Fibre-based closures

Blue Ocean Closures is a pioneering Swedish company dedicated to creating sustainable packaging solutions for a cleaner planet. Specialising in fibre-based closures for bottles and containers, the company leverages advanced proprieatory press forming technologies to produce environmentally friendly alternatives to traditional plastic caps. By replacing single-use plastics with biobased, recyclable materials, Blue Ocean Closures helps brands reduce their carbon footprint while maintaining high performance and quality standards.

Founded on innovation, collaboration, and a strong commitment to circularity, the company works closely with industry leaders and global brands to accelerate the transition toward sustainable packaging across various sectors, including food, beverage, and personal care. First to the market in 2024, Blue Ocean Closures introduced the entirely new category of closures in the nutraceuticals segment.

With a mission to address the world’s plastic pollution crisis Blue Ocean Closures is continuously exploring new technologies to achieve biobased, biodegradable and recyclable solutions that are both cost-effective and scalable.

Potential future developments

Fibre-based closures are poised to evolve significantly, becoming even more competitive and aligned with society’s growing demand for sustainable solutions. Development will focus on enhancing performance and moisture resistance, enabling wider adoption across industries such as food and beverages. In ten years time, there are strong reasons to argue that a big part of the beverage carton industry, using some 135 billion closures per year, has shifted into paper-based closures.

As regulations tighten and consumer awareness increases, fibre-based closures will gain market share by offering circular, low-carbon alternatives that integrate seamlessly into existing systems both for filling and recycling.

Blue Ocean Closures see that the technology field, sintering fibres into 3D-shaped objects, will grow in significance and has a big potential to replace fossil materials in other sectors beyond packaging in a cost-competitive and scalable way. To further explore this area, collaboration across the value chains will be highly important and businesses in Europe can advance both economically and environmentally as a result.

Current contribution

Blue Ocean Closures innovative fibre-based closures are a key contributor to the EU bioeconomy by replacing fossil-based plastics with renewable, recyclable materials derived from sustainably sourced fibre. These closures, used in packaging for beverages, food, and cosmetics, support the transition to a circular economy by reducing carbon emissions, minimising plastic pollution, and promoting responsible resource use.

The innovation addresses the environmental problems with plastic packaging and in particular closures, that are among the most common single-use plastic items found in nature. Estimates show that around 2200 billion plastic closures are produced and consumed annually. The vast majority of plastic closures are using fossil resources. The recycling rate of plastic closures is very low due to various complexities including infrastructure and sorting behaviour. In contrast, the fibre-based cap is designed for recyclability and certified recyclable as paper. In many countries around the world, the system for paper and carton board recycling is the most widely used recycling stream, reaching above 80% in Europe.

With the first production plant set up in Sweden, Blue Ocean Closures is set to expand in European markets with more facilities, contributing also to employment opportunities and regional economies with partners in Italy, Germany and France for instance.