Mondi, a global packaging and paper supplier, has contributed material and processing expertise to produce plastic protective gowns for staff at local nursing homes and retirement facilities in order to help mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. The first 100 of these disposable, single-use garments have been delivered to the regional district’s Civil Protection Authority in Diepholz, who will oversee the distribution to facilities that need it most. Mondi plans to produce at least 10,000 further gowns in the coming months.

Creating the gowns has required the collaboration of three Mondi plants alongside partnering with local company Borgerding, who will assist in the assembly of the gowns. The process has involved Mondi Halle extruding a 750 mm-diameter polyethylene film tube that forms the body of the slip-over gown. Mondi Gronau is using its R&D Centre to extrude smaller, 250 mm-diameter PE tubes that will form the sleeves on the gown, and Mondi Steinfeld is converting the bodies and the sleeves. Borgerding is manually attaching and sealing the sleeves to the bodies of the larger tube.

Mondi employees worked extra shifts over the Easter holiday weekend to help develop this solution and have already started to produce the first batch of the needed components.

Alfons Kruse, Mondi’s plant manager in Steinfeld, stated: “We’re very pleased that Mondi could respond to this request and quickly devise a solution to help protect front-line staff and health care workers in the region. As a packaging producer, it involved creatively rethinking materials and production processes in order to make protective garments. Mondi's employees rose to this challenge to support our local communities and we are proud of their work.”