Ahead of this year’s Sustainability Awards taking place in Utrecht in November, we spoke with Ecohelix about its Woodmer Seal for coatings in industries such as e-commerce and personal care, said to be fully recyclable and nominated in the Pre-Commercialized Renewables category.
You’re a finalist in the Sustainability Awards 2025. Congratulations! To start off, could you summarize your entry, in less than 50 words?
Thank you! WOODMER Seal is a wood-based heat seal coating sourced from Nordic forests. Our technology transforms underutilized pulp industry side streams into a high-performing, sustainable packaging solution. It offers a plastic-free alternative for coatings in e-commerce, industrial, agricultural and personal care packaging, providing excellent barrier properties and full recyclability.
Why do you think the judges were impressed with your entry? Tell us about what is innovative about your project and/or about its impact on packaging sustainability.
We believe the judges were impressed by our ability to turn a waste stream into a value stream, specifically by deriving a heat seal coating with relevant properties from wood biomass. The beauty of our solution lies in offering a fibre-based alternative to plastics, enabling nearly 100% fibre-based packaging.
These materials are easy to recycle and boast an excellent environmental profile, which is a significant advantage for the packaging industry as it strives for plastic and emission reductions and complies with regulations like PPWR and Single Use Plastics.
The true innovation in our project is the simple manufacturing process for our polymer, which mimics natural structural creation. We utilize membrane filtration and enzymatic treatment to create our polymer, and this technology gives it the necessary, modifiable properties for diverse end applications.
This first-of-its-kind technology provides access to a large, untapped resource – the lignin/hemicellulosic side stream – which has been difficult to utilize until now.
Our specific impact on packaging sustainability involves solving the barrier functionality challenges of paper and board, while also enhancing the circularity of fibre-based materials. Ecohelix WOODMER Seal is an industrially scalable, economical, and environmentally sound solution that’s safe for human contact and readily available within the EU.
This wood-based polymer, derived from natural, non-fossil raw materials, represents a significant functional and technical leap forward. Ultimately, WOODMER Seal transforms waste streams into value streams, benefiting pulp mills, packaging producers, converters and brand owners alike.
Finally, can you tell us about the ongoing development of your project, e.g. how your innovation/initiative has been received by the industry, or what the next steps are in commercialization/product development?
Our initiative has been very well received by the industry. There’s rapidly growing interest in bio-based solutions, particularly within packaging coatings. Given that we utilize fibre-based feedstock, which offers relevant properties and can be processed with existing converting infrastructure, interest in Ecohelix and our products is rapidly increasing.
We’re currently moving into the commercial stage with several industrial-scale end application trials underway, and the results have been really good. Our collaborations with industry-leading paper manufacturers, converters, and brand owners give us the confidence to scale up our capabilities.
We’re expanding our demo production capacity, accelerating product development, preparing for a Series A financing round, and planning a full-scale production plant. These are truly exciting times as we prepare for market entry and the expansion of our wood-based biopolymers!
The winners of the Sustainability Awards 2025 will be announced at the Sustainable Packaging Summit, taking place in Utrecht on 10-12 November. The Summit mobilizes leaders of the FMCG value chain, policymakers, NGOs, recyclers and investors to collaborate, remove barriers and identify opportunities on the road to sustainable transformation.
To learn more or register, visit: https://www.packagingsummit.earth/2025
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