Sara Paananen
Jenna Stenroos
Kaisa Kämäräinen
Sudina Shrestha
Hanken School of Economics
Sanchi Maheshwari
Martin Fougere
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Paptic’s main goal is to replace plastic with a wood-based, more durable, recyclable and environmentally friendly material. It can be used for making carrier bags, string bags, medical packaging, graphical applications, E-Commerce mailing bags, cosmetic bags, and wrappers. This decreases the amount of plastic in the nature and helps people to reduce their plastic consumption.
Paptic is promoting more sustainable development and consumption in many ways and meeting United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals extensively. As plastic tends to end up in the oceans and grounding and eventually degrade into microplastic, more environmentally sound solutions must be addressed. Paptic can be recycled with cardboard and if it ends up in surroundings, 95 % of material biodegrades. In the future, the aim is to provide 100 % biodegradable material. Even during the decomposition, Paptic does not release any microplastic to surroundings. It has a huge meaning for life, both under water and on land.
As a durable and lightweight material, Paptic products can be used for multiple times and in the supply chain, lightness saves fuel during the transportation. This is both a climate action and promotes more responsible consumption. As wood fiber from sustainably-certified forests of Finland is a renewable source of raw material, Paptic has also 30 % smaller carbon footprint than plastic or paper used in carrier bags. In addition, Paptic can be produced with existing paper machines and it promotes circular economy in industrial setting. It is a cleantech innovation, enabling more sustainable way of living considering climate, environment, more sustainable production and consumption.
The production is scalable, as Paptic is heat-sealable material and can be used for many other purposes in addition to carrier bags and produced with existing paper machines. Material is a direct response to the directive issued by the European Parliament, which aims to reduce the number of plastic bags by 80 % over five years. Finally, company has an ambitious vision, which they are working hard to achieve – substitute all plastic carrier bags with sustainable Paptic bags.
In 2013, Tuomas Mustonen, Esa Torniainen and Karita Kinnunen-Raudaskoski were working for Technical Research Centre of Finland. They realized they have paper-making technology and sustainable raw material, Finnish wood, in their usage. Modifying sustainable raw material and using existing paper machinery they invented an entirely new material. There was no need to reinvent machinery, as the technology has been existing since the industrial production of paper started in the 1970s. The founders had the knowledge how to utilize this technology into production of Paptic.
As problems related to plastic increase constantly and only 11 % of plastic carrier bags are reused, the founders knew they had to do this. They succeeded in combining the renewability of paper with the resource efficiency and functionality of plastic. They did not only accomplish to combine the best features of both paper and plastic but invented a way to produce even more durable, flexible and energy efficient material. It has a huge impact globally - instead of single-use carrier bag, you can use one bag up to five times and after that, recycle it. The founders had the knowledge, access to needed technology and most importantly, passion for making a world better place.
In the short term, people need less new bags because they can use bags made of Paptic’s material more than paper bags. Therefore, there is less raw materials needed for making this material than single-use bags.
In the long run, less plastic will end to grounding, dumpsters and oceans. The production causes less carbon emissions and doesn’t waste nonrenewable raw materials. Since Paptic is almost fully biodegradable material (in the future 100% biodegradable), it is not as big problem in the environment as plastic would be. This has huge impact for different plant and animal species both in oceans and land.
Paptic’s material can be produced with old paper machines and therefore no investments or production of new machinery is needed. This supports the idea of circular economy as old, spare machines could be used again (and is an innovation that was advantageous for Paptic when they started to produce their product).
The company is growing both in revenue and manpower. Paptic was initially established in 2015 by three founders. At the moment, there are 14 people working in the company. The production volume will grow significantly in 2019, when new production plant is opened somewhere in Europe. They aim to produce 20,000 tons of material in 2019. The plan is to utilize old and halted paper machines for production. Paptic estimates to employ approximately hundred people during next year, as upscaling the production increases the need for labor.
Company targets to be a responsible employer and have good relations with its employees. As a small company, communication is told to be open and easy. The interviewed employee has positive feeling about working at Paptic, as the company makes direct positive impact for real-life issues of environment and society.
Initially, the company started with manufacturing of carrier bags. However, along with the growth in business, Paptic has started providing other materials such as ecommerce envelopes, posters, banners and flexible packaging. In future the Paptic is targeting to expand their product portfolio to other products. The properties like flexibility, strength, pleasant usability, high-quality appearances and sustainability makes Paptic attractive material for different products.
The sustainability packaging market is one of the fastest growing business segments. There is high demand from retailers and brand owners for more sustainable packaging replacing plastic in future. At the moment, Paptic cannot produce enough material to meet the demand. Paper seems to be the first option when it comes to replacing plastic bags, but the paper doesn't fit all purposes, it is not waterproof and gets ripped easily. Paptic fills the void of durable and sustainable packaging is missing at the moment.
Paptic considers increasing environment sustainability as the primary purpose for existence. The aim of the company is to help resolve major global environmental problem, the accumulation of plastic waste in the oceans, among marine life and in the nature. The company aims to replace the plastic packaging, especially single-use plastic bags. This goal is in sound with the EU directive that seeks to reduce plastic bag usage with 80 % within five years. Paptic products are biodegradable, which means there is no risk that microplastics end up to water or grounding. In addition, the products can be recycled like paper after their life cycle. The versatility of Paptic, along with its recyclable properties make the material a powerful tool for achieving more environmentally-friendly future.
Production is more energy efficient and causes less carbon dioxide emissions than normal paper making process. The production process is based on forming foam from wood fibers. This saves both water and energy compared to paper and plastic production. Utilizing existing, old paper machines to produce Paptic makes production itself more sustainable and promotes circularity. As a conclusion, Paptic is a real-life example of sustainable innovation company and contributes to different UN Sustainable Development Goals. Through company’s production and purpose, it plays an important part in achieving following SDGs:
o 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
o 13: Climate action
o 14: Life under water
o 15: Life on Land.
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Paptic is a Finnish company founded in 2015. They produce wood-based material, similarly named as Paptic, that can be used for packaging. Material has the durability of plastic but the renewability of paper. Paptic’s customers are companies that want to be more sustainable and replace for example plastic bags in their shops.
