Smurfit Kappa launches AgroPaper. It is a renewable and compostable paper designed to replace the plastic material that is used by many farmers and growers for ‘mulching’ when growing vegetables, as the company says in the press release received by Lesprom Network.

Mulching refers to placing a material (mulch) on the ground to improve the soil around plants, prevent weeds growing and maintain the temperature of the land.

A team of specialists from Smurfit Kappa’s Nervion and Sangüesa Paper Mills worked with the INTIA (a research centre for agrifood technology in Spain) to identify a way to use long pine fibres from sustainably managed local forests as a basis for the new paper. The polythene that is most commonly used for mulches can be difficult and costly to remove and leaves behind small fragments that can be consumed by animals. AgroPaperTM, on the other hand, is an eco-friendly material that safely and harmlessly biodegrades as a compost into the ground.

Tests on AgroPaperTM revealed that in many cases the crop yield actually increased.

Smurfit Kappa Group plc is one of the world's largest manufacturers of paper-based packaging products, with operations in Europe and the Americas.

 

Source: lesprom.com

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