New wood fibre technology to speed up move away from single-use plastics

The Finnish company Fiberdom currently produces single-use cutlery from wood fibre, but it aims at ousting single-use plastics in several sectors of industry.

Consumer behaviour, goals of corporate responsibility and regulatory changes all steer wood-based innovations in a direction that makes it possible to stop using non-essential plastics.

In April, the Finnish materials technology company Fiberdom announced that it had secured funding for EUR 3.5 million to accelerate the development and scaling up f its patented, fully plastic-free materials.

The material developed by the company is made from FSC-certified wood fiber without any synthetic chemicals. The key lies in Fiberdom’s patented heat and pressure treatment, which transforms pulp or paperboard into a highly durable and easily moldable material suitable for various applications. The material can be recycled as paperboard and is also compostable.

According to Fiberdom, their technology addresses many of the challenges associated with current fiber-based alternatives, such as limited moldability, insufficient material strength, and the use of additives that hinder recyclability.

Fiberdom’s first commercial application is single-use cutlery. Made at the company’s factory in Vantaa, just outside Helsinki, the cutlery is already available to consumers through two major Finnish retailers, the S and K Groups.

The recent 3.5-million funding will make it possible to accelerate R&D and to expand the technology to cover new market segments. Fiberdom aims at replacing non-essential plastics in, for example, food packagings, storage solutions and the furniture industry.

According to Fiberdom, the global market for fibre-based packagings is expected to grow from USD 467 thousand million in 2025 to as much as USD 567 thousand million by 2034.

The company is now looking for strategic partners to expand the use of its technology on to new branches of industry.

’This funding represents a pivotal moment for Fiberdom as we scale our breakthrough technology to address the growing global demand for truly alternative materials,’says Tomi Järvenpää, General Manager, in Fiberdom’s news release.