You might have seen the photographs of several animal species choking up on plastic bags, plastic fishing nets. While beaches dug deep in plastic packets, plastic bottles, and several other throwaways.

But all this is not going to help our planet it includes all its residents including the humans. So what is the alternative to curb all that usage of plastic and make our planet healthier and livable. One such alternative to attaining healthier, greener planets is switching plastic with paper.

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Earlier there used to be doubts about how far can paper go while replacing plastic was concerned. The answer was perhaps a no. But now things have changed and the answer presents a brighter light as far as replacing plastic with paper is concerned.

Paper is definitely a choice where low or no barrier is required says. For packaging perishable or sensitive items, however, paper becomes a complex option. This is due to the fact that paper is inherently porous and hydrophilic (attracts moisture) and thus, only gives a limited barrier.

It is not comparable to plastics, which could give a high oxygen and moisture barrier, so it is unlikely that paper may fully replace plastics for every application. To get around the limited quality of paper for perishable products, it is normally added with certain polymers or coatings to make a barrier, so the packaging will never actually be 100% paper.

However, plastic bans in several countries have increased the demand for disposable paper boxes, cups, bags, straws, cans, and other products.

In view of the plastic bags, paper products could replace several plastic products and have multiple advantages in terms of sustainable progression and environmental protection. This makes them promising green packaging materials. The plastic bans might provide unprecedented opportunities for pulp and paper manufacturers.

However, specific paper products (for example, shopping bags) still have quite a few deficiencies like the high expenses and inferior mechanical strength. Thus, papermakers require to devote lots of effort to make advanced manufacturing technologies for the low-cost production of high-performance paper-based products.

Besides, that self-assembled nano-structures from nano-cellulose, and bulk structural plate, displays great promise in replacing plastics for high-end applications.

Thus, for certain products packaging paper could be a good replacement. But when one sees it from a complete viewpoint of the industry, still plenty of work needs to be done before the paper can completely take over the plastic packaging.

(By Mr. Gaurav Jalan, Founder of Packman Packaging)