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German startup developed an alternative to bubble wrap made of paper to protect products in cardboard boxes, combining sustainable packaging, industrial scale, and European funding in a solution created to reduce the use of plastic in deliveries and e-commerce operations.
Three founders in Germany created an alternative to bubble wrap made of paper to protect products inside cardboard boxes, in an attempt to replace one of the most common materials in e-commerce deliveries with a recyclable, compostable, and industrial-scale solution.
Named PapairWrap, the packaging was developed by the startup Papair as a kind of “paper bubble wrap,” created to maintain the cushioning function in shipments, storage, and transport without resorting to the traditional plastic used in fragile products.
The project gained international attention by combining a simple idea with a problem known to anyone who receives packages at home: inside many cardboard boxes, the real protection often comes from bubble wrap, plastic cushions, padded envelopes, or filler materials.
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Paper bubble wrap for cardboard boxes
In Papair’s proposal, the solution occupies precisely the internal space of the box, where the protective layers responsible for reducing product movement and absorbing part of the impacts during transport are usually located.
Instead of using air bubbles trapped between plastic sheets, the material uses paper in a flexible structure, designed to absorb impacts and reduce damage during transport without relying on conventional bubble wrap.
Founded by Christopher Feist, Fabian Solf, and Steven Widdel, in Hannover, the company started the production of PapairWrap in Rethem an der Aller, Lower Saxony, and began operating in a strategic area of the packaging industry.
This market involves the replacement of plastic materials used for merchandise protection, especially in e-commerce, storage, and distribution operations, where the product needs to arrive intact even after going through different logistical stages.
Also outside Germany, the innovation received recognition by winning the Innovation Gallery Award at Packaging Innovations & Empack, an event held in the United Kingdom, after being presented as a paper alternative to conventional bubble wrap.
The award increased the visibility of the packaging in a sector pressured by environmental goals, transportation costs, and recycling demands, factors that make the choice of material as important as the design of the box itself.
€ 13 million European project
According to the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking, Papair coordinates the BIOWRAP, a European project aimed at expanding the production of a paper-based alternative to bubble wrap, prepared for industrial applications.
The entity states that the initiative has a contribution of € 13,011,022.25 and aims to develop a compostable packaging made of paper, using nanocellulose fiber bonding to replace synthetic adhesives.
Funded under Horizon Europe, the project brings together 14 partners from seven European countries and plans the construction of a demonstration-scale production line, as well as tests with paper formulations, coatings, and machine integration.
The proposal also includes the evaluation of industrial applications for a protective packaging capable of replacing part of the plastic currently used, provided it offers performance, cost, and adaptation compatible with existing processes.
In the scenarios recorded by CBE JU, the facility could produce up to 17.2 million or 25.8 million square meters per year, depending on the operational model adopted in the demonstration phase.
With this structure, the declared goal is to bring the solution closer to industrial use, validating the performance of the material in applications where paper packaging can compete with conventional protection alternatives.
Sustainable packaging for e-commerce
What draws attention to PapairWrap is the attempt to transform a material seen as common, paper, into a protective item with a function similar to bubble wrap used in shipping boxes.
This logic matters because the outer cardboard of the box is not always enough to prevent damage from drops, vibrations, and impacts, especially when the product goes through distribution centers, conveyors, delivery vehicles, and stacking.
During an online purchase, internal protection needs to fill empty spaces, reduce item movement, and absorb part of the energy generated by transportation, preventing the content from hitting the walls of the packaging.
Being lightweight, flexible, and cheap, bubble wrap has consolidated this role over the years, but new packaging needs to deliver similar protection without significantly increasing volume, weight, or operational complexity.
For companies that send thousands of orders per day, any change in the process needs to work within already established routines, without creating steps that are difficult to automate or incompatible with existing packaging lines.
Papair states that their solutions can be used as primary packaging, in direct contact with the product, or as an intermediate layer within boxes and cargo systems.
Additionally, the company presents the material as an option for fulfillment, storage, shipping, e-commerce, and protection of items that need to arrive intact at their destination, focusing on operations where protective packaging is indispensable.
Alternative to Plastic in Deliveries
For the consumer, the difference may seem small at first contact, but it becomes apparent when opening the package and finding, instead of traditional bubble wrap, a paper material created to fulfill a similar function.
The discussion has gained momentum because the increase in online shopping has expanded the volume of packaging discarded after a single delivery, especially in orders that combine cardboard boxes, internal protection, and additional filling materials.
While cardboard boxes usually have more well-known recycling routes, lightweight and flexible plastic materials may face more obstacles in municipal systems, especially when they arrive mixed, dirty, or in difficult-to-separate formats.
BIOWRAP also connects to European packaging and packaging waste regulations, as the CBE JU cites the European Union regulation requiring packaging designed for recycling by 2030.
In this scenario, performance, cost, and infrastructure remain challenges for replacing fossil materials, especially when packaging needs to protect the product, circulate on a large scale, and be accepted by waste recovery systems.
The project’s objectives include the formulation of bio-based coatings, the validation of packaging prototypes made from fibers, and the creation of circular paths for recovery through recycling, composting, or reuse.
The initiative also includes market analysis to identify segments with the greatest adoption potential, allowing the technology to be directed towards uses where paper can offer sufficient protection without compromising logistics.
Innovation in Simple Packaging
The proposal does not mean that all bubble wrap used worldwide will be immediately replaced by paper, but it shows how simple packaging can become a technological contest within the delivery chain.
The cardboard box that arrives at the doorstep represents only the most visible part of an operation involving material engineering, logistics, recycling, cost per square meter, and increasingly present environmental requirements.
In this context, what seemed like just crumpled paper or internal package protection is now treated as an industrial alternative to plastic, with international awards, European funding, and tests for large-scale production.
If a sheet of paper can become a “bubble wrap” without plastic inside the cardboard box, what other common delivery material can still be reinvented?
