Pack Expo Poll Confirms Increasing Importance of Sustainable Adhesives for Laminated Flexible Packaging

Specialty materials company Rohm and Haas (NYSE:ROH) today announced the results of a poll that confirms the increasing importance and role of sustainable adhesives for companies using and making laminated flexible packaging. Rohm and Haas conducted the wide-ranging poll at the recent Pack Expo in Chicago, surveying consumer goods companies, packagers, package designers, converters, materials suppliers and machinery manufacturers. "Results confirmed that sustainability is very important to their businesses and environmentally advanced waterbased and solventless laminating adhesives are indispensable to meeting their sustainability goals,” says Nancy Smith, North American Region commercial development manager for Packaging Adhesives. Sustainability was a prominent theme at the 45,000-strong event in early November, with standing room only as Wal-Mart representatives spoke about the industry leader’s continuing push for greener packaging.

Poll results overwhelmingly confirmed that respondents are not only concerned about emissions from their operations – more than 6 in 10 indicated concern - but also that more than half already have VOC emission caps in place. Eight in 10 respondents felt that adhesive laminated flexible packaging was a technology that helped achieve sustainability goals, with more than six in 10 indicating that waterborne adhesives and inks also helped meet these objectives. If purchasing new equipment, more than two-thirds would choose machinery that runs waterborne, solvent-free or solventless inks and adhesives. Just 15 percent would choose equipment that runs solvent-borne materials.

Poll results also showed that barriers to sustainable flexible packaging adhesives are perceived rather than real. "Perceptions remain that replacing solvent-based options with environmentally advanced adhesives will slow runs, require different machinery, deliver lower performance or affect packaging appearance, but most respondents refuted those statements,” Smith says. "Many indicated that they knew environmentally advanced options achieve high performance and excellent appearance with little change in line speed or equipment.” Other suppliers also may find these results of interest. "Machine manufacturers and ink makers may find this data useful because it helps quantify what their laminated flexible packaging customers need now and in the future,” Smith comments.

Rohm and Haas also offered other quantitative information at Pack Expo that dovetailed with the expressed interest in sustainability: life cycle inventory analyses (LCIs) for many of its laminating adhesives. LCIs tally a product’s energy/materials inputs and cumulative environmental impacts over its life cycle. This information is critical for customers evaluating the true environmental impact of business decisions like choosing among different packaging structure production methods, different adhesives for new lamination applications or switching laminating adhesive technologies.

LCI data shows that Rohm and Haas’s Mor-Free™ solventless adhesives are the most environmentally advanced laminating adhesive option in the company’s portfolio. The technology's positive profile begins early in its life cycle: energy use for feedstocks, processing and transport of these adhesives is about a third of that used for waterborne adhesives and one-fifth of that used for solvent-borne choices. LCI results also indicate that the company’s waterbased Robond™ adhesives are sound options. Energy use for waterborne adhesives' feedstocks, processing and transport are three-fifths of that necessary for solvent-borne. Its global warming potential is about a third lower than solvent-borne adhesives.

For those customers using solvent-borne adhesives, Rohm and Haas's new solutions are improving the technology's LCI numbers. "We have higher solids offerings in our Adcote™ line that use less raw material and improve shipping efficiencies as well as reducing drying and thermal oxidizer outputs,” Smith notes. No matter what adhesives customers choose, however, the company's LCI work suggests that lamination is a more sustainable way of producing packaging structures than alternative processes such as up-gauging films, fewer layers or extrusion lamination.

To lean more, request more information or a samples, visit us @ go.rohmhaas.com/adhesives

About Rohm and Haas Company

Leading the way since 1909, Rohm and Haas is a global pioneer in the creation and development of innovative technologies and solutions for the specialty materials industry. The company’s technologies are found in a wide range of industries including: Building and Construction, Electronics and Electronic Devices, Household Goods and Personal Care, Packaging and Paper, Transportation, Pharmaceutical and Medical, Water, Food and Food Related, and Industrial Process. Innovative Rohm and Haas technologies and solutions help to improve life every day, around the world. Based in Philadelphia, PA, the company generated annual sales of approximately $8.9 billion in 2007. Visit www.rohmhaas.com for more information. imagine the possibilities™