A unique packaging
brand dedicated only to paper &
cardboard upcycling
upcycling is
a
way to turn "old things" into something new without breaking the product down
While
recycling is practical, upcycling is highly creative & can involve a variety of
techniques, providing a new finished product with a higher user value than it
had in its previous life
sustainability
it is time for a reset
We recognize our environmental impact goes way beyond the work we put as individuals and business entrepreneursLike many other industries, packaging and
offset printing decisively moved away from virgin raw materials to mixed / recycled ones whenever
possible. A great collective effort led Europe to collect up to 75% of its
paper waste and recycle it through different channels.
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Yukon BagsUSA - Shipping Box -
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Fritz KolaGermany, Christmas Card -
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25 YearsIn Printing Industry
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Fritz KolaGermany, Christmas Card
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Yukon BagsUSA - Shipping Box
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how we upcycle
At PAPERS UPCYCLED we carefully sort and
select industrial offset printing waste and create a portfolio of environmentally
friendly solutions that span from cosmetic boxes, shopping bags and product displays to
online sales shipping boxes, drinks holders and advents calendars.
The final upcycled product would have the same aspect, durability and quality of a "traditional printing" process but with a
twist: with minimal resources (water, electricity, chemicals, etc..) will have been put into
play to regenerate and recycle our paper.
To
Learn More About Upcycling...
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More about Upcycling
Frequently Asked Questions
There are two main differences between Recycled and Upcycled Paper.
1- The input materials are very different. While recycling paper is mainly made of scrap paper and pre or post-consumer waste, our Upcycled Paper is already in sheets and it comes directly as waste from offset printing process.
2- Recycling paper is made in special paper mills by de-inking and pulping the waste using a significant amount of energy, water and chemicals. On the other hand upcycling paper does not require any of the processes just mentioned and it is 100% clean.
Our upcycled products have the same quality, durability and resistance of any recycled or virgin paper comparable product. Papers Upcycled gets the job done !
Yes, any type of paper coming out of a printing machine as a waste sheet is potential raw material/component of a new upcycled product.
Currently, our main supply territory is the EU, UK and the United States. Moreover, we can of supply and ship your paper and packaging products to any part of the world !
Yes and No...
We get our paper from several printing houses and out of the total material produced per single order. The average waste output is only 3%, so quite limited.
However, considering that packaging industry uses millions of tons of paper each year, there is plenty of material available for long term sustainable upcycling business.
No. Upcycling paper can be used in many paper, cardboard or mixed products but with some limitations due to customer requirements. Such limitations could be connected to specific aspect/look preferences or usage in specific ambience, etc...
Creating upcycled paper from waste sheets sounds like a cheap solution. However it is quite the opposite!
Collecting waste paper from different locations, manually sorting and classification processes increase the costs of making the paper ready to use.
Final price of each item depends from its composition, structure, layout, etc.. but DO NOT WORRY, working with upcycled paper is not necessarily more expensive than conventional paper !
While some of our products can be made of 100% upcycled material, some of them can only be made by a mix of recycled and upcycled materials in order to preserve the structural strength of the product.
Each project provides unique challenges, and with different products you get very different requirements; for this reason our team works on different angles and options to provide our client with the best and most effective result.
Our mission is to continue researching and experimenting using new materials, techniques and machinery to bring the upcycled values of our products as close as possible to the 100% value mark.
Any improvement is a win – step by step.
The colors variety used to print on top of the main surface is very similar to conventional Pantone or CMYK colors. Basically we can make (almost) any color you like!
No, we strongly recommend to recycle any used cardboard or paper packaging. Besides, we believe recycling is good, but upcycling is better.
Yes, our upcycled packaging products can be 100% recycled.
Step by step process of paper upcycling
Any
item made of virgin or recycled cardboard can be potentially designed and built with
upcycled paper technology
products
the limit is your imagination
Depending on the type of packaging required (construction / structure / usage), the team at PAPERS UPCYCLED can provide ideas to embed upcycling into your design and production of each item
With our headquarter based in Hamburg, Germany, we operate in several locations across Europe.
25
Years of experience
about
us
The idea of introducing upcycling to the
packaging industry first came out during a brainstorming session in 2019, when our team
members “acknowledged”
the significant room for improvements towards sustainability.
Contrary to the linear "take,
make, dispose" way of living, Papers Upcycled believes in the circular principle
of creating wealth from waste.
Every day we challenge the conventional modus
operandi of the “paper world” with the goal to innovate beyond the constraints of
traditional production standards and give our small contribution to a better and more sustainable future.
Papers Upcycled is a private brand owned by Microcarton Packaging GmbH, a company founded in
2018 by a group of friends with more than 20 years of experience in the paper, packaging and
retail marketing business and cultural roots spread between Germany, Scotland, Turkey and
Italy.
Our team believes in embracing sustainability at
every level of our company, from the technicalities of production to the ethical treatment
of our employees.
We challenge conventional paper production every day in order to
innovate beyond the constraints of traditional production to ensure a sustainable future.
