Mondi is investing in new facilities at three of its European production locations that it says will help meet growing demand for sustainable paper-based packaging solutions through its FunctionalBarrier Papers range.
The technology investments include a new extruder at Mondi Coating Štĕtí in the Czech Republic, housed in a new production building with an extrusion coater and a slitting machine. Production is expected to start in 2024.
Already underway is a rebuild of an existing coater at Mondi Jülich in Germany. It will include two new dispersion coating stations that can improve barrier properties by ensuring good coverage on the base paper, while a new coating kitchen will enable pre-coating of base paper and allow the expansion of Mondi’s offering to include more paper grades, including those containing recycled content.
Lastly, Mondi said it is to invest in optimising its Örebro production facility in Sweden – a move that it says will improve production of the FunctionalBarrier papers while also creating additional employment.
This range of barrier papers provides fibre-based packaging options that replace plastic film and laminate products in a range of FMCG markets and that can be recycled in existing paper waste streams across Europe. Mondi said the range is tailored made for industrial and ecommerce packaging applications, as well as personal care, frozen food and chocolate packaging.
