains within the maximum application limit indicated on the relative certificate. The TUV Austria logo offers visibility into packaging compliance, through an effective and widely recognized independent certification. • The comprehensive and growing range of TUV Austria certified compostable solutions can be used on a wide range of substrates. S For a final packaging to be home and/or industrially compostable, the substrate and all applied components must also be home and/or industrially compostable, without exception. • It is the case that most compostable Sun Chemical inks and coatings already hold the OK compost HOME and OK compost INDUSTRIAL TUV Austria certificates.

INK TECHNOLOGY AT THE SERVICE OF ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

As mentioned above, Sun Chemical’s Guide to Compostability proposes some final reflections on the value and importance of compostability (of which we report here only a brief summary, Ed.), examining its advantages and disadvantages compared to other sustainable solutions. However, the answer is clear: compostability can reduce the environmental impact of packaging waste only if certain conditions are met. For example, industrially compostable packaging should be collected and sent separately to suitable composting facilities, and this is not always easy to implement in all countries (in which case compostability in the home garden may be a better solution). Compostability could be a viable alternative in all cases where recycling would be too expensive or complicated. A particularly good example is food packaging material mixed with food waste, for which compostability could offer a better solution than a difficult recycling process. Realistically, compostability will not solve all environmental problems on its own, but it can work in parallel with other solutions, helping to plan a strategy to make our future more sustainable. Sun Chemical is however an active part in this process, and the range of compostable inks is only one of the sustainable solutions put in place by the multinational.

Compliance with standards for certification purposes

Sun OK compost certified HOME and INDUSTRIAL inks are formulated without any ingredient that could potentially damage the compostability process of the finished packaging products, and without any contaminant

with negative effect on growing plants. In some case this may introduce some restrictions in terms of raw materials which can be used, compared to standard inks. However, certified inks are compostable only as part of the finished packaging product, and only if all the required conditions are met, including the relevant maximum application limits. They cannot be assumed compostable if released in the environment separately or applied at higher percentages. Therefore, the same precautions and handling guidelines apply to standard inks and to compostable inks, as detailed in the relevant products’ technical data sheets. Compostable inks and press returns should be handled correctly and must not be dispersed into the environment. Just as - Sun Chemical warns - it is not possible to use any uncertified ink product together with certified ink products for the production of a certified packaging, since the application of a single ink or uncertified component would invalidate the certification of the finished packaging.

Compostable supports and products

In addition to highlighting the necessary differences between the OK compost INDUSTRIAL and OK compost HOME logos, Sun Chemical also cites which compostable substrates are available on the market and which inks are suitable for their printing. In addition to naturally compostable kraft paper and board substrates, the market offers many

The meaning of compostability

Compostability refers to the ability of some materials (often bio-based or partly bio- based, but not necessarily) to biodegrade naturally within a specified timeframe under controlled conditions. The associated biological process leads mainly to CO2 and also to water and biomass, which will form part of the compost. This process enriches the soil with nutrients and must strictly limit the introduction of potentially toxic substances and contaminants so that the soil can remain of good quality and perfectly suitable for growing new plants. All compostable material is biodegradable in the right environment and under the correct conditions, but not all the biodegradable material is compostable because the term “biodegradable” is generic and does not set a timeframe for the completion of the compostability process under specific conditions, and does not add any information on how and where this process would take place.

types of certified compostable plastic films. These are based on various bio-derived polymers, such as starch, polylactic acid (PLA), or regenerated cellulose film. Once again, certified compostable films should not be confused with “biodegradable” or “degradable” films based on standard polymers, such as polyethylene, that contain additives (normally enzymes) which enable the plastic to break into smaller pieces. The former substrate type, in addition to a disintegration process also undergoes a chemical reaction ultimately leading to water, CO2, and biomass as main degradation products. The latter simply degrades more rapidly compared to standard films, but through a process which is uncontrolled and uncertified by an independent body, and leading to micro-plastic particles, which currently are the object of various concerns. Besides well-established compostable film grades from market leading brands, a growing number of new products are released every year. These may require lab testing in order to finalize a safe ink specification. In all cases, please, refer to your Sun Chemical representative for a tailor- made ink specification. Finally, a reminder that Sun Chemical’s certified range includes water-based and solvent-based ink products for surface printing and lamination on a wide range of substrates and various coatings. The current portfolio is likely to grow soon with new compostable adhesives, several new ink series, coatings, primers, and components, alternative ink chemistries, aluminium-based metallic inks, etc., which will greatly expand our capacity to cover most of the market needs in this growing area.

The PackRevolution rainbow for a sustainable present and future

The new brand PackRevolution created by ITP includes a range of innovative and sustainable films for food packaging, the result of a co-development of R&D that has engaged the company in recent years, with the aim of achieving the “green revolution” able to transform the future of flexible packaging production. PackRevolution branded solutions have a very low impact on the environment in terms of CO2, thanks to the use of raw materials from renewable sources or industrial and post-consumer waste, or in view of the possibility of 100% recycling, their certified compostability, or through a significant reduction in thickness.

RecytermoPCR. Heat-shrinkable film for the beverage sector, 100% recyclable, contains a minimum 50% post-consumer recycled raw material (PCR), for which it has obtained the Second Life Plastic label, issued by the Institute for the Promotion of Plastics for Recycling to materials derived from the recycling of plastic waste.

RecyBariflex. Recyclable single film (certified by Cyclos) composed of a single layer of barrier PE. Suitable for use in the food sector, it can be used for the realization of any type of envelope or for tops of trays. Paper G. In addition to Ok Compost certified ITP compostable films, now well known on the market, the Paper G project represents an innovative solution in the packaged meat sector. The hot application of a thin PE film on a cardboard tray allows to eliminate up to 80% of plastic and to replace the traditional trays. The food can be anchored over the cardboard tray by means of a lid or a film skin.

Vacuum film in monomaterial. Even the packaging of sausages today benefits from an innovative packaging, made with a new film for thermoforming in vacuum application, with a simplified structure: it is in fact composed of a mono material with high barrier, in which count of EVOH is such as not to compromise the complete recyclability.

The Pack Revolution range is completed by PP co-extruded film solutions, barrier, low sealing and anti-fog, for BOPP lamination. In this way we realize monomaterial structures with high thermal resistance, 100% recyclable.

Exported all over the world, ITP films have been tested on the best known Italian and foreign packaging machines.