Drawing on Trinseo’s deep expertise in paper coatings and packaging technologies, Welsch highlights how material innovation can help producers meet performance demands while aligning with emerging recyclability requirements.
The full article can be found below:
Recyclable and Repulpable Materials: The Future of Paper-Based Packaging
The paper industry is experiencing accelerated change, driven by market demand. As the need for traditional graphic paper has declined over the past decade, despite a modest rebound in 2024, mills are increasingly focused on repurposing existing assets for higher-value packaging applications. At the same time, expectations for packaging materials are rising: producers must deliver higher performance, meet more stringent recyclability or repulpability requirements, as defined by regional and application-specific frameworks, and do so within the constraints of existing infrastructure. Addressing these converging expectations requires a fresh approach, one that combines material innovation with practical, production-ready solutions.
Why Recyclability Matters Now
Recyclability is no longer optional; it's a regulatory and market imperative: Under the proposed European Union Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), packaging placed on the EU market will be required to meet defined recyclability criteria by 2030. Under California's SB 54, producers must ensure that all single‑use packaging sold in the state is recyclable or compostable by 2032. These directives require packaging components to be compatible with established recycling systems, including fiber recovery processes used in many mills worldwide. Industry-recognized testing and verification protocols help assess whether materials can be processed effectively without contamination or extensive additional processing.
For mills handling post-consumer or post-industrial packaging materials (e.g., cartons or coated substrates), the ability of packaging substrates to be repulped efficiently is critical. Fibers that don’t separate efficiently slow production, increase waste, and negatively affect equipment performance, ultimately impacting product consistency and reliability.
The Technical Challenge: Coatings That Enable Recycling
A significant share of today's packaging relies on multilayer constructions, combinations of paper, plastic, and aluminum, that are not easy to process in typical recycling systems because the layers cannot be easily separated. This is accelerating interest in simplified cellulose-based structures, in which the fiber provides the foundation and performance attributes are delivered through thin functional coatings rather than full plastic films or laminates.
Water-Based Barrier Coatings: A Game Changer
Water-based barrier coatings play an important role in enabling this transition. Because they can be applied in very thin layers relative to films, they use far less material while still delivering the protection required for applications such as food and consumer goods packaging. Equally important, when properly formulated and validated, these coatings can support the development of packaging that is designed to be both recyclable and repulpable in fiber-based recovery systems, something that is often difficult and not cost-effective with multi-material laminates in today's systems. These coatings also help enable clean fiber separation and reduce contamination during processing when used within the appropriate recycling streams.
How Trinseo Supports the Transition
At Trinseo, we are experienced in helping our customers to evaluate and implement paper-based coating solutions that align with evolving recyclability and repulpability requirements. A key advantage we offer is the ability to replicate production environments at our lab and pilot coater facilities in Midland, Michigan (United States); Rheinmünster, Germany; and Shanghai, China. These capabilities allow customers to access coating materials and structures, optimize process variables, and identify the right binder systems without modifying commercial equipment or interrupting ongoing operations. This approach helps reduce risk and supports mills working to adapt assets quickly while maintaining operational efficiency.
While we support our customers' needs today, we are also exploring how future regulatory and market requirements may influence the development of next-generation materials. Through our collaboration with partners like RWDC Industries, a biotechnology company that produces bio-based materials, we are developing polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) dispersion products and other platforms intended to support the development of compostable or biodegradable formats, subject to validation under applicable standards and end-of-life systems.
Looking Ahead
By combining extensive equipment know-how with cutting-edge materials innovation, Trinseo helps mills navigate today’s recycling demands while preparing for the packaging challenges of tomorrow. Conducting trials in controlled environments before full-scale implementation helps reduce production disruption, accelerates learning and development, and supports producers through both immediate and long-term industry shifts.
Our goal is to provide producers with practical, reliable pathways as the industry continues to evolve toward packaging solutions that align with emerging fiber-recovery and recyclability requirements.
