Plastic finishing has long been the go-to solution for luxury packaging – but today premium paperboard is challenging preconceptions
The rules of the luxury packaging game have changed. The emergence of high-quality, robust paper-based solutions such as Sappi’s Algro paperboard range mean that plastic finishing in the form of lamination and overwrap are no longer go-to solutions. As a result, brands can finally get serious about the recyclability of their packaging solutions.
For years, a premium packaging brief that began with the words “remove the plastic” ended somewhere uncomfortable. The gloss and sparkle would diminish. The pack might scuff on its way from converter to shelf. And nobody picking it up in store would know whether or not somebody else had opened it first.
Although recyclable, renewable paper-based options have long been available to luxury brands, they were rarely considered as realistic, complete packaging solutions.
New rules of the game
Plastic film has traditionally appeared twice in premium packaging, with both uses necessary on grounds of appearance as much as function.
Lamination sits on the carton itself, delivering gloss, depth and resistance to scuffing. Overwrap or shrink wrap goes around the finished pack, protecting the product, providing tamper evidence and, less obviously, protecting the printed brand identity all the way through distribution.
But for the luxury packaging sector, as for the rest of the packaging industry, 2026 is the year when for plastic-reliant solutions the story changes and sustainability gets serious.
The EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) came into force in August, setting clear recyclability rules. Structures that marry paper to plastic film are among the most exposed to the new regulations, with thermoplastic and wax coatings incompatible with ready recyclability in standard waste streams.
Meanwhile consumers themselves have sharpened their sights on sustainability. According to a 2026 survey of 5,000 European shoppers by Pro Carton, more than one in three consumers have switched brands because of packaging concerns. And ease of recycling is named as the single most important packaging attribute, even valued above resealability and product protection.
All this comes at the same time that pure packaging impact has stopped being the preserve of plastic. Today, premium coated paperboard surfaces can offer print brilliance, depth and high-end finishing effects without the need for additional plastic film or lamination.
What the best paperboard does now
Strip away the plastic and today’s premium paperboard is ready to excel at two key jobs that film used to do.
Firstly, keeping a product safe from prying fingers. Tamper-evident paperboard designs use perforated tear strips, tear lines and printed seals that break on opening. These rely on important converting attributes – clean die-cutting, controlled creasing and consistent board behaviour at speed.
This is where the high consistency characteristic of solid bleached board sets itself apart from the more unpredictable folding box board – where strips can tear before they should. SBB products such as Sappi’s Algro range, opens cleanly, leaving the seal broken as intended and the surrounding packaging design intact.
And there’s room for playful innovation, too. The European Carton Excellence Award-8winning secondary carton for Mary Cohr’s face moisturiser – designed by the Edelmann Group using Algro Design – replaced transparent overwrap with a two-flap seal. A black dot was torn away on first opening to reveal a green one beneath, with the jury describing it as an environmentally conscious solution that could “change the future of tamper-proof packaging and eliminate the need for non-recyclable packaging”.
Secondly comes the cosmetic standards that the best board surfaces have to deliver once lamination has been dispensed with. And once again, the Algro paperboard range – with its combination of a robust, functional surface plus outstanding print colour reproduction – delivers:
- Algro Design: full coated top side with a pigmented reverse, delivering colour brilliance through advanced ink lift. Available from 160 to 400 g/m²
- Algro Design Duo: symmetrically coated on both sides, for identical print and finishing performance whichever face is showing
- Algro Volume: full coated top side with a lick coated reverse, combining bulk and strength with printability
All three solutions take creasing, die-cutting, embossing, hot stamping, cold transfer, special-effect coatings and varnishing.
Jobs done
The choice between sustainability and beauty has been settled. It has simply stopped being a choice that brands need to make.
In the premium market sectors, the focus today is on finding ways to remove plastic overwrap and shrink wrap while avoiding the risk of damage to the printed brand identity, and finding new solutions for tamper protection. The potential to fully realise the capabilities of cartonboard has always been there. Making the most of it just requires forward thinking from brand owners ready to embrace the material’s possibilities.
says Matt Campbell, Head of Sales Paperboard at Sappi Europe.
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