Polysack, Intrama win Prize-Pack 2022 award

Isreal-based Polysack, a GreenTech company and leading manufacturer of recyclable PE films for 100% recyclable mono-material packaging, and Bulgarian recyclable packaging manufacturer Intrama have won a Prize Pack 2022 award, the companies have announced. The two partners, whose focus on sustainability and the circular economy has prompted the development of recyclable flexible packaging solutions, won first prize in  the Plastics and Composite Materials category for their recyclable vacuum package for thermoforming lines. According to the judging committee, thanks to its recyclability, the packaging successfully ‘illustrates a balance achieved between the protection of the food product and the environment’.
Prize Pack is the annual Bulgarian competition for best innovative packaging for the food industry organised by Food Industry Cooperative Magazine. It is not the first time either company has been recognised: Intrama won three consecutive times in 2018, 2019 and 2020; Polysack received the award last year, as well.
The award-winning packaging is a combination of two films: thermoformable bottom film and flexible lidding film. The bottom web is a 9-layer co-extruded transparent film with a gauge of 140 microns and a top web is an 11-layer laminated film with a total thickness of 60 microns. This top web is made of two laminated films: an internal layer produced by Intrama, and an external layer comprised of Polysack’s Pack N Cycle LC EL MDO film with a thickness of 25 microns.

“The bottom film has excellent mechanical properties and transparency. It has superb machinability with thermoforming lines manufactured by Intrama as well as other packaging equipment manufacturers. The top lidding film has excellent sealing, optical and mechanical properties and forms a high-quality packaging that preserves the shape, color and freshness of the product, for long shelf life,” said Stoyan Ivanov, marketing specialist at Intrama.

The package features a medium gas barrier, and is suitable for meat, dairy, fish and sea food as well as non-food products. It is manufactured in accordance with BRCGS class "AA", ISO 9001: 2015, ISO 22000: 2018, and certified by "Institute cyclos - HTP" - Germany as recyclable with recyclability class "AA" 90% - 95% in the LDPE waste stream. 

According to Ivanov, the recyclable bottoms film undergoes mechanical testing in the lab to monitor its strength and stretching properties. “This way we ensure its quality and even distribution of the individual polymers in its composition when thermoformed.”

“Pack N Cycle EL film is the elastic version of Polysack’s standard Pack N Cycle films based only on MOPE (mono-oriented PE),” Roumen Sarafski, Polysack’s regional sales agent, explained . “It can be easily recycled in the polyolefin recycling stream around the globe. It promotes sustainability and minimizes the usage of fossil based raw materials.”

Dr. Frank Ullrich, managing director at Intrama Group added that,  ‘as the biggest producer of multi-layer barrier packaging in Bulgaria and as a responsible company with an active position on environment protection, we have always been striving to find the optimal balance between preventing food waste and reducing the ecological footprint of the packaging process’.

The partnership with Polysack has enabled the development of a solution that is designed for recycling, with no compromise in shelf life of the packed product, he ended.