CONTRIBUTING WITH ACTIONS · COVER STORIES Publisher Leif Frilund Editor-in-Chief Marina Kurula Editorial board Kari Salminen, Ralph Mucha, Arno Wolff Editorial content and layout

Enter the plastics free office

The non-leaking garbage bag

M E E T T H E N E W I N N O V A T I O N T E A M • A S E C O N D L I F E F O R O L D C A M E R A S

CONTRIBUTING WITH ACTIONS

Walki Group Customer Magazine

2018

Starting young with the circular economy

COVER STORIESPublisher Leif FrilundEditor-in-Chief Marina KurulaEditorial board Kari Salminen, Ralph Mucha, Arno WolffEditorial content and layout Spoon FinlandCover photo iStockPrint Grano 2018Change of address www.walki.com/coverstories/contacts

CONTENTS4 The compostable food waste

bag that doesn't leak 6 The almost plastics free office8 It’s a great time for innovations12 Sustainability fills the bag14 Making your Joe

more sustainable16 Circularity in the

curriculum, please18 Walki’s revamped multi-layer

line hits the market19 Walking the talk

with sustainability 20 Trash with value22 Literally behind the camera

CIRCULAR TRAININGIf you want to see the circular economy excel, start with kids.

WHAT'S IN A POUCHE? Walki has a pouche for every occasion.

A DREAM TEAM FOR INNOVATIONMeet Walki's new innovation people.

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Something old, something newPeople have woken up to the sorry state of the environment and are increasingly demanding – and willing to pay the extra price – for more sustainable options, whether we are talking about food packaging, coffee pods or efficiently insulated homes.

With images of ocean life being in peril because of failed recycling of plastics, people are also demanding more sustainable packaging and solutions for efficient recycling.

Obviously, getting the circular economy truly going will be crucial. We have teamed up with UN Champion of the Earth Leyla Acaroglu with the aim to teach our children about the circular economy. Acaroglu is the mastermind behind the Circular Classroom concept. She says that the circular economy is about interconnectedness; we need to truly internalize that we have to live in symbiosis with our environment.

We see signs of this happening. People are keener than ever on sorting their trashes. As we can read in this magazine, up to 30% of household trashes is compostable. Walki is contributing with developing a compostable garbage bag

that lives up to the expectations relating to sustainability, cost and performance.

Consumers are increasingly expecting food packaging to be recyclable and made out of sustainable materials. Following this, we have started to look more intensively into the merits of chemically recycled plastics. This is based on a chemical process that can turn previously non-recyclable plastics into new raw materials, i.e. polymers. As it looks today, in the near future Walki will be able to offer packaging materials that are produced through a combination of both bio-based substrates and recycled polymers.

These are some of the issues that our renewed innovation team will tackle. With two new high-level resources at the helm we feel well equipped to take on these challenges. This summer Walki also got new owners in One Equity Partners, who have a long-standing track record of developing packaging companies. Our new owners are committed to support us to make our contribution to a more sustainable world. We want to do our share.

Leif FrilundCEO

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As people around the world become increasingly planet conscious, the drive for each and every one of us to reduce our environmental foot-print is gaining momentum. This year, with much of the sustainability dialogue focusing

on the need to reduce plastic pollution, more and more for-ward-thinking, environmentally aware companies are look-ing for ways to reduce plastic use.

One of these companies is Walki.“As a sustainability forerunner, Walki is committed to

complying with and staying ahead of all environmental reg-ulations. The EU is currently discussing new legislation for compostable materials, but, as there’s already a demand for compostable food waste bags, we are developing a coating for them as fast as possible,” explains Peter Martin, Technical Service and Development Director for Industrial Packaging.

Reducing waste through compostingOne of the ways in which individual households can reduce their climate impact is by collecting food waste. Coffee grounds, tea bags, vegetable and fruit scrap; all of that type of food waste can be put in the compost bin. It is then indus-trially composted and turned into fertiliser and biofuel.

Given that as much as 30 % of household waste is typically compostable, taking care of this part requiring minimal effort and investments, can quickly make a considerable difference.

While some countries are still in the early stages of indus-trial composting, one that has been doing it for a while is Sweden. Despite having only ten million inhabitants, more than 300 million bags for collecting food waste is expected to be consumed in Sweden this year alone. The bags are usually

Around 70% of Swedish composters already use paper bags to collect their food waste.

INNOVATIONINNOVATION

” Today, a lot of consumers are double bagging because of the leakage issue.

Collecting your food waste is a growing trend. However, finding the right bag that does not fall apart due to moisture from the waste is tricky. Walki will have the answer.

text Isabelle Kliger photo Walki

THE COMPOSTABLE FOOD WASTE BAG THAT DOESN'T LEAK


provided to households free of charge by the local authority and paid for as part of the annual waste collection fee.

