Every second, around 25,000 pieces of flexible plastic packaging — such as sachets, wrappers, and pouches — leak into our oceans. By 2040, that is projected to add up to an additional 20 trillion items. These numbers represent one of the most stubborn challenges in tackling plastic pollution: small-format flexible packaging that is challenging technically and economically to recycle in a meaningful way, particularly in the markets where it is most widely used.
Tackling flexible plastic packaging was highlighted in the 2030 Plastics Agenda for Business as a strategic priority for our Plastics mission at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. It is one of three systemic barriers to tackling plastic waste and pollution that no business can overcome alone.
Earlier this year, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation published a report setting out the role that paper-based alternatives could play in addressing this challenge, alongside moving away from the packaging format where possible. Endorsed by 48 businesses, NGOs, investors and academics, it highlights strong industry appetite for a credible pathway forward.
A few months on, the direction and momentum is clearer than ever. The work now is to turn that into implementation at scale.
Getting it right
The report makes clear that if not done right, a swap from plastic to paper risks replacing one set of problems with another, such as deforestation, high water use, or persistent pollution from non-degradable coatings and inks. That is why it defines six critical criteria that responsible paper-based flexible packaging must meet, covering sourcing, production, performance, local recyclability, chemical safety and biodegradability, and whether it sits within a broader circular economy strategy. At the same time, material innovation alone will not solve the collection challenge: any substitution should be paired with efforts to help scale effective collection and recycling systems.
Packaging that meets all six criteria does not yet exist at commercial scale for most applications. But the report was always intended to open a conversation rather than close one, and the months since publication have shown that the conversation has moved quickly from what needs to happen to how.
Companies taking the work forward
Perhaps the clearest signal that the report has landed with the people who matter most comes from the brand owners who have to make these decisions at scale, in real markets, with real commercial constraints.
Unilever is a case in point. With operations all around the world and a portfolio that spans everything from dry foods to shampoo, the company faces the full complexity of the flexible packaging challenge. Jonathan Gill, Unilever's Global Head of Sustainability for Plastics, has described how Unilever has reviewed around 3,000 technologies over five years of R&D, and the company is now ready to move from that intensive research phase into deployment. Unilever has committed to deploy around 10 to 15 kilotons of paper-based flexible packaging by the end of 2028, and has embedded progress on this into its Sustainability Progress Index reward framework, linking it directly to executive remuneration. It is a meaningful signal that paper-based flexible packaging is no longer a potential solution for the future, but a core business priority to advance and scale today.
Unilever is not alone in this. Nestlé is working on alternative packaging materials, such as paper, as part of a wider drive to reduce its use of virgin plastics. It opened the Nestlé Institute of Packaging Sciences in 2019 to accelerate these efforts. The institute collaborates with more than 180 packaging experts, as well as with research institutions, start-ups, and suppliers. Mars has championed the idea of accelerated investment in coating and adhesive technologies as essential to broadening the range of applications where paper-based packaging can work.
The investment community is also beginning to move. Circulate Capital raised USD 220 million at the first close of its Asia Fund II in April 2026, with innovation in alternative paper-based packaging solutions explicitly among its investment priorities and a focus on markets where the challenge is most acute: India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Malaysia. More broadly, specialist funds are emerging to back the wider packaging transition: Emerald Technology Ventures, a signatory to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Global Commitment, backed by companies such as Henkel and Nestle, has committed significant amounts of capital to packaging innovators, including companies such as Xampla, Cajo and Vytal, targeting innovations across materials, reuse, recycling, and new business models; while New Earth Ventures, an innovation and investment arm of Atlantic Packaging, is explicitly backing next-generation materials, packaging intelligence, and supply chain optimisation, leveraging AI and machine learning technologies. The fact that specialist capital is now flowing into this space is a meaningful signal that the market is taking the opportunity seriously.
The innovation challenge
Talking to companies, what is striking is not just their ambition but their honesty about the difficulty of the journey. Paper-based packaging often runs more slowly through existing filling lines and costs more than its plastic equivalent at current production volumes. Furthermore, there is a technical challenge. Paper alone rarely delivers what flexible packaging needs to do. Coatings, barrier layers, adhesives, and inks are typically required to achieve the requirements products demand, such as moisture resistance, grease resistance, and shelf-life performance across demanding conditions and diverse markets. The challenge is delivering that performance without undermining recyclabilityrecyclabilityThe ease with which a material can be recycled in practice and at scale. or biodegradability. Combining what the report calls "dual end of life" — recyclable and biodegradable — with the performance requirements of real products in real markets remains the central innovation frontier.
Progress is being made. Advances in biopolymer coatings, paper surface modification, and improved barrier layers are beginning to close the gap between what is technically possible and what is commercially viable. Atomic Layer Deposition — an emerging technology that enables ultra-thin barrier layers — is showing promise in improving both performance and recyclability, using less coating material. On the fibre side, innovators are expanding the range of responsible feedstocks available, moving beyond virgin wood towards agricultural residues and other non-wood sources that carry significantly lower land use and biodiversity impacts. Canopy’s Pack4Good initiative — which engages 449 companies representing more than USD 287 billion in annual revenue to keep ancient and endangered forests out of packaging supply chains — is helping to build the market for these next generation alternatives. Ahlstrom, a specialist in fibre-based materials, has underlined the importance of industrial scale, application expertise, and cross-value-chain collaboration, alongside material innovation itself. Wouter Gabrielse, VP Group Innovation at Ahlstrom, said the company continues to invest in specialty fibre technologies to help brands transition towards more circular packaging solutions.
The open innovation model is also gaining traction. Kraft Heinz's 2025 Global Innovation Challenge for packaging, organised by Rethinking Materials, drew more than 80 entrants from 25 countries seeking flexible barrier solutions for paper and plastic packaging. It was won by Kalpana Systems, with its spatial Atomic Layer Deposition technology. Amcor's Lift-Off Winter 2025/26 Challenge explicitly targeted paper-based packaging R&D priorities, including home-compostable adhesives and high-performance barrier coatings, with joint development opportunities and potential investment of up to USD 500,000 on offer for selected start-ups. Amcor has also partnered with UK start-up Kelpi, which is developing coating technologies for paper-based packaging. Together, these initiatives signal that major industry players are looking beyond their own R&D pipelines to source and fund breakthrough solutions.
Still, the cost gap between responsible paper-based solutions and their plastic equivalents is large. Today, home-compostable paper-based flexible packaging options are typically two to six times more expensive. Closing that gap will require economies of scale that no single company can generate alone, which is why collaboration across brands, suppliers, and policymakers is not a nice-to-have but a practical necessity.
What comes next
Publishing a report is one thing. Turning its findings into sustained industry action is another — and that is where the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's focus now lies. The six criteria provide a shared framework, but frameworks only create change when the right actors are working together to apply them. Our role is to help make that happen, convening many dozens of brands, suppliers, policymakers, and innovators around the practical challenge of moving from vision to implementation.
The months ahead will be telling. What gives us confidence is that the appetite for effort is there, across a wider range of actors than we have seen before on this issue. The direction is set. The work is to keep moving.
Paper-based flexible packaging
The role it could play in tackling small-format flexible plastic pollution in markets with high leakage rates.
