Kickstart: Google credits new paper for hitting plastic-free target

Google said it's eliminated plastic packaging from its phones and other hardware ahead of schedule, and the company credits innovation in paper.

Google says a new uncoated paper it developed with packaging maker Veritiv Corp. and Chinese paper maker Shandong Kaili Paper Co. is three times stronger and 70 percent more stretchable than paper it used previously.

Just as important, it says the new paper is designed to make recycling easier for the consumer.

Recyclability is a key driver in its packaging decision making, the company told our sibling magazine Sustainable Plastics earlier this year when it announced it was going to make its its internal plastics-free design guide available to anyone who wanted it.

Even though "plastic isn't an inherently unsustainable material," Google considers it problematic for recycling, SP reported. The new all-paper packaging works better in recycling systems, Google said.

"Any user could put the entire pack in a recycling bin and it's going to get recycled correctly," the company said in a video released Aug. 20, to talk about hitting the plastic-target ahead of schedule.

With the plastics treaty talks hitting the home stretch, we're planning a special editorial webinar Oct. 8 looking at the potential long-term impacts on the industry.

With the last round of negotiations slated for late November and early December in South Korea, our event, which will include to-be-determined guest speakers, will sketch out what could be coming in recycling policy, limits on plastic production and debates for chemicals of concern in plastics and "problematic" applications.

The United States shook up the status quo in the talks earlier this month when it said it would endorse some unspecified limits on plastic production in a final agreement.

A round of key technical talks to try to hash out differences are wrapping up tomorrow in Bangkok, and the U.N. General Assembly session in New York next month has plastics treaty related events on the sidelines. Both of those could give us a clearer picture.

You can register for our event here.

While Elon Musk has certainly not been a delegate to the plastics treaty talks, his frequently offered opinions on a lot of things get attention, so why not for plastics and human health?

The unconventional billionaire and Tesla CEO made news recently when he challenged a former executive at the electric car maker over microplastics.

Musk wrote that "plastics are not a significant health risk. It's bs" in response to a social media post from Andrej Karpathy, Tesla's former senior director of AI, where Karpathy argued that "we've allowed the convenience of plastics to get way ahead of our understanding of their global effects."

Karpathy referenced the 2022 book "A Poison Like No Other: How Microplastics Corrupted Our Planet and Our Bodies" and said he was worried about "major unpriced externalities in the industry."

Musk made it clear he didn't agree, saying to Karpathy: "Impressive how much the documentary of the day can influence people."