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Paper could play a valuable role in tackling plastic pollution, providing an alternative to flexible plastic packaging, according to a recent report from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n The report has been endorsed by 47 businesses, NGOs, investors and academics with a common vision on accelerating innovation to develop and scale paper-based flexible packaging solutions which are designed responsibly.<\/p>\n Flexibles, including sachets, wrappers and pouches, are the fastest-growing type of plastic packaging worldwide. In countries with low formal collection and recycling systems, they are a major source of pollution, making up 80% of the plastic packaging that ends up in oceans.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Foundation\u2019s report Paper-Based Flexible Packaging \u2013 The role it could play in tackling small-format flexible plastic pollution in markets with high leakage rates \u2013 is particularly relevant for countries such as India, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.\u00a0<\/p>\n Paper-based alternatives have the advantage that they can be more easily designed to be both recyclable and biodegradable. In markets where flexible packaging has a high likelihood of ending up in the environment, this would enable them to be recycled once collection and recycling systems are in place, while reducing persistent plastic pollution in the event they do leak into the environment.<\/p>\n But the report also warns that without careful design and sourcing, paper packaging may offer little or no benefit. Endorsed by organizations across the plastics value chain, it defines six criteria as critical to prevent swapping one issue with another, such as plastic pollution with deforestation.<\/p>\n \u201cFlexible plastic packaging pollution is a systemic challenge \u2013 with an estimated 20 trillion items expected to enter our oceans over the next 15 years,\u201d said Sander Defruyt, Plastics Strategy Lead at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. \u201cThere\u2019s no silver bullet, therefore adding paper-based alternatives to the mix helpfully expands the toolbox, complementing other priority solutions such as reusable packaging.<\/p>\n \u201cThis will require major innovation and action from industry and policymakers to speed up development and scaling, guided by the six critical criteria in this report to ensure we don\u2019t replace one problem with another.\u201d<\/p>\n\n