Digital print on compostable barrier substrate

Digital printing news on the flexible film front comes from Ireland’s foxpak flexibles.

These granola packs made of a cellulose-based compostable structure are printed digitally by foxpak flexibles.
These granola packs made of a cellulose-based compostable structure are printed digitally by foxpak flexibles.

Foxpak was one of the first to use HP. “We started with an HP 4500 in 2008,” says foxpak CEO Paul Young. “We never ran any analog presses. The 20000 went in about two years ago. We also have a 6800. All we do is flexible film.”

One of the more intriguing packages produced by foxpak is a line of granola packages for an Irish company called The Happy Pear. On store shelves since March of this year, the packages are fully compostable. The material comes from Futamura Group, a specialist in cellulose-based compostable materials. Young describes it as a three-layer lamination, though he prefers not to be too specific about precisely what the layers are.

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