Sustainable Barrier Innovation Centre

Creating sustainable materials designed for use in a circular economy

A call-to-action for sustainable packaging

The UK Plastic Pact, aligned with UK Government, brings together organisations from across the entire plastics value chain to tackle the scourge of plastic waste. The aim is to create a circular economy for plastics, capturing their value by keeping them in the economy and out of the natural environment.

This has committed the industry to a rapid transition to sustainable packaging, with a call to action for leaders in food and drink, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs), agritech, pharmaceuticals and consumer healthcare, and logistics and packaging to drive meaningful change and seize this transformative opportunity.

The packaging sector is dominated by halogenated, fossil-based, and persistent plastics, including single-use plastics. UK Government is pushing for change with the following initiatives:

Plastic Packaging Tax: requires a minimum 30% recycled content in plastic packaging.
Ban on single-use plastics: Forcing use of sustainable materials in single-use products.
Extended producer responsibility: Penalising the producers by making them accountable for plastic packaging collection and recycling costs at end-of-life.

The role of sustainable materials in achieving net zero

Sustainable materials, such as biobased, biodegradable, and recycled materials, are crucial in achieving UK Government targets, including net zero carbon by 2050, zero waste, and a 50% reduction in residual waste by 2042. They can also help mitigate policy-related costs for industry. However, advancements in barrier properties are essential to compete with commodity plastics in packaging.

How CPI can help

Our open-access innovation services for the development of barrier materials and barrier testing can help you measure and reduce your Scope 3 emissions.
CPI’s Sustainable Barrier Innovation Centre focuses on developing faster screening and testing of barrier properties, helping innovators bring sustainable materials to market faster.
We help to reduce innovation risks, costs and time by building innovation ecosystems that include Brands and Retailers, Sustainable materials and Barrier material developers, Equipment developers and Suppliers, and Packaging manufacturers.

Leading the race in packaging innovation

We’re leaders in sustainable materials development and characterisation, barrier material formulation and coating, industrial biotech, green chemistry, and sustainable polymers.

We provide the essential support that great innovations need to successfully navigate their scale-up journey with reduced risk. We offer technical and commercial support to businesses, including scale-up/ scale-down product and process development.