Sustainable Coatings

Sustainable and eco-friendly coatings

​​​​​​​ACTGreen® Sustainable Coatings is a sustainable portfolio of overprint varnishes for the use on folding cartons, publications and commercial prints. This includes both products based on recycled raw materials of fossil origin and bio-based materials as well as coatings based on renewable resources in the form of vegetable resins.

Do you have any questions? Contact us and we will be happy to advise you on your individual requirements.

Bio-based coatings with the extra plus of sustainability

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​These coatings are a further development of existing, mature products with the same positive technical characteristics. Products have been reformulated so that they are partially based on renewable and recycled raw materials. These include both recycled raw materials of fossil origin as well as bio-based materials (e.g. renewable resources). Depending on functionality and desired properties, coatings can have a sustainability of more than 60%. The indicated percentage refers to the coatings‘ solids content. All coatings currently available are water-based.

With ACTGreen® Sustainable Coatings we make a decisive contribution to more sustainability in printing.

Dr. Björn Askevold

Global Portfolio Manager Paper & Board

Water-based coatings versus bio-based coatings

Water-based coatings have proven to be the leading technology in the graphic arts industry due to their many advantages. They are solvent-free – environmentally friendly, odorless and tasteless. However, water-based coatings are based on petroleum derivatives. These are processed in the large-scale chemical industry to produce appropriate raw materials. The disadvantage: oil is a limited resource - used here on consumables that are applied to products with a limited shelf life, i.e. printed products. To make water-based overprint varnishes more sustainable, raw materials of fossil origin can be replaced by alternative materials. Possible options are recycled fossil raw materials or bio-based products. These include renewable raw materials or raw materials whose origin can be found in biomass.

From standard and all-rounders to premium solutions

Currently available is a portfolio of water-based coatings from dull matt to gloss for standard and premium applications. Depending on the product, these coatings provide a fast drying, a very high wet block resistance and a good scuff resistance. Also available is a hot-foil stampable version as well as products for the two-sided varnishing. The percentage of sustainability varies depending on functionality and desired properties.

Please also refer to our white paper on sustainability:

Printed Sample

Order your ACTGreen® printed sample now.

Read our white paper

Sustainable barrier coating solutions

Environmentally friendly PE-replacement.

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