In recent years, packaging inks have been the fastest growing segment in the ink industry, driven by the growth in packaging as well as new innovative approaches in the food market. To meet the needs of packaging printers and their customers, the brand owners, ink companies are developing sustainable solutions that meet the evolving requirements of consumers.

Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, packaging held its own, as people had to stay at home to eat, though not surprisingly, food packaging for restaurants suffered as a result. Meanwhile, other packaging categories flourished, such as DIY and entertainment products.

At the end of the day, packaging printing has proven to be recession-proof, and in fact, grows when people need to remain at home.

Ink industry leaders noted that the packaging industry has rebounded in 2021, and see good things ahead for 2022 and beyond.

Dr. Nicolas Wiedmann, Siegwerk’s CEO, reported that generally, the demand for packaging and packaging inks stabilized throughout 2021, finally coming back to pre-COVID levels.

“The paper packaging ink business especially made a strong comeback in 2021 after a severe collapse in demand in 2020 due to a plunging demand in paper packaging as a result of lockdowns, restaurant closures and event cancellations,” said Dr. Wiedmann.

“The plastic packaging market in turn has been more resilient to COVID,” Dr. Wiedmann added. “Like other industries, the major challenge in 2021 for the packaging and packaging ink industries was the low raw material availability and increasing raw material and energy prices. Looking at 2022, it is expected that these issues will still remain a key challenge for the next couple of months.”

Tony Renzi, VP, product management packaging inks at Sun Chemical, noted that throughout the year, the packaging ink market dealt with a variety of complex challenges.

“From rises in raw material costs to supply chain stoppages and increased freight costs, the industry saw a limited supply and struggled to find carriers to move products,” Renzi observed. “Though growth in the packaging ink market was flat to negative due to shortages in print materials such as films and solvents, market demand was resilient in 2021 without typical seasonal impacts. As a global supplier of sustainable packaging inks, Sun Chemical is well positioned to meet this market demand with products that also meet the needs of the market.”

Shane Bertsch, VP of strategic planning and innovation for INX International Ink Co., said that INX is seeing significant interest in increased renewable content or products designed specifically to enhance a packaging components’ value, along with its most likely recycling process path.

“Today’s customers expect high quality products and a continuity of supply,” Bertsch added. “There is a focus on printing ink products that do not interfere with the recycling stream, and an increased focus on responsibly-sourced, renewable raw materials. Our commitment to sustainability guides the way we develop, manufacture and distribute products. We support a Circular Economy and focus on three areas of impact: product design for the environment, process design for the environment, and social responsibility. These are outlined in our CSSF model - Coloring a Safe and Sustainable Future - and it drives our sustainability performance while addressing the needs of brand owners, customers and consumers.”

Dr. Lutz Frischmann, global product director flexible packaging for hubergroup, reported that overall, the flexible packaging sector recorded a slight growth within the past year, while Josef Sutter, product management sheetfed/UV offset Europe for hubergroup, noted that hubergroup is still seeing a slight increase in folding carton packaging.

“However, the market remains under great pressure due to heavily increased prices and the continued constraints in the availability of raw materials,” Dr. Frischmann said. “We expect the market to continue to grow in the coming years.

“We see that there is a trend from foil- to paper-based packaging driven by sustainability as paper packaging shows better recyclability,” Dr. Frischmann observed. “When it comes to foil-based packaging, we can see an increasing interest in mono-material packaging which can also be recycled more easily.”

Rajesh Srivastava, SVP, UFlex Chemicals Business, noted that since the global COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, the demand for flexible packaging and packaging films has witnessed a
huge uptake.

“Considering the impact, industry experts believed that the recovery in packaging inks business would be slow and sluggish, therefore, many industry majors in the chemical sector went for a planned shutdown, while some faced force majeure,” Srivastava observed. “However as the economies are seeing green shoots of recovery, the market is witnessing an unprecedented increase in demand.”

However, Srivastava noted that the sudden surge in demand has led to a significant imbalance in the demand- supply scenario. 

