At this year’s AMI Stretch and Shrink Film Event in New Orleans, LA, USA November 30 – December 1, 2022 Lantech presented load wrapping solutions (see study) for sustainability with a realistic approach for load wrapping with PCR and paper. Lantech also participated in a live panel discussion with key stakeholders in the industry around sustainable packaging and future trends for the stretch and shrink-packaging industry. Some key takeaways from the panel discussion included the implications of single-use plastic legislation in the U.S. and in Europe, the challenges and barriers of PCR content in stretch film, and ultimately the critical nature of communicating the environmental impact tradeoffs to major consumer brand owners and decision makers.

Key Points:

  • Global demand for palletization films sits at approximately 6.4 million metric tonnes (approximately 14.1 billion pounds), 81% of which is pallet stretch. We have the potential to reduce billions of pounds of plastic film in our segment.
  • Consumer packaged goods companies and retailers have committed to recycled content in plastic packaging.
  • Use of recycled material in the production of stretch film is very limited in the short term due to challenges with infrastructure, collection, sortation and reprocessing. There is simply not the infrastructure to collect, clean, and repelletize the required PCR.
  • Recycled content stretch films do not currently demonstrate the performance standard required to achieve less total virgin resin and lower carbon footprint per load. (1)
  • Federal and state legislation threatens to reap unintended consequences (negative impacts on carbon footprint and increased cost for consumers) for unitizing loads given the environmental impact tradeoffs of utilizing inefficient substitutes to virgin resin film.
  • If 30% PCR content film becomes the new norm, our world may produce more carbon emissions during production and transport and require more total virgin resin. (2)
  • The tradeoff is big (and growing) with pallet stretch wrap global demand increasing by about 4.5% each year since 2019. (3)

Better wrapper technology, ultra-grade high efficiency film, and a focus on operations at the end of line present a massive plastic and CO2 reduction opportunity— before turning to PCR as an alternative. Our customers can work to increase load wrapping efficiency and implement cleaner collection of used films to improve downstream supply of high-quality post-consumer recycled content.

Key message: “REDUCE” carbon footprint and total plastic waste with increased efficiency. Improve collection to “RECYCLE” downstream.

Lantech’s mission to improve load safety and reduce film per load by leveraging best in class wrapper technology is more important than ever. Lantech will continue to innovate our wrappers for best-in-class performance and partner with industry experts to achieve the lowest cost and environmental impact outcomes for our customers.

1. See full white paper for detailed performance evaluation of stretch wrap alternatives: lantech.com/film-alternatives-project

2. Greater total amount of virgin resin using PCR than would have been required using virgin resin alone.

3. As estimated by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2019 to 2024. Source AMI Consulting.