Paper bags are ineffectiveGustav Grahn is the Managing Director of the Walki sales office in Stockholm. He explains that the current concern about food waste bags is that they also need to be biodegrad-able and compostable in order for the composting system to work.

“Paper is suitable for composting and the good news is that some 70 % of Swedish composters already use paper bags to collect their food waste,” says Grahn.

“However, the reality is that paper is not the most effective material for collecting waste that contains moisture, which is generally the case with scraps of fruit, vegetables and used coffee filters,” he continues. “Paper bags tend to break or leak when they’re wet, making them a messy, ineffective solution.”

Sustainability, cost and performanceWhile it would have been easy enough to solve this problem with a conventional, non-biodegradable extrusion coating, Walki is developing a coating that is plastic-free, biodegrad-able and compostable.

Trials are therefore under way to identify a food waste bag coating that lives up to customer expectations in terms of sustainability, cost and performance.

“We’re on the right track,” confirms Peter Martin. “Our target is to have a product ready for launch before the end of this year.”

The new food waste bags will replace the biodegradable and non-biodegradable plastic bags that some households still use, as well as the biodegradable, but leaky, paper bags.

Fewer bags overallGustav Grahn suggests the total cost of the new bag will be equal to or lower than the existing solution.

“Today, a lot of consumers are double bagging because of the leakage issue,” he says. “As our product will not leak, one bag will be sufficient and it will also be possible to use it for more days. Costs will be kept down as fewer bags will be used overall.”

The new coating is initially being developed for food waste bag manufacturers on the Swedish market although there are also signs of growing interest in other European coun-tries, most notably Denmark, Finland, Norway and the U.K. With some modifications, the compostable coating will also be suitable for packaging of food, such as tea, potatoes and bread, which require similar characteristics in terms of mois-ture barrier, but with the compostability as an added feature for the environment.

Offices still need copy paper.

” In developing a product that is suitable for recycling along with pure papers, we optimize the recycling stream of the fibers back to the paper industry.

Ream wrapping is a huge multi-national industry, estimated to be worth some EUR 70 million in Europe alone. Paper producers use ream wrapping to package copy paper. The ream wrapper itself has been produced using plastics, but now, thanks to a

new product by Walki, that wrapper can be completely repul-pable and recyclable.

For a future that hopefully will be completely compostable, Walki has developed Walki® Copy Green, a sustainable plas-tics-free ream wrapper for office paper. Walki®Copy Green offers a good water vapour barrier and good printability but, more importantly, Walki®Copy Green is now formally certi-fied as a repulpable and recyclable product.

Copy paper evolvingReam wrapping has been around for a long time, and for many years, the standards governing the product changed very little. Moisture resistance has been the number one con-cern for this type of packaging. But the copy paper itself has evolved in the last 20 years.

“As paper grades and the characteristics of modern paper have evolved over time, water vapour barrier requirements have changed, giving us the opportunity to offer new, more sustainable solutions to the market of today”, says Peter

Martin, Walki’s Technical Service and Development Direc-tor for Industrial Packaging.

These solutions appeals to most paper manufacturers, as sustainability are increasingly on their minds.

Tried and testedIn order to create a product that would comply with all the characteristics required by modern customers, Walki tested a wide variety of raw materials.

“We concluded that this special green coated paper was the most suitable from the point of view of printability and vapour resistance,” says Martin.

Whereas conventional ream wrapping is made from paper coated with a PE-based laminate as a barrier, Walki®Copy Green has a special plastic-free coating made from a bio degradable compound. This coating delivers a good moisture barrier, but, most crucially, it is plastic-free and repulpable, enabling the product to be classified as mono-material. It also offers cus-tomers plenty of freedom in their raw material choices.

“In developing a product that is suitable for recycling along with pure papers, we optimize the recycling stream of the fibers back to the paper industry. In this way, Walki is contributing to the sustainable development of the forest industry”, he says.

THE ALMOST PLASTICS FREE OFFICEChances are you won’t find an office without ream wrapper. Now that wrapper can be free of plastics. Let us introduce Walki®Copy Green. text Isabelle Kliger photo iStock


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Consumers are more aware of how packaging can affect the environment, and are increasingly more willing to compromise on cost and performance aspects for a more sustainable solution, says Walki’s innovation team: Mats Holti, Annika Sundell and Mats Käldström.

IT’S A GREAT TIME FORINNOVATIONS

Walki’s innovation team is keen on solutions that benefit both the environment and the consumer's pocket. The team will now be further strengthened with two innovation veterans joining, bringing knowhow about polymers and renewable material.text Johan Svenlin photo Jan Sandvik & Walki

PEOPLEPEOPLE

WALKI COVER STORIES 2018WALKI COVER STORIES 2018

” All solutions come with a certain life cycle and you always need to have new solutions in the pipeline in order to stay relevant

The Technical Competence Cener works closely with Walki's laboratories.

For any innovation team, the ability to look into the future and identify threats and possibilities is crucial. Throughout times, innovation has been spurred by an issue that needs to be solved. Today, one of the chal-lenges spurring innovation efforts concerns plastics.

