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Kaltrina Bylykbashi
Paper has become a go-to material for designers wishing to use more sustainable solutions. When it works for the application, paper can excel, thanks to its easy recyclability, ability to biodegrade and positive consumer perception. But the paper industry needs serious disruption if it is to live up to its sustainable promise and full potential.
The growth of the paper industry in the fight against big plastic has brought with it increasing scrutiny into the impact of paper on the planet, and this impact could soon outweigh its benefits. A significant contributor to deforestation, the tree-based paper industry is also heat, water and energy intensive, while using toxic chemicals that pollute natural environments.
But all is not lost: tree-free papers have the potential to be more environmentally friendly than papers made from forests, and they are emerging at pace. Whether made from industrial by-products or marine-based plants, these papers provide the same, if not better properties than traditional paper, without the impact.
“If you’re a creative looking to paper as an alternative to plastic, you’re already in the right place,” says Ben Watkinson, Global Brand Director at G.F. Smith – a paper manufacturer and distributor that stocks wood-based and alternative feed papers. “But from there it’s good to open up the reasons you want to use paper and consider your options.”
hectares of forest is destroyed each year for paper production
of water is needed to produce one A4 sheet of wood-based paper
of global emissions come from the wood-based paper industry
The use of tree-based fibres for paper can be incredibly wasteful. Many tree species take decades to grow fully, and using these trees for products that are disposable within minutes of consumption is not an efficient utilisation of resources. While a lot of paper businesses use sustainable tree sources from forests preserved by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), the industry still contributes to deforestation, partly driven by illegal logging in Asia and South America. An estimated 4.1 million hectares of forest is destroyed each year in the name of paper production, according to a 2018 report by the Environmental Paper Network.
There are also environmental impacts related to the papermaking process, particularly when it involves wood. To produce paper, trees must first go through a pulping process where lignin is stripped from cellulose fibres so that they can be moulded into a desirable shape. This requires a host of harmful chemicals including sodium hydroxide and sodium sulphide, as does the bleaching process which uses chlorine dioxide. What’s more, this process tends to be more intensive when using trees, compared to alternative feedstocks.
Large quantities of water are also used in traditional papermaking. It is estimated that a single A4 sheet of paper takes 10 to 20 litres of water to produce. In some nations, as much as 10% of all freshwater is used by the paper industry. Paper production is also heat-intensive, due to the large amounts of water that must be removed when drying pulp and paper. This makes paper responsible for just under 2% of all emissions from industry as of 2022. And while paper is widely advertised as biodegradable, it still accounts for 26% of total waste at landfills. With paper demand expected to grow from 420 million metric tonnes in 2023 to 476 million metric tonnes in 2032, it is imperative that we rewrite the rulebook.
Paper has not always been reliant on wood pulp – or the current processing we see today. Up until it became a dominant fibre in the 19th century, papermakers used whatever cellulose-containing raw material that was readily available to them: straw, Hemp, Cotton, grass, or Linen. Some of the earliest paper was produced during China’s Han Dynasty (AD 105) where a combination of hemp, bark, cloth fibres and fishing nets were used to create sheets. An even earlier iteration of writing material was of course papyrus, created in ancient Egypt over 5000 years ago.
Today, amid the plastics crisis, and the growth of eco-consciousness, some of these materials are making a comeback – and they’re proving much more efficient than wood fibre, requiring less energy, fewer chemicals, and less water to produce. Coming from pre-existing waste streams, they not only stop the decline of forests but also make use of what would otherwise end up in landfill – or worse be burned, causing further emissions.
Many have looked to history and made a return to land-based plants that have a proven track record. Hahnemühle, a legacy maker of graphic papers in Germany, is now producing a hemp and cotton blend sheet paper that doesn’t use any chemical treatment or additives before or after production. This means the water used can be returned to rivers with no harmful effects. Suitable for book publishing, it made its debut with Maren Krings’ H is for Hemp title at the London Book Fair in 2022. The company also works with Bamboo and agave.
G.F. Smith, meanwhile produces a hemp line named Gmund Hemp, which comes with 10%, 50%, or 100% hemp fibre. Its strength and suppleness makes it ideal for cards, brochures and packaging. Elsewhere, bamboo is being used widely for toilet paper. As hygiene products are one of the biggest contributors to paper growth, it’s an impactful area to disrupt – and it has been done by the likes of Grove Collaborative, Who Gives A Crap, and Bazoo.
Many tree-free paper feedstocks can be found in agricultural waste, representing an untapped revenue stream for the ag industry, as well as an opportunity for Paper mills and brands to divert waste from landfill.
Tree-free paper pulp mill Columbia Pulp works with farmers to take unused wheat straw and transform it into paper, as well as other products. The company claims that it uses 70% less energy and 75% less water than conventional wood pulp mills in the process.
