Issue 02/2019

Applications
Arla’s
wood-based
beverage
cartons
Arla (Söderkulla, Finland) wants to provide consumers
with new opportunities to choose more responsible
products. This year, Arla has been the first company
in Finland to use renewable wood-based bioplastics in
gable top paperboard cartons for milk, yoghurt and cooking
products.The tall oil-based raw material is a Finnish
innovation by UPM.
As a result of the revamp, more than 40 million Arla
packages will become more environmentally-friendly in
2019 to reflect consumers’ wishes.
Bioplastic is well suited to dairy product packaging as it
has the same technical characteristics as the conventional
plastic used in cartons. Like the old material, the new
packaging can be recycled with cardboard.
“When we have a liquid product such as milk, a thin plastic
film is needed inside the carton for reasons of product
safety and shelf life. In our new packaging, the source of
plastic is now even more responsible because it is made of
wood-based raw material,” says Arla’s Brand & Category
Manager, Sanna Heikfolk.
Wood-based bioplastic reduces carbon footprint
UPM’s Lappeenranta (Finland) biorefinery utilises tall
oil that is a residue of pulp production in the raw material
for the new bioplastic cartons. The packaging is made by
Elopak (headquartered in Oslo, Norway), and the Dow
Chemical Company (headquarters in Midland, Michigan,
USA) is also involved in the collaboration. The use of woodbased
bioplastics in Arla’s gable top cartons reduces the
need for fossil-based plastics by 180,000 kilogrammes per
year while also reducing the packaging’s carbon footprint
by about a fifth.
Launching more environmentally-friendly packaging in
the food industry and for consumers has been a shared
goal of Arla, Elopak and UPM. Arla and Elopak have been
working together in this field since 2014, and now was the
time to take the next step in the packaging development
process.
“A conventional milk carton is usually about 85 %
paperboard. We wanted to launch a type of packaging that
would be 100 % wood-based and in which the plastic would
also be wood based,” says Elopak’s Managing Director,
Juha Oksanen.
Finnish innovation from forest to table
With Arla’s new packaging, UPM’s excellent woodbased
innovation, UPM BioVerno naphtha, can be used in
bioplastics for paperboard packaging. UPM’s innovation
has the Key Flag Symbol to prove its Finnish origin.
“We are very pleased to be working with a pioneer such as
Arla, with whom we can further reduce the carbon footprint
of paperboard packaging for liquids using our renewable
raw material, and this applies to the whole chain, up to the
consumer. Also, by using wood-based raw materials we are
not competing for raw materials with the food production
industry, because tall oil is a residue of pulp production,”
says Sari Mannonen, Vice President at UPM Biofuels.
Mass balance approach
The Polyethylene used by Elopak for the Arla gable top
paperboard cartons is only one biobased plastic product
that can be made with UPM BioVerno naphtha. This
biobased naphtha can be also used for production of other
types of plastics such as polypropylene depending on the
customer need.
The application example in this article, as well as other
cases published so far with Dow, Elopak and later with Arla
“are all based on a mass balance approach,” as Maiju Helin,
Senior Manager, Sustainability and Market Development of
UPM told bioplastics MAGAZINE. “All naphtha used in polymer
industry cannot yet be replaced by biobased alternatives
due to limited supply. Therefore, mass balancing is needed
to allow gradual transition from fossil to bioeconomy.” she
added.
A plastic product produced based on mass balance system
means that the physical renewable content in product may
be low, but a similar amount of renewable and sustainable
feedstock has been used in the production. Each tonne of
renewable naphtha replaces one tonne of fossil naphtha
saving fossil resources and emissions.
“In the polymer industry, intermediate products such as
naphtha are supplied in bulk and all feedstock streams are
mixed during the cracking process. Mass balance makes
it possible to bring the benefits of sustainable renewable
feedstock to end users. Simultaneously the known and safe
physical properties of the end product are maintained,” as
Maiju explained. MT
www.arla.com | www.upmbiofuels.com
bioplastics MAGAZINE [02/19] Vol. 14 33