“Plastic waste has become a big environmental issue and we need to do something substantial in order to restore the health of our oceans. Walki has several solutions that can mitigate the toll plastic waste takes on the environment,” says Mats Käldström, Development and Innovation Manager who joined Walki in February 2018.

His new colleague, Annika Sundell, who took to over as the head of the innovation team in August 2018, agrees.

“The world has woken up to this problem. We expect big changes across all industries during the coming years, both when it comes to materials as well as processes.”

For Walki, this comes with a huge potential as the demand for fibre-based solutions will continue to grow.

“We have developed a wide range of solutions based on sustainable materials. However, up until now, these solutions have come with additional costs, hindering fast adoption. Our knowhow can now become an ace up their sleeve for our customers as we can offer packaging that doesn’t harm nature,” says Mats Holti, Vice President Technology at Walki.

Passing the torchMats Holti used to head the innovation department at Walki. Now he’s passing the torch to Annika Sundell to get more time to focus on technology development at Walki. As Wal-ki’s innovation veteran Rune Skåtar recently retired it was time to get more resources to the innovation team.

Sundell and Käldström are both seasoned experts in their fields.Annika Sundell has a wide experience from product development, mainly from the medical and packaging indus-try. She was the CEO for Schur Flexibles in Pietarsaari as well as Kolding&DK, which has given her valuable leadership experience.

“I started with product development and luckily also had the possibility to continue with the daily innovation work in my role as CEO”, she says.

Mats Käldström has a PhD in industrial chemistry and has worked at Neste with research and development of catalytic processes where the focus was on the transformation of bio-mass to chemicals and fuel.

“During these few months at Walki, I have seen how exten-sive the knowhow is in the company. It is both broad and deep. Whatever questions I might have, my colleagues are able to answer them instantly.”

The future can be found in treesBoth Annika Sundell and Mats Käldström see great oppor-tunities in gradually replacing oil-based polymers with bio-degradable pulp-based polymers.

“In Finland, we have an incredible resource in our for-ests, and we know how to use wood fibre. However, it is also important that we at Walki are at the forefront when it comes to other materials, such as oil-based polymers, in order for us to take the lead towards a gradual reduction in the use of fossil raw material", says Sundell.

“Wood fibre is the core of our products, even though we also work with different polymer types. Wood-based poly-mers are also ethically more apt compared to biopolymers from sugar canes and other edible raw material,” says Mats Käldström.

Up until now recycled plastics have mostly ended up as energy fuel. However, technology for efficient chemical recy-cling is being developed. This will significantly improve the quality of the recycled plastics.

“We have recycled paper and carton for a long time and these days there exists a viable business around it. The plas-tics industry should have done that much earlier, but luckily we are making progress now”, says Annika Sundell.

Pilot machine for everyoneWalki will continue to focus on innovation.

“All solutions come with a certain life cycle and you always need to have new solutions in the pipeline in order to stay relevant”, says Mats Holti.

Walki's innovations are mostly done together with cus-tomers.

“Typically an innovation project starts with a customer seeking a solution to a specific problem. Our task is to think outside the box and come up with solutions that hadn't even crossed the customer's mind”, says Holti and quotes Henry Ford: 'Had I asked what people wanted, they would have answered a quicker horse'.

Walki's innovations have lately caught the attention of world-leading food brands.

“Our own pilot machine, where we make up to 3000 test runs annually, is the ace up our sleeve. This enables us to make test runs with experimental polymer without halting production. This way our customers can get test material that currently is not on the market" says Holti.


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11PEOPLEPEOPLE

” Walki's innovation have lately caught the attention ofworld-leading food brands.


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More and more consumers expect to see their groceries wrapped in something else than traditional plastics. Walki’s renewable and recyclable alternatives help companies respond to the growing demand for sustainable alternatives.

text Anne Salomäki photo Walki

SUSTAINABILITYFILLS THE BAG

” Walki's innovation have lately caught the attention of world-leading food brands


A wind of change is blowing in the packaging industry – and not least because of consum-ers and their preferences. The images of plastic waste patches in the world’s oceans and ani-mals suffering from trash have reached people

all over the globe.According to a North American report published by the

worldwide packaging authority Smithers Pira, consumers are increasingly expecting food and drink packaging to be recyclable and made of sustainably sourced materials. A similar trend is visible in the UK, where the government has launched an initiative to eliminate single use plastics and reduce marine plastic pollution. In a survey conducted by Populus, over 90 % of the UK public support the idea of hav-ing a supermarket isle dedicated to the sale of products that are entirely free of plastic packaging.

“It’s obvious that people are increasingly aware of the envi-ronmental effects of their purchases and are willing to make eco-conscious choices,” notes Heikki Lumme, Business Line Manager, Flexible Packaging at Walki.

