Thanks to the company’s new coatings technology EvCote Water Barrier 3000 – which itself is made from plant-based oils and recycled PET bottles – restaurants can now select a more sustainable paper cup to serve their cold drinks in. These cups don’t require any modification in the current recycle stream or special handling and are fully compostable and recyclable.
Roughly 200 billion paper cups are used around the world every year, but none of those currently in use can be recycled without incurring prohibitive costs or greatly diminishing the quality of the paper fiber. When paper coated with EvCote is recycled, the quality of the paper fiber remains intact – which means the paper can be reused in the production of other paper products. In some cases, due to the fibers being strengthened by the coating, paper produced from the waste can even achieve higher strength than the original, uncoated paper.
An additional advantage is that it enables paper mills to recapture 100 percent of the paper waste from the production process that is currently sent to landfill, resulting in significant financial savings. The amount of paper waste in the production process is so vast that it could be used to completely wrap the Empire State Building 6,300 times.
Made of up to 95 percent sustainable or renewable content, EvCote barrier coatings protect paper surfaces against water, grease and moisture. They can be used in numerous applications, including corrugated packaging, folding carton board, beverage carrier board and food service packaging.
The development of new innovations such as the EvCote barrier forms part of AkzoNobel’s Planet Possible approach to sustainability and will contribute to the company’s Human Cities initiative to create cleaner and more liveable cities.
