Did you know that honey is the only food that contains all substances necessary to sustain life, including water, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and antioxidants associated with brain functioning? Did you also know it was once said, “If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live”?
What does this have to do with paper products? We recently had a client who manufactures food for these amazing honey bees come to us in need of a specialty paper to line their bee food bars. The company’s product is a formulation of protein and nutrients that are good for bees and helps them produce great honey. The food is extruded into sticky bars eaten by the bees, and is sold to honey producers, bee keepers, and others in the honey bee business. This startup company has grown significantly over the past three years, creating quite a “buzz”.
Our client needed us to make a paper for them (and their bees) that would keep the bars from sticking to the packaging. It couldn’t be ordinary paper though; it needed a coating on it to prevent oils and moisture from seeping through, while having small holes in it so that the bees could get through to the food, while being safe for the bees to eat through. At the same time, the required roll widths were very narrow, and difficult for many converters to produce. A complex project, indeed!
After doing various trials and testing a number of grades, we were able to develop a custom wax coating on a very specific bleached kraft paper that the bees liked—if the bees didn’t like eating the paper, they would not eat the product underneath it. Who knew our paper products are people and bee friendly?
At Papertec, every day we are tasked with fun and challenging projects and applications. This is just one example of our value—we suppose you could say it’s the bee’s knees.