Now, perhaps more than ever, consumers have the power to make manufacturers change their packaging habits, as social media discussions change consumers' behaviour.

“Many companies already have set dates for when they aim to have all of their packaging made of sustainable materi-als,” says Henri Torkkola, Technical Sales and Research and Development Manager at Walki. “Walki is at the forefront of this change by helping clients find the right solutions for their specific needs.”

You name it, Walki wraps itWith Walki’s products, virtually anything can be packed with much less oil-based plastics. Stand-up pouches, pillow bags and four-corner bags can all be made of paper-based materials. The solutions have gained traction after they were launched at the Interpack fair in Düsseldorf last year.

Consumers are increasingly prepared to pay a little extra for sustainable alternatives.

Walki’s flexible packaging enables smaller ecological footprints by, for example, replacing traditional plastic bags with paper-based alternatives coated with a very thin layer of polymers. This polymer layer can be made out of fully sustainable options, such as biodegradable and plant-based renewable polymers.

“Paper is, by default, renewable and recyclable,” Torkkola explains. “The coating can be customised to meet the prod-uct’s needs as, for example, coffee and baked goods require different kinds of properties from their packaging.”

The most frequently expected features in food packag-ing are moisture, grease and oxygen protection. However, as not all items need the same level of protection, using just the right amount of barrier helps ensure the packaging is as sustainable as possible. For example, because paper is stiffer than plastics, paper-based materials create a firm enough structure, reducing the need for extra packaging.

Seeking for volumeWalki’s solutions suit even the most demanding products, such as four-corner bags. According to Torkkola, they also reduce costs, with the optimisation of materials and pro-ducer responsibility fees favouring sustainability and recy-clability.

So far, the price has been a deterrent for companies to choose renewable materials over oil-based plastics. In the future, however, when the production of biopolymers increases, the bigger volumes will lower the price.

“As volumes hike up, prices automatically drop,” he explains.

In the meantime, both companies and consumers should be willing to pay to bring about the transition to ensure a more sustainable planet.

Lumme believes that the trend is eventually inevitable eve-rywhere. The role of the circular economy, renewables, and recycling will continue to grow, including also in the packag-ing industry.

What remains unchanged, he says, is the importance of packaging itself. A supermarket isle being plastic-free by no means refers to a packaging-free isle.

“If a slice of ham goes off because of insufficient packaging, the overall emissions of that wasted slice are much bigger than those of the package,” Lumme explains. “Good, sustain-able packages will help us reduce carbon footprint in general, not just when it comes to packaging.”

SUSTAINABILITYSUSTAINABILITY

The keenest coffee drinkers live a long way away from where the beans grow, which means packing coffee with care is essential. Walki takes the lead.text Anne Salomäki photo iStock

MAKING YOUR JOEMORE SUSTAINABLE

Completely package-free coffee sounds idyllic. Sit-ting on a patio at a coffee farm, drinking a hot, freshly-ground cup of java with the morning sun slowly climbing higher from behind the Colom-bian mountains…

However, to a lot of coffee drinkers that isn’t a viable option: by far the keenest coffee drinkers reside in Europe, and its climate isn’t favourable for vast coffee plantations. Thus, European commuters will continue to have to pop into shops and cafés to get their fix – and coffee will still have to travel.

“Packaging isn’t going to become redundant,” says Mats Holti, Executive Vice President, Technology at Walki. “What we need to do is to make packaging as sustainable as possible, which it currently isn’t.”

Coffee is a tricky thing to pack: its sensitive aroma needs to be protected from oxygen, moisture and light. In coffee packaging, this is most often solved by using plastic and alu-minium together.

Reuse and recycleFilter coffee is relatively easy to recycle as the coffee grounds are separate from the packaging. Capsules, however, is a trickier matter. When the capsule has been transformed into an espresso and the little container comes out, it’s a mixture of materials that belong to different recycling bins.

“As the coffee grounds are bio waste, it’d be sensible to make the whole thing compostable,” Holti says. “That would make correct handling of waste significantly easier.”

Walki has created a paper-based coffee pod solution for French luxury coffee producer Malongo. Holti believes that brands like Malongo will be the frontrunners in sustainable packaging, later followed by mainstream manufacturers.

You need to get the packaging right for coffee to ensure it's protected from oxygen, moisture and light.

In coffee pods, compostability is important to make recy-cling for the consumer as convenient as possible. When it comes to larger coffee packages sold in grocery stores, Holti hopes to see the principles of circular economy take prec-edence.

“Recyclability is crucial,” he says. “Even composting releases carbon dioxide, but if we can ensure that the material is recycled and reused, it’s a much more sustainable alterna-tive in the long run. With functional chemical recycling, we can reuse polymers and be able to produce exactly as good polymers as the original ones without needing fossil based oil.”

Nothing in the binIn the years to come, Holti foresees a future of bio-based coffee packaging, with plant-based barriers ensuring all properties required by coffee’s sensitive existence and suf-ficient shelf life. Walki has already created a biodegradable and high-barrier, aroma-proof solution that contains no aluminium.

