What is Plastic Free Coating

Before environmental protection became mandatory, paper cups and other paper packaging were generally coated with a PE film in order to obtain good water and oil resistance. However, with the "plastic ban" issued by various countries and regions, the market has begun to demand the material and recyclability of plastic.

The new version of China's plastic ban calls for the first to ban and restrict the production, sale and use of some disposable plastic products in some regions and some areas, although it does not specify whether to ban disposable paper cups with PE film.

EU SUP also banned the use of 10 types of disposable plastic products, including beverage cups, and a number of European countries have made mandatory requirements for recyclability. Nowadays, source reduction, recyclable, biodegradable and bio-based are the major direction of environmental protection.

PE coated paper cups have the problems of non-degradable, non-re-pulpable and difficult to recycle, so some regional markets have begun to gradually replace them.

Surprisingly, occupy the main market of PE film alternatives, neither PLA film, nor corn starch film, but a kind of water-based paint - acrylic paint.

Acrylic coating is a water-based coatings, it is reported that most of the environmental protection paper cups are now used in the water-based coating method, due to the acrylic price and performance advantages, more water-based acrylic coatings to achieve the effect of water and oil.

Paper products using this coating process, because there is no use of PE, PLA and other traditional or degradation of plastic lamination, so it is also known as "plastic-free coating paper products", with recyclable, simple process, low-cost advantages.

Recyclability: Traditional PE coated paper cups are difficult to recycle because it is difficult to separate the polyethylene film on the surface of the cups from the paper cups, while "plastic-free" paper cups can be recycled directly without separating the coating from the paper material.

Cost: While meeting waterproofing requirements, "plastic-free" paper cups have a very thin coating and use less water-based coating, resulting in lower costs.

Understanding Waterborne Acrylic Coatings

Waterborne acrylic coatings are a kind of low-pollution waterborne coatings, which has been developing rapidly in recent years and occupies a certain share in the market, and its raw material is waterborne acrylic resin.

Waterborne acrylic resin is divided into three kinds: acrylic resin emulsion, acrylic resin aqueous dispersion and acrylic resin aqueous solution. Emulsions are mainly synthesized by emulsifying oily alkene monomers in water under the initiation of aqueous free radical initiators, while resin aqueous dispersions are synthesized by different processes such as free radical solution polymerization or stepwise solution polymerization.

According to the type of resin, waterborne acrylic coatings are roughly categorized into three types: emulsion-type acrylic resin coatings, acrylic dispersion-type coatings and water-soluble acrylic coatings. The advantages and disadvantages of each are roughly as follows:

Advantages and disadvantages of coating types

Emulsion-type acrylic resin coatings

1. Low VOC, inexpensive, better chemical resistance

2. Gloss, poor leveling, poor stability

Acrylic dispersion type coating

1. General VOC, fullness, gloss is better

2. Relatively troublesome construction, higher coating costs

Water-soluble acrylic coatings

1. Wide range of molecular weight, can be made into a variety of water-based coatings

2. Higher VOC, relatively poor chemical resistance.

Used to make paper packaging coatings are generally emulsion-type acrylic coatings, made of acrylic resin emulsion.