UPM, Uteco and Siegwerk Team Up to Push Secondary Packaging Toward 90 Percent Paper

Paper-based packaging announcements usually isolate one layer of the problem: a new barrier paper here, a coating there, a converting trial somewhere else. A three-way collaboration between UPM Specialty Materials, Siegwerk and Uteco takes the whole chain at once – base paper, coating and application technology – and points it at one of packaging’s stickiest decarbonisation targets: secondary packaging.

One solution, three suppliers

The jointly developed solution assigns each partner a distinct role. UPM provides the barrier base paper, Siegwerk contributes the coating, and Uteco supplies the flexographic technology that applies it. The result is a paper-based secondary packaging format designed as a practical entry point for brand owners who want to increase renewable material content and test paper-based formats in demanding applications – while the primary packaging continues to safeguard the product itself. The headline number is striking: paper content in such packaging can be increased to up to 90 percent while maintaining the performance required for demanding applications. “As packaging legislation, such as EU PPWR, evolve globally, brand owners need practical ways to reduce plastic without compromising performance,” said Marco Tramontano, sales director at UPM Specialty Materials.

Built for the recycling stream, not against it

The technical composition is where the collaboration’s logic shows. The solution combines UPM’s barrier base paper with Siegwerk’s Cirkit Bar Seal coating, precisely applied using Uteco’s high-definition flexographic technology. Together they deliver moisture and grease resistance, heat sealing, and – critically – recyclability through standard paper recycling streams, confirmed against CEPI/4evergreen v2 evaluation. That last credential matters more than any single barrier property. Paper packaging that fails repulping tests or contaminates recycling streams has repeatedly drawn fire from recyclers, and EU-level scrutiny of multi-material constructions is intensifying under the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation. Designing for the CEPI/4evergreen framework from the start positions the solution for the compliance environment brand owners actually face, not the one they wish existed. “Coatings play a critical role in enabling the next generation of paper packaging,” said Gilles Le Moigne, head of circular economy coatings at Siegwerk. “By applying our CIRKIT BAR SEAL technology onto UPM’s barrier paper using Uteco’s advanced flexographic process, we have created a recyclable paper-based solution that delivers the functional performance converters and brand owners expect. This project shows how innovation in coatings can help unlock new opportunities for reducing dependence on fossil-based packaging materials.”

Industrial scale, single pass

The economic case rests on how the layers are applied. A joint production trial demonstrated that paper packaging can perform efficiently at industrial scale when coating, printing and heat sealing are integrated in a single pass – enabled, the partners stress, by advanced equipment rather than laboratory conditions. “By integrating coating, printing and heat sealing in a single pass, made possible by advanced technology and the right equipment, this solution helps converters produce functional paper packaging while saving time, energy and production costs,” Uteco’s Printing & Technical Department stated. Single-pass integration is the difference between a showcase sample and a production option. Converters evaluating paper-based secondary packaging have consistently cited cost and line efficiency as the blockers; a process that adds barrier and sealing without extra offline steps attacks exactly that objection.

Legislation as the demand engine

The regulatory backdrop gives the timing its urgency. The EU’s PPWR is driving measurable plastic reduction targets across the bloc, while national EPR schemes worldwide increasingly charge by recyclability grade – making paper-forward secondary packaging not just a sustainability statement but a fee calculation. Brand owners face the twin pressure of performance on the line and compliance on the ledger, and solutions that raise renewable content without sacrificing either have an expanding addressable market. The partners position the solution for brand owners, converters and machine builders alike – an ecosystem pitch that acknowledges paper-based transitions succeed only when the whole converting chain moves together.

See it at Pack Expo

Samples of the secondary packaging solution are on display at UPM Specialty Materials’ stand at Pack Expo (West Hall, Stand W-46118), giving visitors a chance to evaluate the look, feel and stiffness of a format that claims up to 90 percent paper content without asking them to take a datasheet on faith. For the paper industry, the collaboration is another marker of the strategic pivot from graphic to packaging grades; for converters, it is one more sign that the toolchain for plastic-reduction in secondary packaging – paper, coating and press technology from a single, tested configuration – is finally assembling.

The collaboration model itself

The three-way structure is as instructive as the product. Paper-based conversions have stalled repeatedly not because any single layer fails, but because the paper supplier, the coating chemist and the machine builder each optimize in isolation – and the interface between them fails. By testing the complete stack through joint production trials before launch, UPM, Siegwerk and Uteco have packaged the risk away from the customer: converters evaluating the solution inherit a configuration that is already proven at industrial scale rather than an assembly of datasheets. Expect more of these pre-integrated partnerships as PPWR deadlines compress the timeline for plastic reduction across European supply chains.

Source: The Packman (thepackman.in).