Holti stresses that the solutions are already accessible; what’s needed is a push for companies to move to a more sus-tainable direction. This necessitates behaviour changes from consumers as well, as the polymers used in products need to find their way back to manufacturers to ensure availability.

What shouldn’t be forgotten is one of the most important features of a good package: its capability to preserve its con-tent.

“To some extent, coffee pods can be criticised for how much packaging is needed, but they also ensure no cof-fee goes to waste,” Holti explains. “The carbon footprint of wasted food tends to be much, much larger than that of the packaging.”

Thus, seeing good coffee go down the drain should con-cern us all, from the packaging industry and retailers to each individual coffee enthusiast.


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” The solutions are already accessible; what’s needed is a push for companies to move towards a more sustainable direction.

Today’s youth are Generation Circular. The Circular Classroom concept is set to equip teachers with tools that make circular economy part of education.

RESPONSIBILITYRESPONSIBILITY

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CIRCULARITYIN THE CURRICULUM, PLEASE

text Anne Salomäki photo Co-founders

Dismantling a toaster can be a fun task – but it also tells a lot about the way it’s been put together. Sociologist, designer and the UN Champion of the Earth Leyla Acaroglu made a group of 30 Finnish upper secondary school teachers and students delve into familiar household gadgets as part of a Circular Classroom work-shop in June in Helsinki.

A device that’s hard to disassemble can also be difficult to recy-cle; and even if you could separate valuable materials, are there facilities for recapturing and reusing them? This is one of Acarog-lu’s main points, as she travels the world spreading the word about the principles and practices of circular economy.

“Often the issue isn’t how we use certain products, but the systems that exist around them,” she says. “For example, plastic itself isn’t a

problem, it’s the fact that the recycling system doesn’t keep up.”The Circular Classroom initiative, led by Acaroglu and spon-

sored by Walki, has produced a toolkit for upper secondary school teachers to help them integrate circular economy into teaching. This, in Acaroglu’s view, is a way to empower young people to take a purposeful role in the society as well as the economy when it comes to promoting circularity and sustainable solutions.

We’re all agentsThe Circular Classroom toolkit comprises three main modules about circular and linear thinking, systems and sustainability, and design and creativity, targeted at upper secondary school students but adaptable to all ages. Each module includes an inspirational

video and resources for discussions and workshops – such as look-ing into the life of a toaster.

The goal of the materials is to make the circulation of raw mate-rials and its effect on the environment visible, and then encourage students to innovate their own ideas and share them with the world.

The toolkit is also made to remind students about the relation-ship between consumption and natural extraction. Acaroglu says that the underlying message is that nature is the source of, well, everything.

“The aim is to help people understand they’re in an intercon-nected relationship with a tree. We aren’t separate from our envi-ronment.”

By encouraging youth to be active, Acaroglu would like to see students challenge their perception of the things they want – and don’t want – to see in the society.

“It’s all about agency and who has the power to change the sys-tem. I always say that inactions and actions create change, and not acting is just as impactful as taking action. We’re all agents of the system.”

Design bears powerThere’s plenty of room for new innovations in the world: Acaro-glu points out that many mundane habits could be rendered more sustainable with product design. For example, kettles could be designed in a way that saves water and electricity without making the process of boiling water any more cumbersome.

Acaroglu notes that consumer behaviour is affected by design, and thus designers should consider the impact the product’s func-tionalities can have on the environment.

“Often sustainable solutions are, falsely, seen as if they’re limit-ing choice, when it’s really all about making better choices,” she says. “If we design products that work better and simultaneously are more sustainable, no one will complain.”

Thus, Acaroglu is keen to collaborate with companies that take their corporate citizenship seriously, like Walki is doing by engaging in initiatives like Circular Classroom.

Agency takes creativity. Acaroglu emphasises that complex problems don’t have easy answers.

Breaking out of the current linear system means that new mind-sets and ways of thinking are needed. Acaroglu mentions that instead of products being thrown to landfill as they come to the end of their life cycle, the whole timeline has to be rethought: how to create product service systems in which the materials don’t turn into waste?

This is where engaging youngsters and their teachers comes in particularly handy.

“Students are hungry for innovations, and educators are emo-tionally invested in bringing life to young people. Our goal is activa-tion, agitating more thinking inside the classroom.”

Acaroglu also wishes to see teachers cross borders between disciplines. This is why the Finnish workshops have included edu-cationists of different subjects.

“Just like engineers and designers tend to work in silos, biology teachers don’t always talk to philosophy teachers or maths teach-ers,” she tells. “Interconnecting the subjects helps students make sense of and conceptualise what they’ve learned.”

Being a victim can be a comfortable place to be. This is why Walki, in CEO Leif Frilund’s words, took on board the Circular Classroom initiative.