“The packaging and packaging ink market saw raw material and logistic challenges,” added Srivastava. “In 2021, the printing ink sector confronted several challenges; however despite all the bottlenecks, UFlex Chemicals has been able to maintain a healthy growth and also introduced new innovative solutions as LED and water-based inks which are more sustainable and energy efficient products.”

Joe Kubasiak, director, flexible packaging for Wikoff Color, said that despite the obvious challenges with raw materials and logistics in 2021, the packaging market continues to grow.

“Wikoff experienced sustained growth in packaging inks for 2021, in both the flexible packaging and label segments,” Kubasiak added.

“We have seen a lot of activity surrounding flexible packaging’s ease of recycling,” added Kubasiak. “There are opportunities for infrastructure initiatives, similar to the paperboard industry to make ensure that films are being recycled appropriately. Another alternative is plasma gasification, which creates syngas from plastic materials that can be used as a clean fuel source.”

Sustainability and Packaging Inks

Without a doubt, sustainability is of great interest in packaging, and ink companies are expected to offer solutions as their customers emphasize the Circular Economy and Cradle-to-Cradle production.

“For many of our customers, sustainability is more and more a decisive argument when choosing inks and varnishes,” Dr. Frischmann said. “Thus, designing sustainable, recyclable packaging solutions is a major topic in discussions with our customers and one of the main drivers in our product development.”

Srivastava said that UFlex Chemicals proactively keeps its customers informed about sustainable offerings.

“Sustainability is no longer just a matter of complying with regulatory norms, as customers, consumers and investors also have now joined the chorus of concern and are demanding for more sustainable and eco-friendly options,” Srivastava added. “We are keeping track of the changing trends and have already deployed a sustainability driven strategy focusing more on greener chemistry.

“Water-based inks and LED inks are praised as a green solution, and are comparatively more sustainable and eco-friendly than other conventional inks used in the printing industry,” Srivastava said. “Different printing applications are successfully using water-based printing inks. Improvements in ease of use and performance have played a critical role in increasing the market share of water-based inks.”

Dr. Wiedmann said that Siegwerk sees a strong trend towards sustainable packaging and correspondingly sustainable inks and coatings.

“The demand for sustainable solutions especially aligned with the requirements of a Circular Economy has further increased in 2021, making it to one of the key drivers and top challenges in the ink and printing industries going forward,” said Dr. Wiedmann.

“Fitting within the Circular Economy and other reuse, respectively recycling approaches, will remain the key drivers for future packaging,” Dr. Wiedmann added. “This includes the development of packaging designed for reuse, recycling, and composting while switching to renewable sources. Here, the printing ink industry is one of the key contributors to overcome this challenge and is already working on the development of economically viable solutions that would enhance the circularity of packaging.

“As one of the leading packaging ink and coatings providers, we strongly believe that the Circular Economy will be one of the most important success factors for our society in the future and thus also for our business as well as for that of our customers,” said Dr. Wiedmann. “And we are strongly committed to drive packaging circularity by enabling our customers to create more sustainable packaging solutions fueling the change towards a circular packaging industry. For this, we not only support our customers in developing circular packaging and bringing it to the market, but also in achieving their individual sustainability and net-zero/net-positive emission targets.”

“Sustainability has become an almost daily topic of discussion with customers, especially in the packaging market,” Kubasiak said. “This will certainly be a key issue for the foreseeable future as both brand owner expectations and consumer demand drive the industry forward.”

Dr. Nikola Juhasz, global technical director of sustainability, Sun Chemical, said that sustainability is, simply put, the topic of discussion with customers.

“Most discussions occur in one of two ways. Either customers bring us their clearly defined strategy to inquire about products that meet those requirements or they’re looking to us to help them craft their sustainability strategy,” Dr. Juhasz added. “As a global leader in developing sustainable inks, Sun Chemical is well-positioned to support either discussion. For over a decade, Sun Chemical has helped our converter customers deliver sustainable product offerings to their brand owners, and we’re continuing to invest heavily to drive innovation.”

