Nowadays, the plastic packaging industry is facing new challenges due to the increased global focus on the recyclability and sustainability targets in each product value chain, new materials (paper and cardboard packaging for example), and new formulations coming into the market. Indeed, product design is one of the key tools to improve packaging recycling, with these design improvements cutting in half the cost and the time of recycling plastic packaging waste.

Over the last 20 years, plastics food packaging has undergone several transformations to better preserve quality and extend the lifecycle of foods, but also to optimize production cost achieved through both the use of new polymer materials and from the optimization of the existing ones. These new and old polymer materials and additives have been combined to obtain complex multi-layered structures (which may have 10-15 layers or more, with an overall thickness ranging from few tens, up to several hundreds of microns), with the goal to improve the packaging properties and functionalities such as chemical barriers, mechanical/heat resistance, avoid bacteria contamination, etc. 

Today, as mentioned, the new circular economy strategy is changing the main drivers for the packaging companies, now with the main goal being to design packaging that is recyclable, reusable or compostable and biodegradable.

Below are challenges to be addressed:

• R&D departments will face:

  • Sustainability challenges with the identification and implementation of recycled plastics
  • New materials formulation to combine sustainability and performance of multilayered structures and to develop new compostable and biodegradable packaging
  • Production support to quickly analyze failures and defects to avoid production delay
  • Safety concerns on the selection of new material by conducting quick migration
     

• QC labs will face:

  • Identification of complex multilayered structures and new formulations
  • Daily support with raw materials and final product testing
  • Production support to quickly analyze failures and defects

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Raman microscopy: The perfect tool for analyzing multilayered structure

Raman microscopy, considering its capability to reach spatial resolution down to 1 micron and below, is the perfect tool to analyze complex packaging structures where layer thickness can be less than 1 micron, and it can address all the new challenges of the packaging industry. Some of its advantages are:

• High spatial resolution, key to analyzing multilayered structures where adhesives and coatings are less than 1 μm thick
• Easy to use with little to no sample preparation needed, and no need for cryogenic microtomes or liquid nitrogen
• Confocal analysis with 3D imaging which helps identify inclusions, defects, components distribution and layers thickness when sample cannot be cut
• Detailed structural and orientation information, and insight into the crystalline/amorphous nature of recycled polymers, which is very important
• Helps in migration studies
• Easy characterization of inorganic additives and cellulose-based materials

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