Unknown to many consumers, much household paper and cardboard packaging incorporates a thin plastic coating, which adds durability but ensures it heads straight to landfill, instead of being recycled. UK and EU regulations are increasingly restricting the use of single-use plastics – including this packaging made partly from plastic. As a result, companies are keen to embrace recyclable or biodegradable alternatives. From global packaging manufacturers to local takeaway restaurants alike, businesses are on the lookout for materials with the functionality of plastics but without the environmental harm.
Xampla’s Morro™ line of coatings – already used by organisations such as Just Eat Takeaway.com – uses natural polymers derived from plants. These provide grease and water-resistance, but are also biodegradable, home compostable, and compatible with recycling infrastructure – and critically, are designed to be plastic-free.
However, there is currently no universally accepted method for verifying that a material is plastic-free. The REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) EU regulation defines plastics as polymers to which additives or other substances have been added, and specifically says that natural polymers that have not been chemically modified do not count as plastics.
Xampla wanted to demonstrate to their customers that their natural polymers are not chemically modified, proving that their coatings are plastic-free and as such that they are in line with packaging regulations.
Xampla approached NPL, via the Measurement for Business (M4B) programme, to help demonstrate that there was no difference between the natural polymer and their plant-derived coating, and to validate that no additional chemical bonds were added during their production process.
NPL deployed a suite of spectroscopy methods – which analyse how molecules absorb or scatter light - to create a ‘chemical signature’ for the polymers before and after they were manufactured into a coating. These signatures were then correlated with physical and topography signatures provided by high-resolution microscopy.
The comparison showed there were no meaningful differences between the samples and no appreciable chemical changes, regardless of the manufacturing process used. Xampla’s products were therefore proved to be natural polymers and not plastics.
Based on the analysis provided by NPL, Xampla can now prove that its Morro™ materials are plastic-free and suitable for single-use packaging, enabling their customers to meet tightening regulations and sustainability goals.
It’s a breakthrough that opens the door to a high-value market: the market for functional and barrier coatings for paper and board materials is expected to reach around 4.25 million tonnes, worth nearly $11 billion, by 2028, according to a report by Smithers¹. Xampla estimates its plastic-free coatings are relevant to around a quarter of the market, presenting a significant opportunity. The validation from NPL has already helped Xampla secure new contracts with customers.
“Given the rapid pace of regulatory change, packaging companies desperately need credible assurance about any plastic-free product they buy,” says Dr Marc Rodriguez Garcia, Co-Founder and CTO of Xampla. Both Dr. Rodriguez Garcia and Prof Max Ryadnov, who oversaw the project for NPL, believe this work also has much wider importance for the fast-growing sustainable materials industry.
“We recognise that we can’t serve the entire market,” says Dr Rodriguez Garcia. “So we hope this approach – the first of its kind as far as we know – can now be replicated by others to support plastic-free innovation more broadly.”
“Eventually, this work could lead to the development of standards to support plastic-free materials and processes used to manufacture them,” adds Ryadnov. “Such standards will provide manufacturers and regulators with clear and internationally recognised benchmarks against which plastic-free claims can be verified, promoting the sustainable materials industry.”
¹ https://www.smithers.com/en-gb/services/market-reports/paper/functional-barrier-coatings-for-paper-board-2028
This work with NPL conclusively proves that our product is plastic-free at a chemical level – and so meets existing regulations. Having the data from world-leading independent measurement scientists lets us alleviate doubts of even the most cautious customers.
Dr Marc Rodriguez Garcia, Co-Founder and CTO - Xampla