Our Story

How it started

We are a couple of ordinary Kiwi blokes who started to realise just how many paper cups were going to landfill each week.

After some research, it became very clear to us that a lot of products, especially food and drinks, were packaged in plastic. To make matters worse, we found that this packaging all ends up in landfills, even most plant-based plastics like PLA are seldom composted. 

This led us on a voyage of discovery that revealed that even paper cups (almost all have a PLA lining) are not accepted by most commercial composting plants and instead are diverted to landfills. That applies to lids as well.

We set ourselves on a mission to see if we could make a difference and find a suitable food-safe material that contained no plastics or bioplastics like PLA.

Eventually, we came across a barrier coated paper material suitable for the manufacture of coffee cups and other food packaging that uses a proprietary water-based coating system instead of PLA or PE.

Just Earth Papers is proud to introduce PLA free paper cups and lids made right here in New Zealand.

Our cups and lids contain no plastic lining, are certified organic, and can be home composted. If they do end up in landfills, they completely compost leaving no microplastics in the soil. Additionally, because they are made here, they reduce NZ's carbon footprint.

Our cup stock with aqueous barrier of natural polymers meets all requirements including:

FDA                              -    Regulation 21 CRF Part 176.170

Home compostable   -    TUV  S1345

Recyclable                  -    Institute Cyclos - HTP

Plastic Free                 -    Flustix  FFP009