Inline & offline digital printing primers certified for use with HP Indigo presses.
Water-based overprint coatings increase durability and enhance the look & feel of inkjet-printed materials.
High-performance primers for inkjet that improve print quality & ink adhesion on film & paper.
Advanced materials designed to enhance the performance and processing of agricultural products.
Recyclable water-based coatings that confer high barrier to paper-based packaging and wraps.
Enhancing composite performance through optimized fiber-polymer interface adhesion
Water-based sizing solutions designed to optimize interfacial adhesion in composites using carbon fiber.
2030 Goals
Michelman is committed to sustaining our planet by continually reducing our footprint and bringing planet-positive solutions to the marketplace.
Sustainable Packaging
Future proofing, problem solving, and above all, collaborating. Our people, our planet, shaping the circular economy of tomorrow.
Thinking Ahead
The packaging industry must adopt more sustainable practices to combat the significant and growing impact of packaging waste.
News (Tuesday, 1 October 2024)
Bassetti provides an in-depth exploration of carbon fiber sizing benefits, production methods, and applications.
News (Wednesday, 25 September 2024)
Topics will include multiple paths to recyclability, requirements for compostability, and new possibilities with bio-based coatings.
News (Thursday, 22 August 2024)
Assessed for our approach to the environment, labor & human rights, sustainability, & ethics, we improved our score vs. the previous year.
Our corporate values are a testimony of our highest priorities as individuals and as a company.
Collaborating with like-minded partners to move industries forward.
Michelman is a global company with offices in the Americas, Asia and Europe.
Located all over the world, Michelman distribution partners have the expertise to help you win.
A circular economy is one crucial element to tackling the climate crisis and other global challenges like dwindling biodiversity. Collective action is vital to create a world that minimizes waste, conserves resources, and safeguards the environment. Changes in behavior and attitudes towards sustainability are crucial as consumer choices promote positive change across industries. We have reached a tipping point where traditional approaches are no longer sustainable, and change is needed.
Whether designing for re-use, adapting to enable recycling, or reducing the amount of packaging required—even with fiber-based materials created from renewable sources—humanity must carefully manage the collection and processing of the planet's resources and limit the waste we create to reduce our impact.
Despite consumers’ perception of paper as a more sustainable option than plastic films, paper packaging comprised over 40% of packaging waste in the EU in 2020. By committing to recycle 76% of all paper consumed by 2030, the European paper value chain renewed its pledge to contribute to the EU’s transformation towards a new model of circular economy.1
In the US, 67.9% of paper was recycled in 2022—about 49.1 million tons—enough to fill rail cars stretching from New York to Los Angeles nearly 3 times.2
(1) Source: CEPI(2) Source: American Forest & Paper Association
Although consumer recyclability education and continued expansion of fiber-based recycling infrastructure are needed as well, in order to really optimize recycling rates, improved end-of-life options must be considered from the outset of the package design process. This approach prioritizes finding new ways to create sustainable, resilient, long-lasting value in the circular economy.
Paper and corrugate are highly renewable and recyclable materials, making them ideal choices for sustainable packaging. For these materials, recycling has a higher priority over composting in the Sustainability Pyramid and the Circular Economy because it allows their valuable fibers to be reclaimed for reuse. However, the remaining components of packaging that is primarily fiber-based have an impact on recyclability. Plastic film—like polyester (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PET), or others—when laminated to paper, creates many recycling issues for paper mills. Film decreases the capacity of a paper mill‘s pulper because it takes more time for the paper to repulp due to the plastic film protecting the fibers from water during the recycling process. Polymer coatings are now being used on paper to replace plastic film, providing functionality and improving recyclability with easier processing, less plastic waste, and less contamination.
Replacing rigid plastic films with water-based barrier coatings provides many advantages. Such coatings are easier to recycle, extremely thin so as not to appreciably alter the flexibility or weight of the base substrate, can provide specific functionality (oil & grease resistance, oxygen and moisture barriers, heat seal, etc.) and are easy to apply in paper production and conversion.
The selection of the right paper substrate will have a major role in determining the final barrier properties of the complete packaging structure. Follow these guidelines to assure the best possible outcome.
SmoothnessLook for grades with an extremely smooth, closed, water-resistant surface. This keeps the coating oriented on the surface where it provides the strongest barrier.
PorosityFavor papers with the lowest porosity possible. The higher the barrier requirement, the lower the porosity should be.
Basis WeightHigh fiber content in the paper will provide the physical strengths needed for both converting and end use. Stiffness and puncture strength are key.
FlexibilityEnsure the paper can be folded without damaging its surface. The combined flexibility of the paper and coating system is essential to preserving barrier properties.
Striving to transform the flexible food packaging industry, Michelman collaborated with a machine manufacturer and a substrate producer in our quest to drive greater circularity through design. Combining the expertise of Michelman, BOBST, and UPM Speciality Papers, a new innovative solution for the creation of high-barrier, fiber-based food packaging was developed. The result is oneBARRIER FibreCycle, created in response to increasing pressures from legislative bodies to move away from plastics. Certified 94% recyclable by PTS, this solution is compatible with existing paper recycling streams.
For this collaboration, BOBST provided the metallization process, and UPM provided the appropriate substrate. Michelman created a new coating system for paper packaging that can match the high barrier performance of current multi-material film laminations. The design of this coating system revolves around a next-generation multifunctional primer which enables metallization of the core substrate, imparts increased oxygen, mineral oil, and moisture vapor barriers, and increases resistance to oil and grease. Effective at low coat weights, it can be applied on standard form, fill, and seal equipment.
News (Tuesday, 7 June 2022)
oneBARRIER FibreCycle is a high barrier solution for paper-based flexible packaging that can be recycled via established streams.
Circular design and collaboration are key to drive a shift from linear, single-use products to circular, fully recyclable alternatives. This example demonstrates that creating a world which minimizes waste, conserves resources, and protects the environment is entirely attainable. This can be achieved when consumers, governments, NGOs, brands, and value chain members work together to put sustainability first.