Flexible Packaging paper receives Baden-Württemberg Environmental Technology Award 2023

“Sustainability is a basic guiding principle for the way the Koehler Group does business, a cornerstone of our company’s strategy, and therefore an integral part of our organization. It is an honor to be awarded this Environmental Technology Prize for our flexible packaging paper, but it is also our motivation to go further and develop even more innovative paper solutions for the future,” explained Frank Lendowski the meaning of the award for the company.

The “Koehler NexPlus® Advanced” packaging paper was created by a team of experts from both Koehler Innovation & Technology and Koehler Paper. The product expands the range of barrier papers available to businesses looking for suitable opportunities to replace plastic packaging with paper. “The base paper—which we developed in-house—has been designed to be as compatible as possible with existing packaging plants, in order to reduce the investment costs involved in switching to paper-based packaging. The functional coating provides barrier protection against acids, fats, and mineral oils, and is also sealable, using either a cold seal adhesive or a hot sealing system directly on the packaging machinery,” explained Dr. Markus Wildberger, Corporate Director for Technology at Koehler Innovation & Technology. Other advantages of this packaging paper include its excellent printing properties—vital for communicating product information to end consumers— its suitability for hot sealing, and its outstanding crease resistance. Moreover, the paper’s barrier properties remain intact even at the end of intensive packaging processes.

When it began using “Koehler NexPlus® Advanced” to package its “nucao fruits” and “nucao nuts” products at the end of 2022, chocolate start-up nucao became the first chocolate manufacturer on the market to use a primary packaging material made from 100% paper. Making this switch has enabled nucao to meet a key consumer demand for greater sustainability and to lead the way in the chocolate market with how it chooses to package its products. The primary packaging for most chocolate products currently on the market is made from aluminum foil laminated materials, the majority of which cannot be recycled. Studies clearly show that consumers perceive these laminated packaging materials to be bad for the environment and prefer the natural appearance and recyclability of paper packaging.