10/07/2026
Every year, roughly 11 million metric tons of plastic flow into the ocean, and that figure is on track to nearly triple by 2040 if nothing changes. That plastic doesn’t disappear. It breaks down into microplastics that move up the food chain and back to us, and researchers have now found them in human blood, placentas, and brain tissue. At 3rd Planet Innovation, we believe the answer isn’t more effective cleanup of a material; it’s replacing that material at the source. That’s why we’re building Plaper, packaging made from microfibrillated cellulose (MFC) sourced from working forests. It performs like the plastics it replaces, but is paper stream recyclable - which paper stream recycling happens 60% to 80% in most communities. Unlike plastic, which is never recycled more than 10% anywhere.
If it ends up in the ocean it’s designed to compost safely, without harming fish or the people who eat them. We’re now scaling MFC from the lab to commercial production by building a reliable pulp supply chain, running manufacturing trials, and working with partners to turn a forest-based material into products that people use every day. Our goal is simple: make the better choice the easy one, at a scale that actually changes what ends up in the sea and in our bodies.
These statistics come from Pew’s Breaking the Plastic Wave (2020) and from peer-reviewed studies on microplastics in blood, placentas, and brain tissue. Companies need to know you care about this! Tell your grocers, your favorite brands, wherever you shop. New materials that protect us and the goods must come!
