Fresh Thinking Paper Ideas – September 2026

The latest global paper innovations, from Spanish tomato packaging that turns into a basketball game to an Argentinian café that’s encouraging letter writing. 

They Shoot, They Score

Spanish packaging specialist Enbox has created a highly creative piece of food packaging for cherry tomatoes that can turn from sustainable cardboard packaging to a miniature basketball game.

Based on the slogan ‘Less plastic, more game’, the recyclable design replaces conventional single-use PET plastic tubs with a foldable fibre-based tray. Once the tomatoes are eaten, a simple folding mechanism transforms the pack into a miniature basketball hoop, creating a new game and extending the life of the packaging.

By introducing an element of play, the packaging aims to build a bond with families and children while transforming a standard pack into a source of entertainment. The only tricky bit will be getting your kids to stop playing with their food.

Take A Break

Global snack brand KitKat has created a brand new piece of packaging that takes the concept of taking a break a step further by blocking your phone signal.

Produced by KitKat Panama and Ogilvy Colombia, the ‘Break Mode’ pouch looks like an oversized KitKat wrapper, but is actually a Faraday cage, made of highly conductive material that’s designed to block electromagnetic fi elds. That means that once your phone is inside, you’ll be free of calls or notifications.

“In a world that never disconnects, how can a brand’s promise of a ‘break’ become a reality?” asks a statement posted to Ogilvy’s Instagram account. “You reinvent the packaging.”

The KitKat pouch is another example of brands using the current consumer desire to disconnect from digital devices, with other campaigns including IKEA’s phone-sized flat-packed bed designed to encourage users to turn their phones off before going to sleep.

Head-Turning Page-Turner

Luxury fashion brand Coach have leapt on the literature bandwagon by creating a hot new accessory for their stylish bags: books. Created in collaboration with the publisher Penguin Random House, these ‘book charms’ are hardback, fully readable versions of classic literature such as Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, alongside more recent titles like Untamed by Glennon Doyle and A Forest of Wool and Steel by Natsu Miyashita.

The latest in a long line of book-related fashion accessories, the charms were on the front rows of fashion shows and red carpet events earlier this year, and are inspiring a wave of copycat designs. If you have a desire to combine great fashion sense with something to read, the book charms are available for $95 on the Coach website.

Bright Idea

Italian energy company Plenitude and advertising agency TBWA\Italy have created a new print book that’s designed to be read in the dark. With 75% of children aged three to nine afraid of the dark, many parents have to resort to leaving a light on in the room or hallway all night, which is neither sustainable or great for energy bills. So the two companies created Goodnight Light, the world’s first children’s book designed to be read only in the dark.

Using glow-in-the-dark ink that only becomes visible once the lights go out, the book follows Lucilla and her friendly monster, helping children to reframe darkness as something magical rather than menacing. Each copy doubles as a star-shaped bedside lamp, making sustainability feel like bedtime magic.

Coffee Correspondence

A café in Buenos Aires is encouraging its customers to put down their devices and write physical letters as they sip their coffee. Operating as Unit 5828 of the Argentine postal service, the café is both a post office and a community hub, deliberately slowing down the pace of life and inviting all generations to experience the delights of letter writing: selecting the paper, writing the message, sealing the envelope with hot wax and addressing postcards by hand.

Staff report that adults bring their children and grandchildren along to introduce them to print communication, while the children inspire older patrons to reconnect with a forgotten practice. The venue also offers 90 physical post office boxes for rent, with customers receiving notifications when new correspondence arrives.

Join the community

By signing up for the Two Sides newsletter, you join 70,000 industry professionals getting up-to-date sustainability news from across the print, paper and paper packaging industry.

Sign me up!