Key Takeaways
• Companies are developing compostable, PFAS-free packaging solutions – like a new bio-based coating and paper combination from UPM Specialty Materials and Paramelt – to meet growing environmental regulations and demand for sustainable food packaging.
• The new material aims to match the grease resistance and performance of traditional PFAS-based packaging while being recyclable and home-compostable, addressing both regulatory pressures and industry needs.
As more and more states enact legislation limiting PFAS chemicals, which is commonly used in food packaging, scientists and printers are looking for greener alternatives.
UPM Specialty Materials, a company that specializes in developing renewable materials, and Paramelt, which makes waxes, adhesives and coatings for various uses, developed a new hybrid packaging concept that combines a heat-seal and barrier coating for grease resistance that is compostable and recyclable.
“Our collaboration with Paramelt enables us to offer a bio-based packaging concept with strong grease protection and proven performance on packaging lines,” Christiane Laine, senior researcher at UPM Innovation, told PlasticsToday. “Achieving this level of grease resistance at such low coat weights is highly challenging – even with fossil-based coatings – and this combined approach delivers exceptional performance.”
The material combines Paramelt’s Aquavate Bio SB 2383, which is a water-based coating using biodegradable components, and UPM’s specially engineered paper substrates for barrier coatings. The product is designed for customers in the food industry where grease resistance is vital in packaging.
“Aquavate Bio SB 2383 enables a practical shift toward recyclable, home-compostable, fiber-based solutions,” Léon Krings, business development manager for packaging coatings and adhesives for Paramelt, told Plastics Today.
The material will be on display at the Interpack 2026 conference in Düsseldorf, Germany, in May.
PFAS Phase-Out
The development of more environmentally friendly packaging, especially in food, has been partially in response to the announcement in 2024 that PFAS chemicals would no longer be used in food packaging in the U.S. This would include items like pizza boxes, fast-food wrappers and microwave popcorn bags. Distributors of single-serve food items like popcorn and similar offerings would benefit from a product like the one developed by Paramelt and UPM.
On the state level, states like California, New York and Maine have specifically enacted their own PFAS legislation due to the fact that the chemicals do not break down naturally. A packaging product that performs like those containing PFAS, but compostable at home, would be a welcome innovation in packaging.
“The packaging industry increasingly demands materials that unite high performance with true sustainability,” Paramelt said in a press release on its website. “Aquavate Bio technology provides high solids coating emulsions from a wide range of commercially available biodegradable polymers. These coatings can be tailored to deliver many of the functional requirements of the paper packaging sector such as grease resistance, hot-tack, heat sealing and barrier functionality, traditionally provided by fossil-based coatings and laminates.”
