Espersen A/S

In collaboration with A. Espersen A/S, Schur has produced a carton packaging for Espersen's seafood dishes without any use of plastic coating. This means that the packaging can eventually be recycled directly.

Since the 1950s, Schur has had a collaboration with A. Espersen A/S to develop and produce packaging solutions for their retail fish and seafood dishes, making them one of Schur's largest collaborators. Most of Espersen's products have been directly packed in a carton packaging produced by Schur. To best preserve the freshness of the goods, the boxes have been coated with PE (Polyethylene), which is a thin layer of plastic. This has created a hygiene barrier, ensuring, among other things, that moisture from the fish does not penetrate the carton and damage the packaging.

Less plastic and more recyclable

For about two years, Schur has been working hard to create a new packaging for A. Espersen A/S that can replace the plastic layer with a different barrier. This has resulted in a new water-based coating that is entirely free of plastic. The barrier still ensures that moisture and stains from their fish, as well as breaded or pastry-wrapped fish, do not penetrate the packaging.

At Schur, 50 million boxes are produced annually for A. Espersen A/S, and therefore, it's not something that can be changed overnight. Currently, Schur uses approximately 125 tons of plastic per year to produce packaging for Espersen. The goal is that the new plastic-free packaging should be fully implemented by 2025. This ambitious target is set with the aim of enabling the large fish producer to completely eliminate plastic from its packaging production as soon as possible.

When the solution is fully implemented, it primarily contributes to making the packaging more recyclable and thus sustainable. Without the use of plastic, the recycling of the packaging becomes more straightforward, as it can be sorted as carton.