Paper and board are made from renewable resources and are low carbon footprint materials, therefore giving them an environmental advantage compared to other materials. However, in packaging applications, paper and board are nearly always used in combination with non renewable materials; e.g. barrier materials derived from oil based plastics or aluminium. To give the forest industry a competitive edge this Action will focus on packaging solutions based entirely on renewable resources in order to remove the serious disadvantages associated with future paper and board packaging solutions that continue to rely on non renewable materials. The Action will explore possibilities that the forest itself can offer as a raw material base for different components within a given package, thus exploring the full potential of the fibres. The Action is an opportunity and a strategic objective for the forest sector value chain and will reduce environmental impact thus making it of potentially great importance for contributing to European policy. To fully understand the benefits it is important to assess the solutions from a sustainability point-of-view taking account of the total packaging value chain. That is why the Action also addresses research in e.g. value chain efficiency, end-of-life and supply of raw material.
Renewable materials - fibre based packaging - sustainability - end-of life - environmental assessment
