- the project that pushed the boundaries of material science

Running from 2004 and finishing this autumn, SustainPack has been the largest and most important research project ever undertaken into sustainable packaging. It has had a budget of 30m Euros (of which 17m Euros from the FP6) and has been supported by a consortium comprising of 35 partners from 13 countries.

- The aim of the project has been to push the boundaries of material science, combining scientific research and commercial applications to develop the sustainable packaging materials of the future, says Kennert Johansson at STFI-Packforsk, the co-ordinator of SustainPack.

By applying nanotechnology solutions to deliver lean and added value fibre based packaging options, the project wanted to establish fibre based packaging as a key player, being the most suitable and sustainable material of choice for packaging formats in the next decade.
- Since we started the project the price of oil has gone from $25 a barrel to $75 (this week), which is one factor that keeps this project so relevant.

Summarising the project, breakthroughs are evident in many areas. For instance SustainPack’s work on printing active elements directly onto packaging, which has laid the groundwork for a process that could ultimately make tagging of individual items more affordable, particularly if the research is linked to the development of RFID technologies.

The teams working on communicative packaging have made great strides in the use of visual signals through moving images. These have been successful in making bar codes, humidity and temperature monitors as part of the fibre-based packaging design.

The project partners have realised that paper packaging is more restrictive than plastics in respect of design and hence focus on the 3 dimensional elements of packaging. Though there is not yet a product prototype the team has gone a long way towards developing the materials research necessary to progress the use of nanofibres in a wider range of shapes for packaging.

Read more about the project in the SustainPack Final Report (pdf) »

Moore information about the results of this research project will be published in the coming issue of our partner customer magazine Partner Update, early next year.