Westpak joins Miljøplast project

Westpak is involved in the Norwegian Miljøplast project which aims at reducing the amount of plastic waste in our environment. The project funds are used for purposes such as cleaning our Nordic Seas as well as educating children and young people about environmental issues. This goal can be best accomplished by increasing people’s awareness of the processing of plastics throughout the plastic product life cycle. Even though plastic goods are an irreplaceable part of today’s society, plastic has no place in nature.

Responsible food packaging – I’m Green and Greener Printing

Responsible packaging takes the entire food supply chain into account. The most important task of packaging is to protect a product to ensure that it is safe for consumers. Optimal packaging reduces food waste, consumes as little resources as possible, and can be utilized after use. To facilitate recycling, packaging can be manufactured of monomaterial. The carbon footprint of packaging can be reduced by using renewable raw materials. The packaging can be partly or nearly fully manufactured of renewable raw materials. Some of the fossil raw materials of the plastics used in the food industry is substituted with ethanol produced of sugarcane, resulting in a considerable reduction of the carbon footprint of the packaging. At Westpak, we wish to provide our customers with environmentally friendly solutions in addition to traditional ones. You can identify packaging manufactured of sugarcane from the international I’m Green™ logo.

The GreenerPrinting™ logo can be used in packaging printed using the responsible Expanded Gamut Printing (EGP) technology. This packaging has been printed with eco-efficiency in an EGP-certified printing company using a responsible printing process that results in lower environmental load compared to packaging printed using traditional methods. This involves printing increasingly high-quality and colour-saturated packaging with a smaller amount of ink. The new technology allows the printing company to reduce ink volume, consumption and waste, resulting in a more eco-efficient manufacturing process. This also allows reducing material waste and process washing. Westpak is also a certified partner for EGP technology.

 

The Miljøplast project originates from Norway, and Westpak is glad to be the first Finnish company involved in the project. For more information, see the project website: Miljøplast.no