KOEHLER: THE FUTURE FOR BARRIER PAPERS Our last Wider View article with Koehler Paper tackled, and we hope dispelled, some of the prevalent misconceptions around paper packaging. This year, it’s all about looking to the future of barrier papers: how far have they come and what will the third, fourth – even fifth? – generations bring in terms of functionality? Victoria Hattersley finds out.
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very week we hear of new innovations, collaborations and areas of application in the field of high-barrier papers, driven by ever-greater market pull and demand for sustainable packaging solutions. According to a Smithers Pira report, ‘The Future of Functional & Barrier Coatings for Paper & Board to 2024’, volume demand for functional and barrier coating applications in paper and board packaging reached almost 3 million tonnes globally in 2018, with a value of $7.8 billion. The same report
says the market is forecast to grow at a rate of 5.0% to 2024, pushing market value to almost $11.0 billion and worldwide consumption to just under 4 million tonnes. Compared to older iterations of paper packaging, the newer generations of barrier papers offer far more in terms of safety, hygiene and product protection. So what attributes can we expect the third and even fourth generations of materials to bring us? Packaging Europe | 25 |
