Blue Ocean Closures teams up with Arla Foods to develop sustainable milk carton cap

Karlstad-based startup Blue Ocean Closures has partnered with dairy company Arla Foods to create a fibre-based cap for its cardboard milk cartons. This collaboration could reduce over 500 tonnes of plastic Arla Foods uses annually.

Arla’s cardboard cartons contain caps contributing to about 23 percent of the plastic used in the packaging. Arla Foods has set a goal to eliminate the use of virgin plastic made from fossil fuels in its packaging by 2030.

“This exciting project, which aims to investigate what may turn out to be the first fibre-based milk carton cap, demonstrates how hard we work at Arla to advance and pioneer the transition to sustainable packaging,” Peter Giørtz-Carlsen, Arla Foods’ chief commercial officer, said.

Blue Ocean Closures creates its fibre-based cap by combining sustainably sourced and Forest Stewardship Council-certified fibre materials with a thin barrier coating.

The cap manufacturing process involves using cutting-edge, proprietary vacuum press forming technology. It enables the production of a recyclable cap that is both bio-based and biodegradable in the ocean.

Lars Sandberg, CEO of Blue Ocean Closures, said the startup was thrilled about partnering with Arla and its pioneering efforts in promoting sustainable packaging.

The innovation is expected to perform better than Arla’s previous trial with capless milk cartons in 2020, which received negative feedback from consumers for its packaging design.

Giørtz-Carlsen said Arla Foods recognises the convenience caps offer and is aware of consumers’ preference for such packaging. If a cap is necessary, we want to design the best one we can, which is what we are currently doing,” he said.

Blue Ocean Closures’ commitment to eco-friendly packaging

The collaboration is not Blue Ocean Closures’ first foray into eco-friendly packaging. Earlier this year, the company partnered with RISE and Swed-jam to introduce fibre lids to replace metal screw lids in various food and beverage products such as jams, smoothies and compotes.

In partnership with Aisa and Stora Enso, Blue Ocean Closures unveiled a groundbreaking paperboard tube with a fibre-based closure at Interpack 2023. This innovative tube reportedly contains more than 85 percent fibre.

Blue Ocean Closures and Glatfelter also emerged as finalists in the Recyclable Packaging category with their cellulose-based screw caps at the Sustainability Awards 2022.

This award led ALPLA Group — part owner of Blue Ocean Closures— to make a second investment in the startup to expedite the development of these caps.