Paper Is the Answer on Sustainability. But Innovation Is the Key to Getting Consumers to Embrace It.

What does it mean to say “I’m a papertarian?”

It’s more than a novel tagline winningly delivered by Retta, right? It’s a call to action. In fact, we’re literally asking folks to take a pledge. 

But to get consumers to answer that call and take that pledge, becoming a papertarian has to be both desirable and practical. 

Well, we know it’s desirable. If you care about the sustainability of your purchasing decisions. If you care about your recycling becoming new products vs ending up in a landfill. If you care about renewability and are worried about materials derived from fossil fuels. If you want to be a part of the circular economy. If any of those things matter to you, the jury is no longer out. Paper is the answer.

But what about the “practical” part? Can you be a papertarian in a way that fits with your goals, needs, and priorities? 

With every passing day, it’s becoming more and more clear that the answer is: absolutely.

What used to be a conversation about sustainability is quickly becoming a conversation about innovation. The question isn’t whether paper is better for the environment than alternative materials. It’s whether paper-based products are ready to replace those materials. 

Look around you and you’ll see that question being answered with a resounding yes.

Leading brands are working with packaging designers and engineers to  do away with packaging made of non-renewable materials and replace it with paper, making it  easier than ever to live a papertarian lifestyle.

Take the brands Dell and simplehuman for example. 

A few weeks ago, our office received new computers from Dell. The packaging was innovative, efficient and paper forward, with molded pulp that protected the computers’ individual components and no plastics or fossil-fuel based foams to be seen.

simplehuman, a manufacturer of home products for the kitchen and bath, describes themselves as bringing “high performance innovation to basic but essential tasks in our daily routine.” That philosophy extends to their high performance, innovative and sustainable corrugated packaging design that delivers their products without a trace of plastic anywhere in the packaging. 

And we all read with relief that Amazon has committed to replacing plastic bubble mailers and air pillows with recyclable paper packaging, which by the way protects better too.   

And Apple even goes the extra mile to take its expired credit card back in a slick e-flute return box making it more fun than cutting it up and sending it to landfill!

These are examples of papertarian living at its best and we’re lucky to be in a position to celebrate it and help propel it forward. Furthering the use of and awareness of paper’s innovations, we also have new social media videos of our newest installment of Pack It! The Packaging Recycling Design Challenge. Returning for a rematch are two formidable contestants: Zachary and Emma. They’re tasked with the challenge of designing a box and packaging made entirely out of paper-based materials that can be recycled. The box needs to not only ship a catnip plant but also double as a cat scratch pad. 

And our latest video in our Marketing + Sales Toolkit highlights new and innovative paper-based shipping solutions like padded paper mailers and recyclable paper fillers. With 8 trillion retail e-commerce sales projected globally by 2027, it’s more important than ever to share with customers all the ways that paper packaging has you covered for planet-first packaging solutionsIt's no longer a question of whether paper is desirable for sustainability-minded living. It’s a question of what unsustainable legacy product paper will replace next.