Kotkamills extends plastic-free consumer board range to ice cream packaging
Easily recyclable ISLA Ice and ISLA Cream barrier boards are suited for take-away and retail ice cream cups, bowls, and containers. ISLA Ice and ISLA Cream are a combination of products that developed in parallel to work together as raw materials for ice cream packaging.
Ice cream packaging has commonly relied on solutions based on plastics and plastic coatings. Kotkamills’ ISLA Ice functions as a sidewall material with a printing surface. ISLA Cream is designed to function together as a high-performing material for the bottom of the container. The combination of the two paperboards provides the high hygienic food safety and required resistance against grease and the moisture of ice cream.
“In addition to our earlier launched plastic-free barrier products, such as ISLA Duo for hot beverages, there has been high interest among our customers for plastic-free ice cream-specific paperboard solutions. We have seen the expansion to this direction as a natural continuation in our R&D work. Now, with this new product combination, we offer value to our customers both in terms of sustainability, especially with recycling and circularity possibilities, as well as by enabling excellent brand visibility with the top-class printing properties of the cup and container surfaces,” said Päivi Suutari, VP RDI at Kotkamills.
Both ISLA Ice and ISLA Cream are fully recyclable and repulpable solutions and are available also as PEFC or FSC certified, upon request.
"As our new ice cream cupstock materials are entirely repulpable, their fibers are easy to reuse up to six times when recycled properly. Therefore, the cups function as tools for the brands to show that they care about the environment," said Ari Tanninen, senior vice president, consumer boards.
“In conjunction with global trends and legislative initiatives, the numerous branches and packaging industries are turning their focus to material solutions replacing plastics. As the recyclable and repulpable water-based dispersion barrier products are gaining evermore interest as a sustainable alternative, the variety of end use applications is also expanding and we wish to be active in product development. Ice cream packaging and the new combination of ISLA Ice and ISLA Cream is a perfect example of this path,” said Kotkamills’ CEO Markku Hämäläinen.
