Polyethylene (PE) and styrenic materials, such as Polystyrene (PS) and Expanded Polystyrene (EPS), play a crucial role in the food packaging sector. They significantly contribute to food preservation and waste reduction while ensuring that all necessary consumer information is clearly displayed. In addition, renewable-origin polymers (biodegradable and compostable), such as Mater-Bi, complement these materials by offering sustainable alternatives.
The use of these materials in food packaging not only guarantees product safety and integrity but also plays a key role in the fight against food waste. By protecting food from deterioration and contamination, they help extend shelf life, allowing consumers to store food longer and reducing the amount that goes to waste.
We developed innovative solutions to enhance packaging sustainability and promote circularity in the food packaging sector. Our polymers are used to produce bags, trays, and multilayer films. Thanks to the high purity of our grades, we can ensure top performance, making them suitable for contact with both liquid and solid foods.
Together with Forever Plast, an Italian leader in post-consumer plastic recycling, we have developed REFENCE®, an innovative range of recycled polymers for food packaging applications such as yogurt cups, meat and fish trays, and other rigid and expanded packaging solutions. This innovation expands the Versalis Revive® portfolio, increasing opportunities for mechanical recycling and making materials suitable for direct food contact. Production is made possible by NEWER® technology, developed in the Versalis laboratories in Mantua and implemented in Forever Plast’s Lograto (Brescia) facilities. This technology ensures the purification of recycled polymers in compliance with EU Regulation 1616/2022 and has obtained FDA (Food & Drug Administration) certification for the U.S. market.
Versalis' commercial offering is broad and integrated: enriching our portfolio for food packaging are products made from Mater-Bi, the family of biodegradable and compostable bioplastics developed through Novamont's research. Thanks to its properties, Mater-Bi is used in various applications in the food packaging sector, such as carry-out shopping bags—also reusable for organic waste collection—fruit and vegetable department bags, food trays, and packaging for pasta and snacks. These products can be disposed of in the organic waste collection and sent for organic recycling at composting facilities, where they are transformed into fertile compost.
