An ‘eco-friendly’ range of paper tubes and pouches touted by Yonwoo, a South Korean maker \u200bof packaging for cosmetics, has reaped unexpected benefits from the Iran war, which has disrupted supplies of the plastic needed to turn out single-use \u200cwrapping.<\/p>\n
While the conflict has sent prices of plastic soaring to roughly four-year highs by choking off flows of the required raw materials of oil and petrochemicals, the company says it has fuelled inquiries threefold for paper-based options.<\/p>\n
“Interest initially came from companies focused on sustainability… but if the plastics issue gets prolonged, we expect demand to further increase,” said Kim Min-sang, a senior manager at parent Kolmar Korea.<\/p>\n
The supplier to \u200bmajor firms, such as France’s L’Oreal, has fielded inquiries mainly for paper tubes encasing items such as sunscreen and lotions that use just 20% of the \u200bplastic employed by conventional packaging, Kim told\u00a0Reuters.<\/p>\n
Across Asia, home to some of the world’s biggest plastic users and polluters, changes that \u2060environmental groups have sought for decades are quickly being adopted, even if they may prove a short-term flip.<\/p>\n
More uncertainty ahead<\/p>\n
Asia is not only heavily reliant on feedstock imported from \u200bthe Middle East, but it is hooked on plastic, with China, Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia together using almost a third of the world’s total by 2022, OECD \u200bdata showed, up 900% since 1990.<\/p>\n
The region also accounts for more than a third of all plastic waste leaking into the environment, thanks to poor waste collection methods in low-income Southeast Asian nations.<\/p>\n
Japan ranks behind only the United States in terms of plastic production and consumption per head, according to a 2025 study by researchers from Beijing’s Tsinghua University published in the science journal Nature.<\/p>\n
Read:\u00a0US-Israel War with Iran and The \u201cExcursion\u201d Ruse<\/p>\n
Wholesalers there have been \u200bwarning about possible shortages of plastic trays and bags, said Kensuke Takahashi, product manager for Marutake supermarket in Saitama, adjacent to Tokyo.<\/p>\n
“We now have to discuss how to \u200bsell our products if trays are no longer supplied at all,” said Takahashi. “I’m very worried. We really don’t know what will happen”.<\/p>\n
Japanese makers of plastic bags and cling wrap, Mitsubishi Chemical and Sanipak, \u200chave said \u2060they will raise prices by about 30% in the coming weeks for some products as the conflict drives up costs of raw materials.<\/p>\n
Forced to pivot<\/p>\n
Talks for a global treaty to tackle plastic pollution stalled last year after the United States and plastic-producing countries pushed back against a drive to cap plastic production led by the European Union.<\/p>\n
It is one of several environmental initiatives to lose steam under US President Donald Trump, who has called climate change a hoax.<\/p>\n
Read more:\u00a0Trump says Iran talks could resume over next two days in Pakistan<\/p>\n
Trump’s sweeping trade tariffs were also a blow for Taiwan’s Lastic, which makes bamboo-based \u200bbiodegradable material, said senior development manager Luke \u200bAnderson.<\/p>\n
American Airlines eyeing the material to replace \u2060disposable plastic cups and cutlery lost interest after Trump imposed the levies on US imports last year, he said.<\/p>\n
Now, as prices of plastic rise, several of his US buyers have sought fresh quotes. “It’s not that I like to look at the upside of war, \u200bbut … if you can’t control it, you’ve got to find the silver lining,” he said.<\/p>\n
Some companies are adapting to new alternatives.<\/p>\n
In \u200bMalaysia, dairy producer Farm \u2060Fresh said it has temporarily switched to paper-based milk cartons because of the plastic supply disruptions.<\/p>\n
But there is no quick fix for others, such as South Korea’s Gaone International, which makes packaging for face masks.<\/p>\n
Testing new materials would take time, so it has slashed daily output to between 10% and 20% from the usual 1 million units as it hunts for new \u2060suppliers.<\/p>\n
The 20-year-old factory \u200bis now warning clients of a wait of up to eight weeks for orders to be filled, \u200band expects revenue to suffer accordingly, said sales team manager Han Kyung-hun.<\/p>\n
“I hope things return to normal as soon as possible,” said Han, but cautioned recovery could take a couple of months, even if the war \u200bended immediately.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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