“It’d be easy to feel paralysed, like there’s nothing you can do about things,” he says. “However, during its short history, humankind has shown that problems can be solved and there are ways forward.”

Frilund emphasises that acting is imperative if we don’t want the pictures of the causes of global warming to get even uglier. Hence, it’s important to educate the young: to avoid confusion and strive for greater transparency by equipping consumer and future professionals with knowledge and perspectives.

Walki is always seeking ways to reduce its impact on the environment and finding solutions to use materials in the most sensible possible manner. Frilund takes pride in the fact that 80 per cent of the company’s raw materials are plant based. He notes that there’s not just one single answer to a multi-faceted issue such as climate change.

“Many roads lead to Rome. The solutions will comprise a combination of many technologies across industries.”

CLASSROOMS ARE FILLED WITH FUTURE CONSUMERS

"We aren't separate from our environment," says Leyla Acaroglu.

WALKING THE TALK WITH SUSTAINABILITY

Walki’s roadmap to reach this vision includes milestones and intermediate targets. The first step coming up in 2019 is to start using polymers that include polyethylene and polypropylene made of plantbased materials originating for example from side streams of pulp production.

“They are plantbased, renewable materials,” says Gunilla Laakso, Category Manager, Global Sourcing at Walki Group “The merit of this solution is that it doesn’t consume our planet’s diminishing resources.”

Walki prefers not to use rawmaterials from sources that are contradictory to foodstuff or farmland.

Walki has in multiple plants initiated the process of becoming certified according to ISCC (International Sustainability and Carbon Certificate). Holding the ISCC certificate will verify the sustainability of the whole supply chain regarding renewable polyethylene and polypropylene. Once this has been finalized, Walki’s customers can choose to replace fossil

based plastics in their products by certified renewable ones.

Circular economy in the makingThe next phase awaits in two to three years, when Walki is set to offer its clients polymers produced from mixed plastic waste by chemical recycling. Chemically recycled polymers will be identical to current fossil based ones and enable the transition into a real circular economy.

“Although plastic waste cannot strictly be considered a renewable material, it’s well in line with the principles of circular economy,” Laakso notes. “This enables our clients to use recycled plastics identical to fossil based ones in terms of quality, processability, product properties and approvals.”

CEO Leif Frilund is very pleased to see Walki’s efforts to meet its 2030 target bear fruit.

“We are working hard to help our clients make sustainable choices, not only in when it comes to the environment but also the society in general,” he says. “The upcoming additions to our offering pave the way for future innovations.”

WALKI’S REVAMPED MULTI-LAYER LINE HITS THE MARKET

Sometimes everything goes to plan – or even better. Walki’s most recent investment, a significant upgrade in the multilayer production line, has been up and running since the start of the year without hiccups.

“Of course there have been modifications, but in general things everything has gone very well,” explains Kari Salminen, Executive Vice President, Construction at Walki. “Quality, efficiency and safety have all met our expectations.”

The updated production line gears up Walki’s quality management and development with new and improved features, including measurement and camera systems, data collection and storage as well as analysis. Simultaneously, it boosts efficiency and safety.

The growth of the market for multilayer materials, especially in the insulation industry, began a few years ago. Now, Walki’s investment allows for the production of new, more diverse products. The

With the upgrade, Walki can develop innovative and diverse products to create futureproof solutions for its clients across all industries.

Walki’s vision is to make 100% of its products out of renewable and recyclable materials by 2030. Chemical recycling could be the key.

Walki's revamped multi-layer line is ready to answer to the growing market demand of insulation.

team is constantly testing different kinds of solutions and expanding the range of companies Walki can do business with.

“As the production line can be used for all multilayer laminates, it’s not specific to a particular industry,” Salminen notes.

A great example of the growing product selection are Walki’s fireretardant facings, which can be customized to match each client’s unique requirements. Companies all over Europe are seeking for fireretardant solutions, and with Walki, they can significantly enhance the safety of their offering.

“We are very serious about helping our customers improve their business, as that’s the way forward for us, too,” Salminen notes. “We want to create futureproof products, and both us and our customers need to be sure they will meet standards in decades to come.”

Another benefit of the new unit is its unprecedented accuracy in, for example, verifying the height of polymer layers. This, topped with data collection and analysis, helps optimize production as well as reduce and prevent errors.

The upgrade is the step number two in Walki’s series of investments in its Valkeakoski plant. In 2016, a new production line with the latest technology in quality measurement and process control systems was installed.

“These investments further strengthen Walki’s position in the market,” Salminen explains. “It’s a core part of our business strategy to build our capabilities in multilayer laminates.”


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text Anne Salomäki illustration & photo Walki

text Anne Salomäki


NEWSNEWS

What’s up in Wroclaw?Bartlomiej Engel has been working at Walki for almost five years, first as a Production Manager and now as a Plant Manager at the Wroclaw plant in Poland. His main responsibilities include managing and ensuring the safety of the plant as well as supporting the entire team. The last year has been characterized by renewal and continuous improvement.

