The Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF) launched the PaperFlex Consortium, an industry group aimed at speeding up paper-based flexible packaging as an alternative to plastic.
Colgate-Palmolive, Mars, Nestlé, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble and Unilever are the six founding members, and EMF has invited other companies to join. The group will focus mainly on small-format packaging and will prioritize regions where plastic is likely to leak into the environment because collection and recycling systems are lacking.
The consortium grew out of a paper-based flexibles report EMF released in March, which suggested that switching to fiber could cut pollution from small plastic packs. The report set out six criteria paper flexibles must meet, including responsible production and no hazardous chemicals. It concluded that no solution meeting all of them exists today, particularly at the scale and cost the industry needs.
“That’s the gap that the PaperFlex Consortium aims to answer,” Sander Defruyt, EMF’s strategy lead for plastics, told Packaging Dive.
Members will collaborate on research and development to bring new packaging to market faster, targeting materials that are both biodegradable and recyclable, a combination Defruyt said is currently scarce.
The group will focus on flexibles sized A5 or smaller, such as sachets, wrappers and pouches. Made from plastic, these items are light, flimsy and hard to collect, so they often end up in the environment, especially in markets without formal collection systems, including India, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Barriers and coatings are another priority. The consortium will look for biodegradable coatings that improve packaging performance, and any solution must be manufacturable at economically viable speeds.
Some details are still being worked out. The consortium expects to engage solution providers across the supply chain, from small innovators to large suppliers and coating companies. No timeline has been set, with Defruyt noting that innovation is hard to predict. The group will start by identifying the most promising technologies. Its work is limited to R&D, and individual member companies will be responsible for commercializing the results.
The consortium plans to publish its findings and progress so the wider industry can benefit. Its work fits with EMF’s 2030 plastics agenda, released in late 2025, which calls for collaboration and pooled resources against plastic pollution and names flexible plastic packaging as a major obstacle to a circular economy for plastics.