Paperisation: How Fibre-Based Alternatives Are Replacing Single-Use Plastics

From cable ties to drinking straws, the number of everyday items that are turning away from single-use plastic to fibre-based alternatives is increasing. Discover the latest innovations in the world of paperisation.

Water Bottles

The development of paper-based wine and spirit bottles may have grabbed the headlines over the past 12 months, but creating a sustainable single-use bottle for water has proved to be more of a challenge. A water bottle not only needs to retain and transport the liquid with repeated consumer handling, but deliver the appearance, functionality and experience people expect from packaged water. However, water brand AUM Premium is planning to launch a paper-based water bottle by the end of 2026, which promises to be 100% plastic-free using paper that’s responsibly sourced.

“Water is a product people consume every day, but the conversation around it has largely remained limited to purity and price,” said Jagriti Motwani, CEO of AUM Premium. “Packaging deserves equal attention.”

Cable Ties

The US packaging company Atlantic Packaging has launched a fibre-based cable tie designed to replace conventional single-use plastic ties in packaging, logistics and industrial settings. Called the FibreStrap, it’s made from certified Scandinavian wood fibres and is designed to provide the strength needed to bundle, secure and attach products, while fitting into existing operations with minimal process changes. The product has been tested against the performance standard used for plastic cable ties and meets all established strength and durability requirements. Cable ties might be small, but billions are used across the world every day, so replacing the plastic ones with fibre-based alternatives would go a long way to reducing single-use plastics.

Sawdust-Based Foam

While many brands and companies have been busy replacing single-use plastic around their products with paper-based alternatives, the use of polystyrene remains a challenge for many retailers, especially for products that need more robust packaging such as large electronic items. However, a study funded by the US Department of Energy has found that waste sawdust from wood mills could be processed to create a packaging foam with the same strength and impact resistance of polystyrene.

“The initial driver for this work was packaging foams, which are used in abundance to protect materials in transit,” explains Todd Emrick, one of the study’s authors. “Because our initial assessment of mechanical properties appears promising, such sawdust-based foams may be examined further in all sorts of applications, including construction materials and high-end packaging for consumer electronics, where lightweight and protective packaging is essential.”

Plant Stem Drinking Straws

Demonstrating that nature has a solution for most of life’s challenges, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Wales has discovered an unusual alternative to conventional disposable drinking straws. A restaurant that prides itself on its local produce, The Whitebrook in Monmouthshire, is producing drinking straws from the naturally hollow stems of ground elder grown in its own kitchen garden.

Ground elder grows in abundance in the Wye Valley and is treated as an unwanted plant in many gardens. But once dried, its hollow internal structure enables them to function effectively as drinking straws.

“It’s rewarding to take a plant that many people would overlook and turn it into something practical that helps reduce waste,” said restaurant manager Rhys Jex. “The straws are completely natural, fully biodegradable and made entirely from plants foraged around the restaurant, which makes them a perfect fit for what we’re trying to achieve at The Whitebrook.”

You can find more examples of paperisation, such as rigid plastic caps and tubes for pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, in our article From Plastic To Pulp Packaging.

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