- Smurfit Westrock is now manufacturing paper pallet wrap at its Nervión paper mill in Spain.
- The new product is made from Nertop® Stretch Kraft paper which is fully recyclable. Its capabilities also include high energy absorption and strong performance in humid conditions.
Smurfit Westrock’s innovative new paper pallet wrap is helping companies make their supply chains significantly more sustainable, according to a company release.
Smurfit Westrock has produced a 100% paper-based alternative to the polyethylene stretch wrap commonly used to stabilize pallet loads in transportation. The global stretch wrap market was valued at USD 4.27 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow significantly1.
The innovative new solution is made from Nertop® Stretch Kraft paper which is fully recyclable. Its capabilities also include high energy absorption and strong performance in humid conditions. The pallet wrap is the latest addition to Smurfit Westrock’s Better Planet Packaging Portfolio which seeks to reduce the environmental impact of packaging.
Encirc the first UK Company to Use the Paper Pallet Wrap
Encirc, a leading glass supplier which manufactures over three billion containers annually, was the first company in the UK to use the new paper pallet wrap. The company named Smurfit Westrock as Sustainability Champion at its partnership day in September in recognition of the big step forward that using the paper wrap represents.
Peter Ball, Head of Planning at Encirc, said: “Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do at Encirc, and it is heartening that 85% of our beverage customers say that our sustainability credentials made them choose Encirc. We recognise how important supply chain solutions are to all our business partners. To this end, Encirc has been working with Smurfit Westrock to replace single-use plastic with a paper alternative, which is a first for the UK glass-making and bottle-filling industry.”
Jemma Jones, National Account Manager at Smurfit Westrock, added: “Like Smurfit Westrock, Encirc is committed to the circular economy and immediately recognised the significant CO2-reducing potential of the paper wrap. If they switched entirely to the paper wrap, it would lead to an extremely significant reduction of emissions. Traditional stretch wrap is the go-to for many companies but our paper-based alternative does as good a job and – vitally – is much easier to recycle at the end of use.”
The Better Planet Packaging paper pallet wrap is manufactured in Smurfit Westrock’s Nervión paper mill in Spain.
1 Fortune Business Insights Stretch Wrap Market https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/stretch-wrap-market-109169
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Rick LeBlanc, EMBA, is the founder and editor of Reusable Packaging News (subscribe to the free newsletter) and editor of Western Pallet Magazine. A supply chain journalist with more than 30 years of experience, he specializes in pallets, reusable packaging, material handling and related operations. Rick is co-author of Pallets: A North American Perspective and Pallets & Progress: A Collected History of Pallets and Palletized Handling 1922–1945. He is also an advisory board member of the Virginia Tech Center for Packaging and Unit Load Design. Read Rick’s full bio.