One of the most proven concepts comes from Paperwise, a sustainable paper manufacturer working to create packaging for the likes of Lufthansa, Weleda, and Pukka Teas. Paperwise uses a range of agricultural waste from farms in India and South America to create paper that can be used for applications such as beverage and beauty packaging, wrapping, and graphic paper.
Paperwise’s LCA, which was independently verified through a second LCA carried out by climate finance group Myclimate, highlights that its papers have between 45-47% less environmental impact than wood-based paper. This includes the export emissions created by the paper’s travel into Europe, where the majority of Paperwise’s clients are based.
“I first started working in India simply because no European mills were willing to work with me to use agricultural waste for paper,” says founder Peter van Rosmalen. “I was surprised to find once I started working with the teams there that they had windmills and biodigesters so they were creating their own green energy.”
Although much of the same process is used for the pulping of agricultural plants as wood fibre, van Rosmalen highlights that the natural softness of the fibres compared to wood automatically means that fewer chemicals and energy are needed to turn them into pulp. Soda pulping is used to break the fibres down, making the process much milder.
Fibres don’t always have to be land-based to make paper. In fact, reducing land use is an added benefit of emerging paper fibres coming from the sea.
Multinational packaging firm DS Smith is experimenting with cartons, paper wraps and cardboard trays made from Seaweed, while Sargasse Project is using decaying Algae to create paper and cardboard pulp. Notpla – a partner of G.F. Smith – is creating speciality paper for a range of applications.
“Our broad vision is to make packaging disappear,” says Mashal Hussain, Notpla’s business development manager. “So that it can be compostable at home and not just industrially compostable.”
This has led the company to create a paper that doesn’t use synthetics, additives, or coatings and remains unbleached. But its benefits don’t stop there. Notpla Paper is made from the company’s own waste stream, generated by the production of its hero product Ooho and its seaweed coatings.
The composition of Notpla paper currently stands at 30% seaweed, 60% recycled wood pulp and 10% virgin wood, although the material developer is actively seeking a way to make the formulation even better. “We are currently administering a range of LCAs to determine what is most impactful: with the paper, we need to understand how we want to evolve it and what we want it to look like. Is it more important to remove the virgin pulp portion of the paper or to increase the seaweed? What’s going to perform better from an environmental perspective?”
Notpla’s 2022 Impact Report shows that its seaweed paper currently has a 70% reduction in climate impact compared to traditional paper, but the company admits there are limitations to LCA’s as measuring elements such as carbon sequestration is very difficult.
Having launched just over two years ago, Notpla paper is currently working with smaller-scale clients who are happier to take on risk, but Hussain says it is scalable because of seaweed’s abundance “With seaweed being used across a number of different industries, from cosmetics to pharmaceuticals, skincare and more, the industry is just going to grow,” she says.
Tree-less paper will often feature some texture and colour. There are pros and cons to this, depending on the application. Many can find this helpful as a communication tool when wanting to signify sustainability. But there are also times when paper needs to look and feel traditional. In this case, many brands will have varying grades of paper that shift in their composition and use of bleach or coatings. Some of these effects will naturally impact its performance on the sustainability scale.
“Our paper has a very bold and strong identity,” says Hussain. As Notpla only provides one type of paper, it tends to work with businesses that want a sustainability message front and centre. “It’s a seal of validity,” she says. “It also means there is no need for extra printing or logos to make sustainability claims.”
“We need to get people used to the fact that alternative papers sometimes need to be printed slightly differently or handled slightly differently. Sometimes you see that people have a reaction to these differences, but that’s exactly what things need to feel like going forward,” says Watkinson.
The scale of the traditional wood-based paper industry is significantly larger than any of these new solutions, which means it can offer paper at lower prices. As a result, cost has to be factored in when using paper with alternative feedstocks. The pricing will vary depending on the businesses engaged – Paperwise says there is a 10-15% premium on its paper.
“The manufacturing process of using agricultural waste is no more expensive than using trees. The main reason we’re a little more expensive is small-scale production and transport costs. If we were able to manufacture in Europe, there would barely be a price difference,” says van Rosmalen.
“People are getting used to the fact that these products are – dare I say it – more expensive. There’s a cost implication to them and that’s simply because they’re not produced en masse and it’s not a commodity product,” says Watkinson. “But in my opinion, it’s only expensive if it fails to deliver the result and this can happen with regular paper too.”
Some research into varying fibres is necessary, as the type of fibre can sometimes determine how the paper performs. Hahnemühle’s paper is more durable than wood, for example, because of the specific way that hemp fibres are structured. Hemp fibres are five times longer than wood fibres, which means they have a higher tensile, tear and wet strength. They are also very light in colour, meaning there’s less of a need for bleaching.
