Australia’s leading tea producer Madura Tea has taken a significant step toward reducing its own impact on the environment: All packaging materials that were previously based on metalized OPP (oriented polypropylene) have been switched to flexible packaging paper.
Together with Gundlach Packaging Group and Koehler Paper, Madura Tea has found the ideal packaging paper for its products in the form of Koehler NexPlus Seal Pure MOB 72 gsm, which has a mineral oil barrier and offers protection against MOSH/MOAH. After several promising tests, the products are now available on the Australian market.
The Koehler NexPlus Seal Pure MOB flexible packaging paper boasts ideal barrier properties and consists of 100% certified virgin fiber pulp.
Gundlach Packaging Group and Koehler Paper provided Madura Tea with a range of test materials from the NexFlex product range. “Koehler NexPlus® Seal Pure MOB, which is made from 100% virgin fiber pulp and is suitable for contact with food, impressed everyone involved thanks to its outstanding barrier properties,” explains Yevgen Zolotkovski, Sales manager for Flexible Packaging Papers at Koehler Paper.
Rüdiger Brinkmann, Senior Sales manager at Gundlach, adds: “Although it’s an uncoated paper, the printing results are excellent and highlight the new environment-friendly concept.” Like all other Koehler NexPlus papers, Koehler NexPlus Seal Pure MOB is also heat-sealable, and its strength properties make it ideally suited for further processing on all commercially available packaging machines. “Madura Tea has made the right decision in demonstrating its environmental responsibility by using recyclable materials from sustainable sources,” says Carsten Loemker, lead Engineering and Technology at Madura Tea, explaining the tea producer’s motivation. In Koehler NexPlus Seal Pure MOB, Koehler Paper is offering a packaging paper with a reduced carbon footprint in comparison to conventional plastic packaging, and it also boasts the significant benefit of being 100% recyclable.
Sustainable packaging
With the NexFlex product range, the research and development team at Koehler Innovation & Technology, together with the experts at Koehler Paper, developed a unique and 100% recyclable generation of flexible packaging papers. The aim here is to replace plastic in packaging by using so-called barrier paper wherever possible.
The range covers a broad spectrum: It includes standard coated and uncoated papers used in laminates for pouches, sachets, and other applications, making them suitable for a wide range of packaging for food and non-food products. The next generation of papers for flexible packaging are sustainable barrier papers with functional surfaces for product-specific protection (Koehler NexPlus).
The NexFlex product family also includes papers coated on one side with good dimensional stability and high smoothness (Koehler NexCoat), as well as uncoated paper with a natural appearance (Koehler NexPure). Various flexible packaging papers from Koehler Paper were awarded a score of 19 out of a possible 20 points by the environmental service provider Interseroh, along with the ‘Made for Recycling’ seal.
Madura Tea Estates is a family-owned tea plantation nestled in the lush countryside of Clothiers Creek, New South Wales. With over 40 years of experience, the company has gained a reputation for producing some of the finest organic tea blends in Australia.
Founded in 1847 in Bielefeld, Germany, the core business of the Gundlach Packaging Group is the complete service package in the areas of folding carton and web printing in gravure, offset and flexo.
The Koehler Group was founded in 1807 and has been family-run from that moment to the present day. The group’s core business activity lies in the development and production of high-quality specialty paper. This includes—among others—thermal paper, playing card board, drinks coasters, fine paper, carbonless paper, recycled paper, decor paper, wood pulp board, sublimation papers, and also innovative specialty papers for the packaging industry since 2019.
