Words by Smiley Team
Did you know, up to 160,000 trees are cut down each day for paper? This seemingly harmless material has an environmental toll. To tackle this, a sustainable packaging company, Notpla has created an alternative: Notpla Paper.
Made with 30% seaweed by-product, the material was designed in collaboration with Canopy, an environmental NGO dedicated to defending forests, wildlife, and the climate.
The seaweed paper will soon be available to buy, with fashion and cosmetic companies showing the most interest thanks to its natural grain. Coming in various weights, it can be used to create many different products traditionally made from wood pulp. These include invitations, envelopes, boxes, bags and other packaging.
Pierre Paslier, the co-CEO of Notpla said: “It is critical to understand that not all papers are equal. Consumers are pushing for more natural solutions to hit the market but the paper industry has been resistant to change. Seaweed can change the game.”
To partner with Canopy, Notpla has joined a growing list of companies reducing waste and looking into alternatives to environmentally harmful materials. This initiative, Pack4Good, currently involves nearly 300 companies attempting to make their production processes more sustainable.
Tamara Stark, Canopy campaigns director, said: “The companies joining Pack4Good are demonstrating the type of ‘out-of-the-box’ leadership we need to see across the board — innovative thinking to transform unsustainable paper packaging supply chains, scale-up solutions, and save forests.”
“Canopy’s support has been key for us to understand the pitfalls of the paper industry and maximise the positive impact that we can have with our packaging,” added Pierre.
Notpla aims to protect the world’s forests by developing alternative waste management systems for packaging, in particular by using seaweed - as it is one of the most sustainable plants on the planet. Using just one tonne of seaweed byproduct can save up to 4 tonnes of trees.
It’s not only deforestation that makes normal paper less sustainable. Industrial use of seaweed results in 80% of its biomass getting discarded or at best used as animal feed. Notpla is saving that byproduct for use as paper, hoping to eventually produce a wood-free paper using seaweed by 2024.
Synthetic chemicals such as PFAS, AKD or ASA1 are mixed with wood pulp, making it less biodegradable and polluting.
In contrast, Notpla Paper uses 100% natural and biodegradable ingredients.
For more information, visit notpla.com.
DONATE: To help tackle deforestation from packaging and waste, donate to Canopy.
SUPPORT: To get involved with campaigns to save forests, wildlife and the climate, support Canopy.
