According to Kyodo News, in order to reduce the plastic waste that causes marine pollution, more and more snacks and pastries have changed the packaging to paper. Major Japanese paper companies have vigorously developed new materials that are resistant to water and oil, and strive to expand the use from the outer packaging to date to the inner packaging that directly contacts snacks. Paperlessness has made domestic paper demand sluggish, and the anti-plastic wave is seen as a new business opportunity.

Nestle Japan (Kobe City) changed the packaging of some "KitKat" chocolates from plastic to paper after September last year. Although the independent inner packaging is still plastic, this move is expected to reduce plastic waste by about 380 tons per year.

Nestle uses paper materials developed by Prince Holdings. The coffee sold by Nestlé in Thailand also uses paper held by Prince.

Paper has the problems of not being resistant to water and oil and easily leaking odors. It is basically not necessary to use paper for inner packaging that has a function to prevent food deterioration. In response to this, various companies competed to develop new materials such as water-soluble chemicals applied thinly on the surface of paper, using the processing technology developed in the production of "coated paper" used in the production of leaflets and sample catalogs.

In terms of new materials, Japan Paper Group's "SHIELDPLUS" has been used as an inner packaging for almonds, chocolate and pancakes sold by Gifu City snack manufacturers. In order to enter the European market with strong environmental awareness, it also invested 5 million euros in the Finnish group company factory, and will be ready for mass production as soon as July this year.

North Vietnam, which has the largest market share of coated paper in Japan, announced in February the development of a paper material called "PANSE". Packaging heat sealing generally requires processing, but PANSE has the advantage of direct sealing.