中文SmartSolve Industries and Lactips have signed a global strategic partnership that moves their joint fight against the microplastics crisis from an R&D collaboration into a commercial-scale commitment. The agreement formalizes a relationship that began in 2024 and has already delivered a market-ready, 100 percent plastic-free packaging substrate in under two years — a pace that underscores how urgently the industry is seeking credible alternatives to conventional single-use plastics.
The centerpiece of the partnership is PureNil 0, a bio-based, dispersible, printable and flexible packaging substrate that rapidly breaks down in water without leaving microplastic residues. It is built on a functionalized paper developed by SmartSolve and enabled by Lactips’ proprietary natural polymer resin technology — a material that is 100 percent bio-based, water-soluble and biodegradable across multiple environments. Crucially, PureNil 0 is approved for direct food contact and has already reached commercial scale, with customers active in beauty and personal care, food and beverage, and other consumer markets. For converters, that combination of printability and regulatory clearance is the difference between a laboratory curiosity and a shippable product.
The partnership is deliberately long-term. The companies describe a joint innovation roadmap that extends beyond PureNil 0 to future generations of plastic-free materials, and the agreement grants SmartSolve exclusivity over Lactips’ enabling resin for the application. That exclusivity is the commercial glue that turns a research friendship into a defensible market position, and it signals both sides expect this to be a multi-year platform rather than a single product launch.
Jonathan Jakubowski, CEO and co-founder of SmartSolve, framed the launch in blunt terms. “Lactips gave us the one thing this industry has been missing: a truly plastic-free, water-soluble material that performs at commercial scale,” he said, adding that what began as R&D is now a strategic partnership and “proof that plastic-free packaging isn’t a future promise — it’s here today.” Alexis von Tschammer, CEO at Lactips, called the signing a milestone in the company’s global expansion and thanked the SmartSolve team for the energy they are bringing to accelerate adoption of zero-waste natural packaging solutions.
The announcement was staged for maximum visibility. On the morning of 18 September the two companies hosted a joint media event in Paris. That afternoon, Jakubowski joined US Senator Steve Daines (R-Montana) and a group of French business leaders for a roundtable on sustainability and microplastics at the InterContinental Paris — Le Grand, signaling an intent to engage policymakers, not just buyers. For an emerging material, regulatory literacy and political relationships are as strategic as the chemistry itself.
The broader context is a tightening global framework around packaging waste and a consumer shift toward brands that can demonstrate circular credentials without greenwashing. PureNil 0’s water-dispersibility is its headline differentiator: where compostable films often require industrial facilities that many regions lack, a substrate that dissolves in ordinary water at end of life removes a major infrastructure barrier to genuine circularity. That property also matters for applications where residue is unacceptable, such as certain food sachets and Personal care samples.
For the printing and converting supply chain, the implication is a new, print-friendly substrate competing for applications currently served by conventional plastic films and laminates. As regulatory pressure on single-use plastics intensifies — particularly in Europe — materials like PureNil 0 are likely to move from niche sustainability showcases to mainstream specification. SmartSolve and Lactips are betting that the combination of performance, food-contact approval and commercial scale will make plastic-free packaging a procurement default rather than a premium exception, and the exclusivity in their agreement suggests they intend to own that category as it scales.
Information source: Labels & Labeling (https://www.labelsandlabeling.com/news/substrates-adhesives/smartsolve-and-lactips-partner-sustainability).
This development arrives as the global printing and packaging industry navigates a period of simultaneous consolidation and specialization, where the ability to add a credible new capability — whether a sustainable substrate, a productivity tool or a diversified technology — increasingly separates the shops and suppliers that grow from those that merely hold market share. The companies and associations moving decisively now are positioning themselves to capture demand that will only intensify as regulations tighten and customers professionalize their own supply chains. For smaller players in particular, the lesson is that resilience comes less from scale alone than from the willingness to adopt proven technology and to communicate value clearly to a market that is rapidly professionalizing around them.
Looking ahead, the practical implication for print service providers and converters is that incremental improvement is no longer sufficient; the market rewards those who treat capability, sustainability and workflow as connected investments rather than separate line items. Whether the trigger is a new material, a new press or a new software layer, the winners tend to be the organizations that integrate the change into how they sell, produce and account for work. That integration is precisely what turns a headline announcement into durable competitive advantage, and it is why trade coverage of individual product launches is most useful when read as a signal of where the whole industry is heading next.
