The unique solid board enriched with tomato plant fibres, produced by Solidus Solutions, emerged as the clear winner at the Packaging Europe Sustainability Awards 2016.

This competition was organised for the second time by Packaging Europe, the international trade magazine about packaging. In each of the eight categories a winner was elected and the solid board enriched with tomato plant fibres won in the category ‘biobased packaging’, a statement said.

Together with their partners in the Westland (the area in The Netherlands known for greenhouse horticulture), Solidus Solutions developed a procedure to produce solid board using tomato plants. The fact that the same land produces both the tomatoes and the resources for their packaging was the deciding factor to win the Packaging Europe Sustainability Awards 2016. 

Basically, tomatoes can be packed using ‘their own’ plant fibres. This innovation may reduce the emission of CO2 for each tonne of board (approximately 200 boxes for 6 kg / 13 lbs tomatoes) by 54,500 g CO2 eq. In other words, the equivalent of a CO2 emission when driving 420 kilometres (260 miles) by car, the statement said.

Every year, approximately 1800 Dutch hectares produce 85 million kilos of tomato plants and their life cycle usually ends when they are composted. However, together with waste paper, the plant residue can now be used to produce high grade, recyclable solid board. A hectare of tomato plants will produce 100,000 tomato boxes (trays of 6 kilogram), which is exactly what is needed to pack the 600 tonnes of tomatoes that the same hectare produces every year. This year’s crop therefore provides next year›s packing! Obviously, the board equivalent of these 100,000 trays may be used for other kinds of packaging.

A unique cooperation, called Bio Base Westland, involving growers, green waste processors, board mills, research institutions, universities, consultants and councils, led to a win-win situation. Growers may now buy the solid board packing, which has been enriched by their own plants, ‘back’ to pack their own tomatoes. Solidus Solutions and Van Vliet Contrans will continue to optimise the process of making board out of tomato plants.

Solidus Solutions has already developed the very first 3 and 5 kg solid board tomato boxes, enriched with tomato plant fibres, for The Greenery. For Harvest House, it produced the first 250 to 500 g tomato trays for consumers. It recently also produced new 1.5 and 5 kg tomato boxes using this unique board for Naturelle, a wholesale specialised in organic products and affiliate of The Greenery.

Solidus Solutions is one of Europe’s leading producers of solid board, graphic board and solid board packaging. The company has a long history dating back 150 years and has production facilities (four solid board mills and four packaging plants) in the Netherlands, Belgium and the UK, as well as dedicated sales offices in France and Norway. It is the largest solid board operation in Europe, employing almost 1000 people.

The company offers a wide range of recyclable packaging solutions and specialises in the production of solid board, solid board packaging and graphic board in various compositions. The company supplies a range of sectors including the food packaging industry and industrial markets.

In April 2015 the Solid Board operations of Smurfit Kappa in the Netherlands, Belgium and the UK were acquired by pan-European mid-market investor Aurelius and rebranded as Solidus Solutions.