The manufacturer claim their product is a ground-breaking new sustainable alternative to plastics in packaging. They point to its sustainable properties being fully recyclable, compostable, marine degradable and made from renewable raw materials.
Sylvicta is FSC and PEFC-certified, produced on a site that's ISO 14001-compliant, and is carbon-offset through the World Land Trust's Carbon Balanced programme.
The product has a very high barrier to oxygen – the leading cause of food spoilage – which means it can reduce food waste by prolonging shelf life during the transportation, retail and consumer phases.
Through precision fibre refining, Arjowiggins' R&D teams have developed the product with a natural bonding, without the need of any harmful chemicals. The result is a paper with a barrier to oxygen, aroma, mineral oils and fatty foodstuffs.
Arjowiggins is working with brand owners and packaging converters to open up an array of applications — from pouches for dry fruits, bags for salads, sachets for solid soap, sacks for pet food and flow-packs for chocolate bars, all the way through to metallised versions of Sylvicta for butter or margarine packaging.
"As a business we're incredibly passionate about championing sustainability and promote circular economy principles – that's why we've created Sylvicta. Until now, most of the existing offer, mainly in single-use packaging, use unrecyclable, multi-layered laminates incorporating plastics or aluminium foil," explains Christophe Jordan, Managing Director of the Translucent Papers division at Arjowiggins.
"With Sylvicta, such solutions can be turned into fully recyclable, compostable and biodegradable paper packaging. The product is simply revolutionary - it can help to create the circular economy society we all desire."
When running through conventional converting lines, Sylvicta offers many creative possibilities: it can be foil-stamped, glued, embossed, printed in offset, gravure, and flexography, metallised, or coated with heat or cold-sealable materials.Arjowiggins is an independent paper manufacturer with a history reaching back to the 17th century. From its Anglo-French roots they have grown into one of the world’s leading producers of creative and technical papers.
Their portfolio of products includes:
• Creative papers, Creative packaging & Labels
• Bookbinding & Covering papers
• Translucent papers, including barrier papers
• Smart papers
• Security papers
• Transfer papers
The company's papers are manufactured across four mills, in Europe (Stoneywood in Scotland, Chartham in England, Guarro Casas in Spain) and China (Quzhou).