The Extraordinary ReMaking of Ordinary Things, Pt 3: J&J Green Paper Reinvents the Paper Coffee Cup with an Alternative to Plastic

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) ... Derived from widely available plant material, JANUS coated paper can be custom-shaped and when coated, creates moisture resistance equivalent to petroleum-coated products. Unlike the old school petroleum-coated paper, J&J’s green paper technology is recyclable, compostable and made with zero petroleum additives, making it safe for backyard composting with no chemical footprint.

The company, which has invested eight years developing a cutting-edge solution to the critical issue of packaging waste, began its development trying to find a solution to the problem of pizza boxes and coffee cups.

Major food products companies like Kraft, Kellogg’s, McDonalds and Burger King are leading the charge and beginning to understand the value of adopting pro-environmental solutions, despite their longstanding history of using plastics in their consumer goods. Many of these market leaders have pledged to immediately reduce their use of single use plastics to help impede the tide of trash, but to date, the available alternatives to plastic are limited, expensive or hard to produce.

During the past year, the company and its potential partners experimented with products designed to replace all things plastic, from water bottles to milk cartons, grocery bags to salad containers, from paperware and paper straws to the now-ubiquitous K-cup, packaging used for individual sized portions of coffee for brewing machines made famous by companies like Keurig and Nespresso.

“The main ones are bagasse and rice hulls. We use heat and pressure, and we extract an oil. We mix that pasty substance, convert it into bricks, then we pelletize – no chemicals, and it can be FDA certified for food consumption.”