Visit to a papermill

We are all increasingly encountering paper packaging in our everyday lives, a change that we very much welcome in terms of sustainability. However, replacing plastic packaging with paper products also raises new questions about barrier coatings for paper to ensure barrier properties, which vary greatly depending on the application. Recycling is also an elementary component of the design of a sustainable product. If the coating makes the recycling process more difficult or impossible, the benefits of a sustainable paper product are quickly lost.

Last week, we visited the Steinbeis paper mill to gain a better understanding of our customers’ requirements with regard to coating compounds and substrates in the recycling economy and to provide our customers with the best possible advice. Steinbeis Papier GmbH was honoured with the German Sustainability Award 2024 for its actions in recycling the valuable cellulose raw material and opened its doors to us to learn about the production process from the recycling of waste paper to the production of new copy paper and to receive a lot of valuable information directly from the source. We found the separate recycling stream for Releaseliner, which Steinbeis has developed to meet the specific requirements of recycling, particularly exciting.

In the photos you can gather a few impressions of how old paper is turned into new paper. We would like to thank Steinbeis Papier GmbH for the invitation and are delighted that they have accepted our return invitation and that we will soon be able to welcome them to our company.