Paper Cups – A Simple Packaging Success Story?

September 24^th ,2026

Brazil / Latin Americas: As you walk out of a coffee shop with your morning purchase, the paper cup in your hand looks like one of the most modest forms of packaging. In reality, it is anything but simple. To the converters producing this cup, it’s a demanding application that must withstand hot or cold liquid, moisture and condensation, handling without leaking or softening, while meeting food-contact requirements. It must also endure the mechanical stresses of converting and filling, while adhering to evolving restrictions from regulatory bodies such as the National Solid Waste Policy (PNRS).

Paperboard provides the cup with its structure, printability and familiar fibre-based appearance, but to meet those functional requirements, it needs an effective barrier to prevent liquid from penetrating the board. Traditionally, this has meant combining paper with a polymer layer, commonly polyethylene (PE). It performs well but often comes with a production trade-off: PE-laminated board typically arrives pre-coated, tying converters to fixed specifications, longer lead times and higher storage costs.

PE barriers also complicate the material structure, creating challenges at end-of-life. For Brazil’s growing foodservice sector, this is becoming increasingly relevant as brand owners, converters and consumers look for ways to reduce the environmental impact of disposable packaging. Although plastic-lined paper cups are exempt from the strict penalties imposed on plastic cups, they still tend to end up in landfills because of limited specialized recycling facilities. As such, an environmentally conscious converter or brand is seeking a new way to make fibre-based cups part of the circular packaging system without sacrificing performance or production efficiencies.

Designed for Recycling and Industrial Performance

What makes a cup coating truly recyclable when it enters the recycling stream? The answer lies in repulping, and this is where solutions like ACTGreen^® Barrier Coatings stand apart.

To understand why, it helps to walk through what actually happens inside a recycling facility. "After use, the cups are collected together with the standard paper and board for recycling. When the cup enters the pulper, water can easily break up the hydrogen bonds of the fibers because the ACTGreen^® Barrier Coatings doesn’t form a thick and strong film. This is important for the disintegration step in the pulper," explains Oliver Kalmes, Global Head of Barrier Paper & Board, ACTEGA. "Rather than contaminating and slowing down the process, the polymer barrier disintegrates as well and is either separated or follows the fibre and filler, and the material can form a new paper web on the paper machine. ACTGreen^® Barrier Coatings helps, that standard recycling systems can be used and the valuable fibers can be recovered."

This represents a significant opportunity for Brazil. As the country continues to develop and refine its collection infrastructure for paper cups, a coating designed with repulpability in mind helps cooperatives confidently route these items for recycling. By removing complexity from the sorting process, ACTGreen^® Barrier Coatings enable fibre-based cups to re-enter the circular economy, supporting Brazil's growing commitment to sustainable materials management.

For converters, however, recyclability is only one part of the equation. To replace conventional PE-laminated materials, a barrier coating must also perform reliably under commercial production conditions. ACTGreen^® Barrier Coatings are designed to meet these requirements by combining barrier performance, food-contact suitability, heat and water resistance, and the reliable heat-sealability window required by modern high-speed converting lines. At the same time, they can help simplify production by reducing the dependency on pre-laminated board, long lead times and high storage volumes. Compatible with established printing and converting processes, they support a more flexible, efficient production model while enabling fibre-based cups to be designed for recycling from the start.

In the end, the paper cup shows how even an everyday packaging format can become a platform for meaningful innovation. Its future will not be shaped by fibre alone, but by the technologies that enable paper-based packaging to perform reliably, meet evolving regulatory and market expectations, and fit more effectively into recycling streams. This is where advanced barrier coatings can play a decisive role. By combining functionality, process efficiency and recyclability in one approach, solutions such as ACTGreen^® Barrier Coatings help turn a familiar cup into a strong example of what next-generation fibre-based packaging can achieve.