Sugar beet paper is a ground-breaking innovation by Dutch beet sugar manufacturer Cosun Beet Company, a member of the European Sugar Manufacturers Association (CEFS), and paper producer Crown Van Gelder.
Beet fibre from beet pulp, a by-product of the sugar making process, is used to replace 20% of the wood fibre required for making paper.
This has considerable environmental benefits, with paper made with beet fibre having a 16% lower aggregate environmental impact than paper made solely from wood pulp. It produces 6% less CO2 emissions and enables an 18% decrease in land usage. Sugar beet paper also requires 10% less fresh water for production and, with sugar beets sourced from local farms within a 150km radius of the paper manufacturers’ plant, cuts down significantly on transport emissions.
As a type of paper with a comparatively small environmental impact that can also come into direct contact with food, sugar beet paper is an important innovation in sustainable packaging. Cosun Beet Company have already made the paper part of their own industrial packaging portfolio.
