'Replacing plastic with paper' drives new demand, and paper companies accelerate the layout of specialty paper production capacity

"Many people may not have noticed that after October this year, the handles on some brands of milk cartons in supermarkets have been replaced from plastic handles to paper handles. Under the trend of "paper instead of plastic", more and more consumer product packaging fields are using special paper materials.

Currently, the "paper instead of plastic" market is becoming a key area for paper companies to focus on. With the emergence of new consumer demands, the demand for special paper is gradually increasing. Since the beginning of this year, many leading listed paper companies have made frequent moves in the layout of special paper production capacity, while increasing research and development and production in related fields, striving to seize the initiative in this emerging market.

"Paper instead of plastic" increases demand

"At present, foreign countries are quite welcoming to "zero plastic" products. This year, when communicating with end customers in European countries such as Germany, the United Kingdom, and Poland, I can feel that they have a very strong demand for "paper instead of plastic". "Zero plastic" products are becoming a new weapon for the company to open up the market.

Replacing plastic with paper is gradually being realized in many fields, and he is especially excited about the popularity of plastic-free products in overseas markets. "For example, for beverage packaging such as Coca-Cola and beer, we use more plastic film in China, but when we communicate with customers, we learned that 90% of the foreign market uses paper packaging, while paper packaging in the domestic market only accounts for about 10%. "

Currently, many companies have connected with dairy companies to develop paper packaging for yogurt products. The next step will be to "collide" with beer manufacturers to jointly develop paper packaging products. "This kind of packaging paper has relatively high performance requirements. This field currently relies basically on imports. There is a market of about 60,000 tons a year. We are already speeding up product proofing. ”

In the paper industry exhibition hall, a company employee picked up a zero-plastic disposable paper cup and told reporters that traditional disposable paper cups are actually non-recyclable garbage because their inner layer is coated with a layer of polyethylene plastic film, which is extremely difficult to separate and cannot be recycled. "We have been researching paper cup materials with zero plastic content. This zero-plastic paper cup is made of water-based coating technology and does not contain plastic components, but its waterproof, oil-proof, leak-proof, heat-resistant and other properties are not inferior to equivalent plastic products. It can also be completely recycled or composted. It is an environmentally friendly material and the company's flagship product for green transformation. ”

In recent years, my country has successively issued relevant policies such as banning plastics and replacing plastics with paper to encourage the development of plastic alternatives. Paper companies are also competing to accelerate the launch of new products and expand application scenarios.