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Addressing the Demand for Sustainable Stretch and Wrapping Films in China

Plastic wrapping and cling-type films remain essential across food packaging, retail, and household use, yet conventional fossil-based stretch films continue to raise concerns tied to fossil-resource dependence, long-term environmental persistence, and end-of-life waste management. At the same time, many bio-based and biodegradable film alternatives available in the market still struggle to balance performance, processability, cost, and large-scale commercial feasibility. This gap between sustainability goals and practical manufacturing requirements is precisely the challenge that Shanghai Sipeng Technology Ltd., operating under the brand SYNLIFE, has been working to address through its film and packaging material platforms.

SYNLIFE: A Bio-Based Materials Technology Company Built for Packaging Innovation

Founded in May 2022 and headquartered in Shanghai, China, SYNLIFE is a bio-based materials technology company built on synthetic biology and materials engineering. Rather than focusing narrowly on material synthesis, SYNLIFE develops its materials around actual processing conditions and end-use requirements, combining capabilities across biological manufacturing, material development, formulation optimization, process scale-up, manufacturing, and application development. This application-oriented approach allows SYNLIFE to pursue high-performance, bio-based, and lower-carbon material solutions intended to bridge the gap between laboratory innovation and commercial-scale applications, including in flexible film and packaging categories where stretch- and cling-type wrapping films are widely used.

ZeRoll®: Biodegradable Stretch Film for Pallet Wrapping

Within SYNLIFE’s film portfolio, ZeRoll® includes biodegradable stretch film solutions for pallet wrapping, logistics, warehousing, and manufacturing applications. The product offers adjustable tackiness of 0.8–6.5 N and elastic recovery of up to 70%, supporting effective wrapping performance. Compostability claims should be tied to the applicable product grade and relevant certification scope.

Beyond general cling and wrapping applications, SYNLIFE has also developed ZeRoll® for high-barrier use cases, including a modified-atmosphere packaging (MAP) film solution for fresh meat and other high-barrier food applications. Development work on this MAP film line has focused on oxygen barrier performance, water-vapor barrier performance, carbon-dioxide transmission, heat-sealing performance, mechanical performance, and food-contact compliance. SYNLIFE emphasizes that internal and third-party testing data for these films should always be quoted together with the relevant test conditions, methods, and product specifications, rather than treated as universal performance claims.

NeoRoll®: Functional Film Solutions for Diverse Packaging Needs

Complementing ZeRoll®, SYNLIFE’s NeoRoll® platform covers functional film solutions, including non-biodegradable functional films, allowing the company to serve packaging needs that call for specific functional properties beyond compostability alone. Together with other application-specific film developments—such as fruit and vegetable packaging film and bakery and food packaging film—NeoRoll® extends SYNLIFE’s film and packaging offering across a broader range of commercial use cases, giving converters, packaging manufacturers, and brand owners multiple film options depending on their functional, regulatory, and sustainability requirements.

The Technical Foundation Behind SYNLIFE’s Film Platforms

SYNLIFE’s film innovations are supported by a layered technical capability system. On the synthetic biology side, the company works on strain development, metabolic pathway optimization, fermentation process development, and biological manufacturing to support bio-based feedstocks. On the materials engineering side, capabilities include polymer formulation, modification, compounding, processing optimization, and application development, while application engineering work is built around real manufacturing processes such as film processing, extrusion, injection molding, thermoforming, and spinning. SYNLIFE also applies AI-assisted research and development methods to support formulation design, process optimization, material-property prediction, and experimental iteration, with data-driven methods used to improve experimental efficiency and accelerate screening. These capabilities are backed by multiple patents and proprietary technical know-how accumulated by SYNLIFE and its founding technical teams across synthetic biology and materials development.

 

Manufacturing Scale and Commercialization Readiness

SYNLIFE’s film development work is supported by a team of more than 50 employees, including researchers and engineers across synthetic biology, material development, product development, and commercialization, operating out of a Shanghai R&D center with more than 2,000 square meters of research and development space. Manufacturing and supply-chain capabilities are maintained in Jiangsu, including Nantong, supporting the industrialization and commercialization of selected high-performance bio-based materials, films, and downstream applications. For companies seeking film solutions in China, SYNLIFE offers a range of service models, including raw material supply, material customization, joint product development, application development, finished-product OEM/ODM, process and technical support, and pilot and scale-up support—covering the full path from formulation development through processing optimization, testing support, and commercial-scale supply.

Compliance, Testing and Market Recognition

SYNLIFE’s film-related products undergo product-specific compostability, bio-based content, and food-contact compliance testing or certification where applicable, and food-contact products can be tested or evaluated against applicable Chinese, EU, and U.S. requirements depending on the product and target market. Certification bodies, standards, certificate numbers, and applicable product grades are specified whenever such compliance claims are used. SYNLIFE has also been recognized as a Shanghai “Specialized and Innovative” Enterprise, and its broader bio-based material and finished-product applications have entered commercial validation and industry exhibitions, including selection as one of 16 winners of Tencent’s CarbonX Program 2.0 following a global process involving 660 applications from 54 countries and regions.

A Partner for China’s Evolving Packaging Industry

For material and plastic product manufacturers, packaging manufacturers, brand owners, OEM/ODM manufacturers, and distribution partners evaluating stretch and cling film options in China, SYNLIFE’s ZeRoll® and NeoRoll® platforms offer a documented, application-oriented approach to bio-based and functional film development. By combining synthetic biology, materials engineering, and application engineering capabilities with manufacturing and testing support, Shanghai Sipeng Technology Ltd., through its SYNLIFE brand, continues to work toward film solutions that align sustainability objectives with the practical performance and processing requirements of commercial packaging operations.

https://www.synlifeglobal.com/
SYNLIFE

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