Recyclability and Compostability

Along those lines, the issues of recyclability and compostability are intricately tied to sustainability.

“We develop innovative inks and coatings that address the needs of circular packaging solutions,” said Dr. Wiedmann. “We have already evolved a variety of customized solutions to increase the recyclability of printed packaging. We offer, for example, solutions with a high bio-renewable content that support the ambition of fully bio-renewable packaging like NC, UV or water-based inks with up to 80% renewable content and even barrier coatings with maximized renewable content.

“We also offer ink series that fulfill the guideline of EN 13432 as well as OK Compost Home, meaning they are not interfering with compostability of paper or plastic packaging,” Dr. Wiedmann added. “But in general, we only support compostable packaging with inks and OPVs where appropriate. Besides, we offer solutions that enable transforming paper into a recyclable high-function packaging option. Here, we for example talk about easy to de-ink formulations, even for UV-/LED-offset, significantly facilitating the recycling of printed paper packaging,”

Dr. Wiedmann observed that recyclable barrier coatings can also equip paper packaging with highest functionality without impacting the paper recycling stream and thereby enabling the replacement of multi-material plastic packaging.

“The right inks and coatings can also make recyclable mono-plastic packaging a reality: Adhesive coatings can support the easy disassembly of modular packaging structures and ink systems for lamination and surface print substantially supports the switch to recyclable mono-plastic packaging,” Dr. Wiedmann said. “Furthermore, we offer for example UV-offset inks certified as Cradle2Cradle Material Health Gold as well as an APR accredited alkali strippable primer for UV printed PET shrink sleeves that significantly facilitates the recycling of PET bottles. Further developments enable an improved deinkability and therefore explicitly drive de-inking as a standard in the recycling process of plastic packaging. All in all, the opportunities are manifold, and our development record of circular solutions is already strong and will become even stronger in the future.”

“The circularity of our products is at the center of our development activities,” said Sutter. “We, therefore, have a broad range of highly recyclable inks and varnishes and developed deinking solutions, when direct recycling is not possible. The Cradle to Cradle certifications of our products validate that our inks do not pose a risk to the environment.”

“We have, for example, been closely investigating the role of liquid inks in the mechanical recycling process in a project called PrintCYC,” Dr. Frischmann said. “Current criteria for recyclability of printed packaging only refer to inks in quite a general way without reflecting their chemical nature. In our research, we found that polyurethane-based inks such as our Gecko Platinum lead to a much better recyclate quality than nitrocellulose inks, which had been a standard for flexible packaging for many years. Moreover, we have dealt with the issue of compostability and, thus, offer a wide range of compostable solvent- and water-based inks.”

Renee Schouten, director of marketing for INX, said that delivering innovative, safe and sustainable solutions that enhance the customer experience is INX’s top priority.

“We want consumers, brand owners, and customers to feel confident in their product choices. That’s why we develop our products to have minimal impact on the environment without sacrificing machine, processing, and end-use product performance,” Schouten said.

“To assure minimal impact, we strive to use renewable, natural-based raw materials from ethical and sustainably managed sources,” added Schouten. “Our product development efforts focus on material health and safety, product functionality for environmental impact, and consumer safety in mind with recycle-ready products. We formulate each product to be easily applied by our customers to increase efficiencies that result in using the least amount of product, thereby increasing production with high quality results.”

Developing Sustainable Packaging Inks

Packaging ink manufacturers are working closely with customers to develop inks that meet their sustainability needs. Schouten noted that INX assists brand owners and customers in making products easier to recycle and promoting the development of circular economies.

“This includes improving several functional barriers,” added Schouten. “It enables the use of mono material structures, the use of color fast washable inks that are easily removed in the recycling process, sustainably sourced natural based inks, and inks and coatings that are designed to be highly robust for multiple re-use and returnable applications.

