Everything is getting smart. Why not paper?
Nowadays we almost can’t even remember how we could exist in the pre-internet world. Connectivity has changed drastically over the last few decades. Technology turbocharged our instant access to people all over the world and to a whole plethora of new ways to exchange data. Then, the Internet of Things emerged, connecting devices to each other without the need of human guidance. The ultimate step in that evolution? It’s the Internet of Everything. It’s built with common things. Like paper. And we at Tapp.online are creating just that.
Interactions with our worldwide shipped smart paper (late 2021)
You can safely say that we know paper, having years of printing experience. And of course we saw the digitization kick in. As a result, old fashioned paper went into decline. But we saw an opportunity to reinvent paper. Why not try and put chips and sensors into paper? So we did. Combining high-tech technology and existing materials, we made paper smart. Adding a new layer to the Internet of Things and eliminating the need for specifically built devices: we bring connectivity to places that were unconnected before. At the same time making it possible to fetch data from difficult to reach environments. All with a circular, smart piece of paper.
A cleaner world
As said, smart paper is the perfect alternative for traditional electronics. So at Tapp.online, we work on the bigger picture: our smart paper is 100% recyclable, contributing to a circular world free of e-waste.
E-waste is the toxic legacy of our digital age. Our waste electronics are polluting drinking water and harming ecosystems around the world. Only 15% of the e-waste is collected globally, while most of the e-waste ends up in landfills — both at home and in the developing world — where toxic metals leach into the environment.
It’s time to fix the problem. Paper is the perfect alternative to traditional materials: it’s easily recyclable. And paper waste streams are there already, globally. Let’s start by replacing traditional electronics with recyclable smart paper.
Agricultural waste
There are approximately over 7 billion people on earth. For our food supply, we grow more and more plants and crops. The food industry only uses a small portion of that: generally, only the seeds, fruits, roots, and juices. Concretely, this means that merely 15% to 20% of the over 16,500 billion kilograms of agricultural products are used as food. Billions of tons of agricultural residu, or agricultural waste, remain. A part of this can serve as animal feed, but a very large part is burned onsite or ends up in power stations where it will be burned to generate energy; which is a shame because it would be best to process the agricultural waste into raw material for PaperWise eco friendly paper and paperboard. PaperWise paper and paperboard can be utilized to produce eco friendly stationery, environmentally conscious printing matters and sustainable packaging.
We are very proud that we are partners with PaperWise. From agricultural waste, we recover cellulose, which is the most important raw material for paper. With lots of attention to the environment, we convert this cellulose into high quality sustainable smart paper. Agricultural waste gets a second life for the production of our paper dataloggers.