Investors Back Grass Paper: Recycled Paper Alternative Shows Promise for Good Returns
10 January 2019
‘Single-use’ has recently been named the 2018 word of the year by Collins Dictionary. This doesn’t come as much of a surprise, as global attention from policymakers and consumers alike have been heavily focused on petroleum-based plastics and their byproducts that are taking over cities, waterways, and ecosystems around the world. Businesses and investors alike are turning toward alternatives to plastics, while not losing sight of sustainability issues of monoculture based natural paper products. This growing trend can be attested to by Scheufelen paper, which today announced a capital for its grasspaper products.
The history of the Scheufelen paper company can be traced back 250 years to the original paper mills. With proven paper innovations, the company’s latest grasspaper product line is based on papers comprised of 50% fresh fibers from perennial fibers, such as sundried grass. By producing the paper with regional, natural, unpulped fibers, the material for the product line consumes 50% less carbon, energy, chemicals, and saves approximately 6.000 litres of water per ton over alternative processes.
Compared to chemical cellulose from wood, grassfiber comes at a significantly lower cost. The fresh-fiber based grasspaper can be used for typical graphical applications such as printing products, note pads, books and even office papers, but also for all corrugated and folding box food packaging applications.
Because of its bio-based water and fat barriers, it is also capable of replacing food bags, trays, cups, foils, and cards made of plastics. With a packaging industry worth so much, the potential for the company’s innovative paper and plastic-alternative is not going unnoticed by the financial community.
“Just as people switched from fresh-fiber white paper to recycled paper en masse in the past, we expect people to shift now from plastic and recycled paper bags, trays, packaging foils with their negative health effects to grasspaper, which is cost-competitive with a smaller environmental footprint and less health risks,” said Andreas Rohardt, member of the board of Scheufelen, who has 30 years of experience in the wood, pulp and paper industry.