“For example,” added Schouten, “Genesis GS is a sustainable, gravure solvent ink that is de-inkable from shrinkable cPET films and floatable with roll-fed OPP labels in the recycling process. Genesis is recognized by the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) for meeting or exceeding the group’s strict testing protocol for washable and recyclable PET shrink sleeve applications.”

“As we take a holistic view of sustainability, we already set high environmental standards in raw material production, which is possible as the majority of raw materials comes from our own Chemicals Division,” Sutter said. “When developing our printing inks and varnishes, we pay special attention to the choice of sustainable raw materials and the recyclability of the end products. To investigate and improve the environmental impact of our products, we partner with the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovations Institute.”

“We aim at enabling a circular economy – thus, recyclability is the decisive element in flexible packaging,” Dr. Frischmann said. “Thereby, the Cradle to Cradle Certified Products Program is exactly the right approach for us, as it is very comprehensive and rigorous. We offer printing inks with full Cradle to Cradle certification for water-based and solvent-based flexo and gravure printing as well as for offset printing. This means that all these inks are designed for a circular economy and also produced in a sustainable manner.

“In addition, we are working intensively on the development of sustainable barrier varnishes, which aim at replacing plastic with paper or encourage mono-material packaging that can be recycled more easily,” Dr. Frischmann added. “This makes us one of the companies with the broadest portfolio of sustainable printing inks and varnishes.”

Kubasiak noted that it is standard practice for Wikoff Color’s R&D specialists to use the maximum amount of plant-derived, renewable raw materials and the minimum amount of volatile organic compounds, while still meeting customer requirements to formulate new products.

“Additionally, our waste inks that are not water-based are often used as fuel, and wastewater-based products can be disposed of in a standard wastewater treatment facility,” Kubasiak said. “Also, our Gelflex line of EB curable flexible packaging inks are formulated for thinner ink films, reduced energy consumption to cure, and aid in creating packaging that can be easily recycled.”

Dr. Juhasz said that at Sun Chemical, the sustainable characteristics of products are viewed in two ways.

“First is how the products are formulated,” Dr. Juhasz noted. “This includes using more renewable raw materials to replace conventional petroleum-derived materials, which reduces the inherent carbon footprint of those products, as well as incorporating post-consumer recycled materials to support the circular economy.

“Second is the applications of the materials we supply to the market,” Dr. Juhasz added. “For example, the SolvaWash FL series of inks is washable from PET bottle labels and from various flexible films and rigid substrates to enable more recyclable, sustainable packaging. Sun Chemical also has many products, such as the SunVisto AquaGreen water-based inks and SYSCS011 ValloCoat Matte HR Comp coating and RESR736 Vallolube Gloss Comp cold seal release lacquer that are certified TÜV OK Compost and/or compostable to enable compostable paper and film packaging.”

Dr. Juhasz also noted that Sun Chemical offers multi-purpose technologies that support waste reduction at converter facilities through simplified inventories and fewer start-ups and transitions.

Dr. Wiedmann said that the development of eco-friendly and circular packaging inks and coatings is at the center of Siegwerk’s innovation efforts.

“Our goal is to concretely support customers with customized solutions to redesign packaging in terms of the three key levers of a Circular Economy: reduce, reuse, and recycle,” he added. “For this, we enhance formulations for example with higher renewable content or other eco-friendly components to provide an environmentally friendly alternative to conventional inks but always with the focus on not affecting the packaging’s functionality nor its recyclability.

“We develop for example ink solutions with enhanced deinking properties to further facilitate the recycling as well as barrier coatings that are able to replace conventional plastic barriers, enabling the reduction of used layers and materials fostering the redesign from multi- to mono-material packaging,” Dr. Wiedman added. “Our track record in customer-specific ink and coatings development projects for circular packaging solutions is already strong today: We offer solutions that amongst others increase recyclability, enable decarbonization, and support packaging based on renewable materials, always adjusted to the customer-specific packaging and end-use requirements. One of our goals by 2025 is that 75% of all products or services sold enable reusable, renewable or recyclable packaging.”