A LOOK AT THE ADHESIVES MARKET WITH BOSTIK While they are often overlooked, the importance of adhesives to the sustainability and performance of a pack cannot be overstated. To understand more about the adhesives market as it stands today, we spoke with Richard Lelievre, senior vice-president of Bostik’s advanced packaging business unit. PE: Sustainability is now of the utmost importance in the packaging industry, and the separation of different substrates in the recycling process is a key part of this. How is the adhesives industry helping to facilitate this process?
RL: Sustainability has indeed become the primary focus of the packaging industry, at each level of the value chain. Bostik, the adhesive solutions segment of Arkema, is actively partnering with brand owners, converters but also associa-
tions, and recyclers among others to develop the most suitable solutions for all kinds of packaging whether they are glass, paper, or plastics. Although it usually represents a relatively small part of the packaging, the adhesives can very often play an important role in the recycling process. Regarding cardboard packaging, adhesives can be designed to be easily screened and sorted from fibre in paper mills in order not to disturb the recycling of fibres and avoid micro-stickies, thus improving the paper quality. For labels on Packaging Europe | 45 |
