Transparency isn't the reason we use so much plastic. We like plastic because it is lightweight and not biodegradable. We like it because it lasts thousands of years. Because if it lasts thousands of years it will do a good job of storing your food products. Or it will stick around in various components without needing to worry about rain and such.
What we need to develop is something that doesn't degrade at all under most human living conditions, but does degrade rapidly if we expose it to some sort of not-common trigger, whether that is another chemical or temperature or pressure or whatever.
It’s funny how we’ve all just become desensitized to the idea that some countries simply dump their garbage in the ocean and rather than work on that problem, we work on creating better garbage.
My mom’s been helping out at a small local shop, and they’ve been trying to move away from plastic packaging. They tried compostable films and recycled paper, but either the cost was too high or the materials just didn’t hold up well.
This transparent paper made from cellulose sounds really promising. If it can handle heat, looks good, and actually breaks down in the environment, that would be a big help for shops like theirs.
Has anyone here worked with this kind of material? I’d love to hear how it performs in real use, especially with things like liquids or anything sensitive to moisture.
Not a surprise given how everything in Japan is wrapped in plastic. Loved everything about visiting the place that was far ahead of the US except for this.
This product seems to solve for a lot of things that have nothing to do with why we use plastic. Plastic is everywhere because it is durable & cheap, that's about it got 80% of applications. This misses the mark even more for the other 20% that cares about things like caustic resistance.
An expensive non-durable product will never replace it. It's nonsensical to say it's as durable as plastic, I assume that's referring to tensile strength, which is not the main property industry cares about. They want a material that will keep their product protected for months or years, it being able to lift a similar amount of weight is irrelevant when you're wrapping bread.
I used to reduce plastic mainly for environmental reasons now I find myself doing it for health too.
The more I learn about microplastics and chemical leaching, the more I realize how much plastic interacts with our bodies, not just the planet. Especially when heat, oil, or acid are involved like in cooking or packaging hot foods it's hard not to think twice.
I'm not saying we should panic, but I do think it's worth reframing: health and sustainability aren't separate concerns here. They're intertwined.
Even if alternatives like “transparent paper” aren't perfect, they might still offer meaningful gains for both the environment and our bodies. And for many people, that might be what tips the scale.
Even if it doesn't replace all use-cases for plastics, it seems like it can replace lots of throw-away plastic products. That alone would be good progress.
I don't mind cellulose shopping bags, straws, throwaway cups, plates, utensils, etc.
Since this comes from Japan before trying to convert people to use transparent paper that has half the carbon footprint of plastic, why not reducing the massive packaging waste in Japan where everything is packed into 10 layers of plastic for no good reason?
“The paper sheets become transparent because they are packed tightly with nanometer-scale (one 1-billionth of a meter) fibers. The concentration of these fibers allows light to pass straight through the sheets without experiencing diffusion.”
My mom’s been helping out at a small local shop, and they’ve been trying to move away from plastic packaging. They tried compostable films and recycled paper, but either the cost was too high or the materials just didn’t hold up well.
This transparent paper made from cellulose sounds really promising. If it can handle heat, looks good, and actually breaks down in the environment, that would be a big help for shops like theirs.
Has anyone here worked with this kind of material? I’d love to hear how it performs in real use, especially with things like liquids or anything sensitive to moisture.
If anyone has tried drinking from the straw, can you confirm there's no paper taste? I can't stand paper straws for this reason, it messes with my nerves like the scratching/screeching of a blackboard.
I don't remember how often I have seen basically this exact same story. "Material X is going to replace plastics" is not a new story.
Every time they have failed to replace plastics, because it is extremely hard to match all of the great qualities of the common plastic varieties. Since plastics are so common people underestimate what a great materials they really are.
Plastics and other oil-derivative, crucial materials should be the main use of crude oil and methane, not energy. Save the oil to make things that don't have an easy replacement. Replace oil burning with solar, wind, nuclear, etc., and use the underground reserve of hydrocarbons for noble causes like medecine, or for the type of investments that add to the net good for our species.
Sounds pretty promising. If this kind of material can really replace single-use plastic, that would be amazing.
We use way too much plastic every day. Sometimes just for a few minutes, but it takes decades to break down.
If the alternative is actually safe and easy to use, I think people would be more willing to make the switch.
Wow, I was just wondering about this yesterday! I had read about how some researchers made a sort of glass out of wood and wondered if they could make resilient bottles for beverages out of a sort of maybe polymerized paper.
hits all the marks for replacing plastic. curious how long it'll take before widespread adoption; my cynical assumption's that it'll be at least a decade. will be happy to be wrong ...
Researchers develop ‘transparent paper’ as alternative to plastics
(japannews.yomiuri.co.jp)438 points by anigbrowl 6 June 2025 | 284 comments
Comments
What we need to develop is something that doesn't degrade at all under most human living conditions, but does degrade rapidly if we expose it to some sort of not-common trigger, whether that is another chemical or temperature or pressure or whatever.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celluloid
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellophane
This transparent paper made from cellulose sounds really promising. If it can handle heat, looks good, and actually breaks down in the environment, that would be a big help for shops like theirs.
Has anyone here worked with this kind of material? I’d love to hear how it performs in real use, especially with things like liquids or anything sensitive to moisture.
This product seems to solve for a lot of things that have nothing to do with why we use plastic. Plastic is everywhere because it is durable & cheap, that's about it got 80% of applications. This misses the mark even more for the other 20% that cares about things like caustic resistance.
An expensive non-durable product will never replace it. It's nonsensical to say it's as durable as plastic, I assume that's referring to tensile strength, which is not the main property industry cares about. They want a material that will keep their product protected for months or years, it being able to lift a similar amount of weight is irrelevant when you're wrapping bread.
The more I learn about microplastics and chemical leaching, the more I realize how much plastic interacts with our bodies, not just the planet. Especially when heat, oil, or acid are involved like in cooking or packaging hot foods it's hard not to think twice.
I'm not saying we should panic, but I do think it's worth reframing: health and sustainability aren't separate concerns here. They're intertwined.
Even if alternatives like “transparent paper” aren't perfect, they might still offer meaningful gains for both the environment and our bodies. And for many people, that might be what tips the scale.
How do they orient them?
This transparent paper made from cellulose sounds really promising. If it can handle heat, looks good, and actually breaks down in the environment, that would be a big help for shops like theirs.
Has anyone here worked with this kind of material? I’d love to hear how it performs in real use, especially with things like liquids or anything sensitive to moisture.
Every time they have failed to replace plastics, because it is extremely hard to match all of the great qualities of the common plastic varieties. Since plastics are so common people underestimate what a great materials they really are.
https://senecaeffect.substack.com/p/are-plastics-killing-us