Innovation

Paptic offers a patented packaging material, which was developed by Esa Torniainen, Karita Kinnunen-Raudaskoski & Tuomas Mustonen to solve the issue of plastic waste in the natural environment. The material is recyclable and fully made of wood-based materials. It is also biodegradable. According to the developers of Paptic, the material provides “A unique combination of sustainability, strength, and positively distinctive haptic properties” (Paptic, 2022). To sum up, the core sustainability aspects of the product are that it is made of renewable raw materials, it enables 30-50% better material yield compared to paper, and it supports circular economy as the material can be recycled and reused. Paptic’s mission statement captures the core of the business and the idea behind the innovation - “Because the world needs better packaging.”

The material is offered to other companies that seek to decrease their plastic use and want to start using a more sustainable packaging option. Moreover, Paptic is easily convertible into packages with the existing packaging lines as it is delivered in reels and sheets similar to conventionally used plastic and packaging papers. The reduction of plastic waste in the natural environment is crucial for humans and animals, especially marine health. In addition, plastic as a material is made from non renewable sources, so it is important to find solutions which have a lower carbon footprint and are polluting less.

Inspiration

The founders of Paptic were working for the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland when they founded the company. They used to meet European brand owners in connection to their work and the message was clear - there is a specific need for a more sustainable packaging.

When asked about the motivation for creating this innovation, this is how Tommi Lehtisalo, their business development manager answered: “Plastic accumulation has been a topic since 2010 very sharply. The time when Paptic was founded our founders met people from H&M and other companies and their message was clear - we have to do something in order to provide a new kind of material to the marketplace serving the packaging section.”

Furthermore, it can be stated that the growing need for sustainability and more responsible options have been one inspiring factor.

Overall impact

Paptic´s mission to replace plastics creates an impact, especially in the environment. They do this by offering an alternative to plastic, and they already have success stories where their material has replaced plastic. For example, companies that are using approximately 1,000,000 small plastic bags annually would decrease their plastic use by 30 tons and emit 12,000 kg less carbon emissions by switching to Paptic packaging. The material is not only superior to plastic bags but also to paper bags. If the same example scenario as above would be compared to conventional paper bags, Paptic would emit 142,000 kg less CO2 emissions. Because of the durability of the material, Paptic products can easily be used five times or more and this would increase the benefits of no need to use single use products. The impact does not stop here, unlike many other packaging materials used today, Paptic is also biodegradable which means that if it was left in the wild natural environment, it would be decomposed.

Furthermore, Paptic has committed to long-term impacts connected to megatrends such as circular economy and recycling, consumers’ environmental awareness, bioeconomy innovation, and digitalization of retail. They are agile and want to innovate their business to fit the needs of various industries. The SDGs are also at the core of Paptic´s organisation. The SDGs impact their business decisions and Paptic is committed to science based targets. Paptic has committed to contribute and support acheving the SDGs and this is resembled in their value chain that impacts 9 different Sustainable Development Goals.

To conclude, sustainability lies at the core of Paptic and their operations have short and long-term impacts.

Business benefit

The innovative material produced by Paptic allows them to sell a product that has a positive impact on the environment and also be profitable for the business. Paptic has produced the material on an industrial scale since 2018, and they have delivered their material to over 40 countries. In addition, the material is hyper-scalable and the large market potential allows Paptic to grow rapidly.

From 2019 to 2021, the compound annual growth rate has been 89%, and Paptic aims to have a revenue of 1bn Euros by 2030. During the last three years, the revenue growth has been 2.5x of the previous years, each year since 2019. In 2022, Paptic’s ambition is to have revenue of at least 10 million Euros. The high growth rate has led Paptic today to become a profitable business, and has made them go from being a start-up to a high growth company.

Furthermore, the future market looks promising. Since Paptic materials can be used in the current existing packaging lines of companies, the capital expenditure will be low when converting to use the Paptic material. The material is ideal for companies that are sustainability-oriented or wish to become more sustainable. With more sustainability regulations being implemented across the globe, the innovation of Paptic will create benefits, both for the businesses that use the product and for Paptic that sell the product. Therefore, the target to reach a billion Euros in revenue by 2030 is very feasible.

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Social and environmental benefit

The world produces 380,000,000 tons of plastic waste every year out of which 50% is single-use plastics and 40% is packaging. Only 9% of the plastics produced is recycled. The main idea behind Paptic’s material innovation was to find a sustainable, durable, and recyclable alternative to address one of the biggest global environmental challenges, the plastic waste in the natural environment. And Paptic addresses this challenge by aiming to replace 1 million tons of plastics by the end of 2030.

Moreover, Paptic’s material is more sustainable in comparison to plastic as it is fully renewable and biodegradable as well as more durable. Paptic’s products can be used multiple times, unlike single-use plastics and other paper packages; therefore, it supports the SDG for Responsible Consumption and Production (12). By offering an alternative material to plastic, Paptic focuses on SDGs 14 - Life below Water and 15 - Life on Land by reducing the amount of plastics in the natural environment. In addition, Paptic supports the social aspects of sustainability, creating work and economic growth by employing people to work with sustainable innovations and by contributing to creating more sustainable cities with less plastic waste and promotion of systemic recycling.

Interview

Tommi Lehtisalo, Business Development Manager, Retail Packaging