? What is the Wroclaw plant best at?We excel at teamwork and problemsolving, and we have an extraordinary team spirit. It’s amazing to work with people who share the same values and are so involved in accomplishing our targets. A couple of months ago, we implemented our own Safety Programme. It’s great to see how involved people are when it comes to daily safety reviews and our behavioural focus audits. People are also very customeroriented and keen on taking the customers’ point of view into consideration. Everyone understands that their actions matter.

? How would you describe the team at Wroclaw? I’m extremely proud of the team and their hard work, I couldn’t imagine a more devoted group of people. We have learnt a lot together. We have done a lot of knowledge sharing, getting more experienced people to work together with new recruits. Now, looking back, we have spent hundreds of hours making both the machines and the team run seamlessly, and we start to see the results of our huge improvement efforts. Today, we know much better what the aim is and how to get there.

? What is the most important lesson you’ve learned about packaging?This is a very complex industry: you have to get the technology to work with the raw material and think about the customer’s needs. You have to be humble and realise that you can always improve your work. Experience really helps. You need good teachers that you can learn from in order to succeed. It all comes down to a team that works together on achieving objectives we all can embrace.

Towards Circular economy

Step I

Polyolefins from renewable

sources

Walki today Walki 2020 Walki 2030

Polyolefins from mixed

plastic waste ↓

Circular economy

Step II

80 % 90 % 100 %

4

11.6.2018

Company confidential

TOWARDS CIRCULAR ECONOMY


Step I


sources



plastic waste ↓

Circular economy

Step II

80 % 90 % 100 %

4

11.6.2018



Step I


sources



plastic waste ↓

Circular economy

Step II

80 % 90 % 100 %

4

11.6.2018


TRASHWITH VALUEtext Lena Barner-Rasmussen photo iStock & Walki

The world is not too efficient when it comes to recycling plastics. More than 98% of the plastic materials we currently use for packaging purposes has never been recycled. This needs to be changed. Walki's CEO Leif Frilund tackles the question.

Everybody wants to move way from oil-based plastics. It's tech-nically feasible. Why does it take us so long?The alternatives are a bit more expensive. At the end of the day, it's for the end users – the consumers – to decide if they want to pay that extra price. However, with growing volumes the material prices will eventually come down. Obviously we also have to think about what plant-based materials we use and be mindful about not adding to more carbon emissions in our quest for plant-based materials. Some of the plant-based material is also forest-based and as the forests are indispensable for curbing carbon emissions we need to strike the right balance. I think the big change will come if and hopefully when legislation forces brand owners and retail-ers to more transparency when it comes to communicating about what the packaging is made of, and what the end-of-life scenarios look like. What will happen with the packaging once the consumer is done with it?

Efficient recycling of plastics would hinder it from entering our oceans. How can we become more efficient in doing that?Currently only 2 % of the plastics we use is recycled back to the production streams. We need to change that. The attention so far has been mainly on mechanical recycling, which is when you sort your trashes and take the plastics trash to a recycling centre. But it's cumbersome and as packaging is made out of different plastics, the end product is not clean. The future potential lies in chemical recycling where you do it on an industrial level and break down the plastic back into the original molecules to make so called brown oil. This can then be used as feedstock for producing new polymers.

So we won't have a completely plastic-free future?No, because at the end of the day plastics are still in many ways a great material. But it doesn't have to be based on fresh fossils, i.e. crude oil. The big problem with plastics is that we don't recycle it in an industrial and efficient way, having it end up in our oceans causing harm to our precious ocean life. The key lies in creating a well-functioning circular economy based on recycling and reuse. Without it, we let economic value; that is plastics, float around in our oceans. How smart is that?

” Today, over 80% of our products are made out of plant-based renewables if you count in produced tonnes. By 2030, we want that figure to be 100%.

Walki's strategy is to replace fossil-based plastics with bio-based solutions or with materials based on recycled plastic pack-aging. How will you do it?Today, over 80% of our products are made out of plant-based renewables if you count in produced tonnes. By 2030, we want that figure to be 100%.

We can make the barriers with almost the same properties using plant-based materi-als such as agricultural waste, wood and slaughter residues. However, we also see a great potential in using polymers which have been made out of recycled plastics, ie through chemical recycling. In this way we can reuse materials that so far have been treated as waste.

We won't stop using plastics altogether, but hopefully we'll use it more sensibly, says Leif Frilund.

Currently, only 2% of plastics is recycled back to the production stream.

WALKI COVER STORIES 2018 WALKI COVER STORIES 2018

What’s up in Poland?Aleksandra Potysz joined Walki in 2013 as a Customer Service Coordinator. Last year, she jumped into the shoes of a Production Planner, taking care of production efficiency and scheduling.

