Innovia Films, a leading material science pioneer and major producer of BOPP films, has announced the launch of an extension to its range of sustainable films that have been marketed under the Encore brand name. 

The extension to the Encore range of sustainable BOPP films include the use of chemical recycled polymer for food contact applications and the addition of mechanically recycled PCR for non-food. Innovia says it is also working closely with Prevented Ocean Plastic and has developed a film with 30% POP material. In all cases the key functionality of the BOPP remain intact and are comparable to virgin grade materials, the company reports.

The environmental credentials of the films can be improved further, by reducing the quantity of fossil based virgin materials and replacing with bio based polypropylene. The company says this reduces the carbon footprint of the films further with no detrimental effect on film properties.

“Flexible packaging, being lightweight and highly resource efficient, can help reduce the total amount of packaging being used and has a much lower CO2 footprint regarding transportation than many rigid alternatives. Innovia is working with the whole value chain in initiatives like CEFLEX (Circular Economy for Flexible Packaging) to increase the recycling of this flexible packaging back into film. The inclusion of recycled content in new films is top of the list for much of the industry—moving from a linear to a more circular system” says Steve Langstaff, head of recycling at Innovia Films.