Toppan, a Japanese global printing company, has developed a paper tube-pouch that’s made of 50% less plastic than the existing laminated tubes for products such as toothpaste. The company also reviewed the plastic part of the tube’s head and believed that they could reduce the plastic even further to 65%.
A conventional laminated tube is 0.11 mm in body thickness; Toppan’s paper tube is 0.3 mm thick. Although there’s less plastic, the stiffness of the paper provides a firm shape, which can be easily maintained even when the volume of the content inside is reduced.
Shingo Wada, GM of business strategy in Toppan’s western Japan division, said:
The paper tube-pouch represents a new solution that can meet the needs of manufacturers, consumers, and society as a whole by reducing the impact on the environment, enhancing user-friendliness, and also offering new possibilities for design.
Most toothpaste tubes can be challenging towards the end to get all of the paste out. However, with Toppan’s paper tube pouch, the process is much easier. The horizontally designed plastic part of the spout combined with the body folding into an envelope, allows the contents to squeeze out to the very end.
This product not only improves convenience for consumers but also saves the planet. It can be used as packaging for the cosmetics, medicine, and food industries.
Wada added:
It is another example of Toppan’s efforts to tackle such issues as marine plastic and the need for efficient circulation of resources by developing eco-friendly packaging and containers that sacrifice nothing in terms of functionality while making use of more sustainable materials, such as recycled and biomass plastics, mono materials, and paper.
In 2007, Toppan was recognized as one of the “Global 100: Most Sustainable Corporations in the World.”