? What part of your job do you enjoy the most?Each day brings new challenges and requires me to search for solutions and different possibilities. It’s important to consider various factors, like customers’ requirements, machine capacity and the availability of raw materials. It takes different professional and personal skills to gain a wider perspective to reach better results and support growth in the company, which I really enjoy.

? Your degree is in German studies. How has that helped you with your career at Walki? I started as a Customer Service Coordinator responsible mainly

for German-speaking customers, so my language skills were evidently a significant asset. Working in this position allowed me to gain experience and provided me with knowledge about products, processes and the company itself. Subsequently, I gained a solid background for the position of a Production Planner, in which I constantly develop myself.

? What future trends do you predict for the packaging industry?The packaging industry will become more and more sustainable. We’ve noticed that interest in biodegradable polymers is increasing worldwide.

ENVIRONMENTENVIRONMENT 2120

Wolfgang Thissen has more than 200 old cameras in his collection.

THE MOST IMPORTANTFEATURES OF AN ANALOGUECAMERA BY THISSEN

The camera body: basically, a lightproof box The film: stores the pictures The lens: allows the light to go into the camera The shutter: sets the exposure time for the film

It all started by coincidence. Wolfgang Thissen, Execu-tive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Walki, was walking around a huge antique market in Delft, the Netherlands, when one item caught his attention: Konica EE-Matic Deluxe, a camera with his birthyear on it.

“I wasn’t sure if it really was from that year, but I thought it was fun,” he recalls. “Later, I went to a different market, and happened to see another interesting camera…”

Now, about seven years later, Thissen has 200 to 250 old cameras in his display cabinet at his family home in Ger-many. It’s difficult to say the exact number, as dozens of cam-eras still wait for Thissen to get his hands on them.

Initially, Thissen bought the cameras just for decoration. Although he can still spend an hour just admiring them, the most fascinating aspect of the hobby is much more practical: to dismantle and repair them.

“It’s amazing that a camera can be 100 years old yet still function perfectly,” he says, “even the cheap plastic ones from just after World War II.”

Built to lastFixing an antique camera is not for the scatterbrained. The screws on the device can be so tiny they’re almost invisible.

“On top of cameras, I have collected a large selection of very, very small tools,” Thissen tells laughingly.


23PROFILE


22 PROFILE

LITERALLY BEHIND THE CAMERA

For Wolfgang Thissen, flea markets are a treasure chest of his favourite collectables: old cameras that were built to last. Many of them are great storytellers.text Anne Salomäki photo Marja Väänänen

3 QUESTIONSWhat is your ultimate favourite camera and why? I’m still looking for one of those huge, old wooden field cameras, just to put it in my living room as decoration. You can get clones, but it’s not the same thing.What life lessons can cameras give? Think about the reason for their existence. A camera takes a picture of a moment with the pure intention of documenting it for the future. The story behind the technology is all about very special moments that people want to look back on.What are the qualities a good photographer needs to have? Just like a writer, a photographer needs to identify great moments and be able to see the world in pictures. I’m not talking about the guys who shoot models but the ones who experience and document things for the world to see.

” When I have a camera in hand, I’m 100% immersed in it.

A little handwork tends to bring the cameras, even if unused for decades, back to life. For example, a stuck shutter can be lubricated to make it move again. To Thissen, fiddling with the gadgets feels almost like meditation.

“When I have a camera in hand, I’m 100 per cent immersed in it. I don’t think about work or finances, I just switch of completely. Even my family says they can see I’m totally calm and relaxed.”

Thissen is also spellbound by the quality of the mechanics.“These days we talk about recycling a lot, but back in the

day, things were really built to last,” he notes. “Just imagine how great the technicians were at the time!”

Stories everywhereCameras are storytellers in their own right, capturing moments to be cherished later. However, for Thissen, the physical objects make memories, too.

“I remember where and how I got several of them. For example, the first camera I bought still reminds me of the great times my family had when we lived in the Netherlands.”

Similarly, the cameras carry along tales of their own past. That’s also one of the reasons people choose not to throw them away but, instead, sell them. Once, Thissen bought two Leicas from a man in his 80s.

“They were both beautifully kept, looking fantastic with hardly any damage,” he tells. “As I picked them up, the old man told me about the time when his father taught him to take photographs with them. The story must have been from 60 or 70 years ago.”

Although the most active years of camera hunting are gone, Thissen still occasionally stumbles across a model he doesn’t yet have in his collection. Some years ago, he decided he should own 1 000 cameras by the time he retires.

“I haven’t given up this target yet, but it will be challenging, as it’s difficult enough to find room for 250!”

We contribute with our actions

In service of the next generation.

W W W.WA LK I .C O M

We contribute with our actions

In service of the next generation.

W W W.WA LK I .C O M

Documents

CONTRIBUTING WITH ACTIONS · COVER STORIES Publisher Leif Frilund Editor-in-Chief Marina Kurula Editorial board Kari Salminen, Ralph Mucha, Arno Wolff Editorial content and layout