Technological watch

StreamOne R Retortable Recycle-Ready Polyester from PAXXUS has been recognized in the Flexible Packaging Association’s annual competition with several awards: a gold award in sustainability, a gold award in technical innovation, and a silver award in packaging excellence.

“Receiving multiple FPA awards for StreamOne R is the ultimate validation of PAXXUS’s long-term commitment toward developing leading edge technology for the evolving circular economy,” Dwane Hahn, vice president of sales and marketing for PAXXUS, told MD+DI.

Originally designed for a food application that required ultra-high barriers to maintain taste quality and shelf-life requirements, StreamOne R is also proposed for use in medical kits and drug-delivery systems.

The all-polyester StreamOne R was developed for applications requiring retort or autoclave sterilization. In its submission to FPA, PAXXUS explained that singe-stream options have been limited for high-barrier packaging that must undergo high-temperature processing. “Historically, a polypropylene paired with a high-barrier oriented polypropylene (oPP) has been the only choice. Unfortunately, the barrier offered by high-barrier oPP is significantly degraded upon retort or autoclave sterilization,” according to the company.

PAXXUS explained that StreamOne R is the first all-polyester packaging solution that provides an ultra-high barrier and hermetic seals even after exposure to retort/autoclave cycles, the company reported. After sterilization, it has a barrier of 0.01 cc/100 in.2 day atm and moisture barrier of 0.02 g/100 in.2 day.

In addition to being presented as an alternative to oPP, StreamOne R is also suggested as an alternative for aluminum foil structures for applications requiring protection from moisture and/or oxygen. “Aluminum foil is a very energy intensive material to manufacture,” the company explained in its submission. “The production of aluminum alone consumes approximately 54 MJ/kg. The energy savings by eliminating the use of aluminum foil for the barrier layer ranges from an impressive 1.0 MJ/m2 for 0.00028 in. aluminum foil to 3.7 MJ/m2 for 0.001 in. aluminum foil.”

Another accomplishment of StreamOne R is its broad sealing window described by PAXXUS as “well below the melting point of oriented polyester yet significantly above the 120-130°C (250-266°F) retort/autoclave processing temperatures.” The result is a seal that will withstand under extreme retort/autoclave cycles.

Earning a gold award in sustainability, StreamOne R offers the chance to recycle an ultra-high barrier, retortable packaging material in a single-polymer (#1 polyester) recycling stream. According to the company submission, “the oxide barrier coating is only angstroms thick and therefore does not impede recyclability. Post-industrial waste can be easily recycled and packages made with StreamOne R are recycle-ready for the consumer-waste stream.”