Accelerating paper-based flexible packaging innovation
Flexible plastic packaging, including sachets, wrappers and pouches, is the fastest-growing type of plastic packaging worldwide, and scaled solutions to recycle the material are currently not widely available. To tackle this challenge, the PaperFlex Consortium was formed with six founding members, to accelerate the development of responsibly designed paper-based alternatives to flexible plastic packaging.
Through joint research and development efforts, the consortium aims to help develop and scale promising innovations faster and at a lower cost, getting new options to consumers sooner.
Members intend to shape, fund and conduct collaborative trials into areas such as biodegradable coatings and other technologies that deliver product protection, shelf life, and consumer usability, and improve how paper-based materials perform on manufacturing lines.
The consortium will focus on markets where flexible plastic packaging is widely used and where a lack of collection and recycling systems could increase their likelihood of ending up in the environment.
For those markets, the consortium aims to design alternatives that are recyclable as collection systems improve, and biodegradable in the event they unintentionally end up in the environment.
The consortium is open and voluntary in nature. While helping to accelerate the availability of solutions, each participating member will continue to adopt its own strategy and make decisions related to its packaging independently.
Founding members
Join us
Scaling these solutions at the pace needed will take engagement across the entire value chain and from policymakers. We invite other FMCG companies using small-format flexible packaging to join the consortium and help us accelerate solutions. We also call on policymakers to create the conditions and safeguards needed to unlock innovation, improve affordability, ensure sustainable sourcing of fibre, and enable the scaling of collection and recycling systems.
Register your interest here:
About the Consortium
The PaperFlex Consortium is convened by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and powered by (RE)SET. It is guided by the vision set out in the Foundation’s paper-based flexible packaging report, which was endorsed by 48 businesses, NGOs, investors and academics.
Read the 16 September 2026 press release on the consortium launch here.