Paptic: not paper, not plastic, but a biodegradable alternative?

14-Feb-2019 - Last updated on 14-Feb-2019 at 11:56 GMT

Packaging players are under increasing scrutiny from consumers, regulators and manufacturing customers alike to offer increasingly sustainable plastic packaging solutions: Paptic is one innovation offering a solution in this space.

The Paptic - paper plus plastic in one word - company describes its material as a next generation packaging material that offers a combination of the qualities of both paper and plastics.

Paptic, on show at the Innovation Zone of the recent ACD & PDF trade event in Paris, has all the advantages of plastic - it's versatile, reusable, light-weight, soft - but it's made from renewable raw materials and is recyclable.

Paptic is made of sustainable wood fibre, and is suitable for uses where plastic films have previously been the only alternative. For the moment the material is made of more than 70% renewable materials and is 80% recyclable, but the company asserts that eventually both figures will reach 100%.

The company is a Finnish startup and spin-off established in April 2015. The technology platform is based on a 7 year and €10m research portfolio, spun-off from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.

An eco alternative for luxury brands?

Paptic suggests its material’s ‘unique texture’, a soft, matte finish and feel surface, makes it suitable for ‘the most demanding brands in the world’. It is, the company suggests, an ecological choice for luxury brands.

The product charactieristics of Paptic - tear resistance, heat sealability, controlled porosity, textile-like tactual properties - and its compatibility with many packaging production technologies make the material applicable for a wide variety of end products, the company says.