Newsprint paper is a familiar material with a less familiar role. Better known for newspapers, its low weight, flexibility and easy handling also make it useful for protective wrapping, carton filling, separating packaged items and protecting goods in storage.
Supplied in rolls or sheets, newsprint can be used in both manual and automated packing lines. Reclaimed newsprint, sometimes known in Scandinavia as mackle, may consist of reclaimed newspaper and magazine paper or material described as printer’s reject, waste sheet or spoiled sheet.
A Lightweight Material with a Practical Job
The suitability of newsprint paper for packaging begins with its physical characteristics. It is a lightweight, uncoated paper grade, typically manufactured from recycled fibres or mechanical wood pulp. Its light weight makes it easy to fold, wrap and crumple, while the paper remains strong enough for a range of dry protective uses.
Newsprint used for packaging can generally range from 42 to 90 g/m², depending on the available fibre supply and production batch. Carccu®, a Finnish paper packaging manufacturer and printing house, most commonly supplies a 45 g/m² grade. At this weight, the paper combines flexibility with sufficient surface strength for uses such as protective wrapping, carton filling and separating items inside a package. In storage, it can also provide temporary surface protection. That flexibility comes with some limitations, however: newsprint is not moisture resistant and is not intended for heavy-load packaging or applications involving significant exposure to grease. Its strengths lie instead in dry applications where a lightweight and easily handled protective layer is sufficient.
Protective Packaging Can Carry a Message Too
Newsprint’s role does not necessarily end with cushioning or wrapping. Its surface can also be printed on, allowing logos, handling instructions or batch markings to become part of the protective packaging itself rather than requiring a separate label.
Flexographic printing, a method that uses flexible printing plates to transfer ink directly onto the paper, is commonly used for this purpose, particularly for larger production runs. It is well suited to uncoated paper surfaces and allows markings to be applied without adding another material layer to the paper.
However, the characteristics of newsprint paper do influence what works well visually. Because the surface is uncoated and slightly absorbent, printing generally favors clear, high-contrast designs rather than very fine detail. That is rarely a major disadvantage in protective packaging, where a recognizable logo or straightforward handling instruction may be more important than the kind of detailed reproduction expected from retail display packaging.
In other words, newsprint paper can be printed when this is appropriate for the intended application. This gives businesses the option of combining the paper’s protective role with simple identification or branding.
Where the Fibres Come From Matters
The practical performance of packaging is only one part of the picture. For forest-based materials, documented information about the origin and movement of raw materials has become an important part of supply chain management.
FSC® Chain of Custody certification provides a system for tracking certified wood-based materials through the supply chain. It verifies that certified materials are identified and managed according to defined requirements as they move through production. Compliance is checked through independent, accredited audits.
PEFC Chain of Custody certification provides another internationally used framework for tracing certified forest-based materials through the supply chain.
Both systems give packaging buyers documented information about material sourcing rather than requiring them to rely on broad environmental claims.
Regulation adds another layer of documentation. The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) requires companies placing certain forest-based products on the EU market to carry out due diligence and demonstrate that the material meets its requirements concerning legal sourcing, deforestation and forest degradation. This includes traceability documentation, supplier checks and risk assessments.
For packaging users, such systems make it possible to consider not only what a paper does inside a parcel but also what documentation accompanies the material through the supply chain.
Much of the Story Happens During Production
Where raw materials come from matters, but so does what happens to them once they enter production. Material efficiency is influenced by decisions made throughout the manufacturing process, including how offcuts, surplus paper and other production materials are handled.
Paper and board offcuts, for example, can be returned to paper mills and reprocessed into new paper. Some of this material may later find its way back into production in another form, such as paper cores for rolls. Surplus rolls and sheets can also be directed to secondary packaging applications rather than being sent immediately for pulping, extending the use of material that has already been produced.
The same principle can be applied to other materials generated or used during production. Metal barrels used for ink deliveries may be repurposed by other industries, while plastic stretch film from pallets can be recycled into new plastic raw material. Even leftover printing ink can have another use: it can be recovered and reused as black pigment in kraft paper production.
Taken together, these practices provide concrete examples of how materials can be recovered, reused or redirected within and beyond paper manufacturing. Their significance lies in specific production practices rather than broad claims about the environmental merits of one packaging material over another.
Formal management structures provide a framework for making such production practices systematic and measurable. ISO 9001 covers areas including process control, documentation, corrective action and continuous improvement, while ISO 14001 requires organisations to identify and monitor environmental aspects, evaluate compliance obligations and work systematically to improve environmental performance. In this way, material recovery and production management form parts of the same broader picture: understanding what enters a manufacturing process, how it is handled and where materials go next.
Finding the Right Role for a Familiar Material
The continued use of newsprint in packaging illustrates a broader principle: packaging materials are most useful when their properties match the job they need to do. Newsprint does not need to compete with every other protective material or provide a solution for every type of shipment.
Instead, its packaging role has developed around applications that make use of the characteristics already discussed. This gives a paper grade historically associated with printed media another function in contemporary supply chains.
It is a useful reminder that developments in packaging do not always depend on creating entirely new materials. Sometimes an established material can remain relevant because its existing properties suit a different practical purpose.
Newsprint Paper in a Wider Context
The role of newsprint paper in packaging extends beyond its physical properties. As the certification and regulatory frameworks discussed above show, businesses can also look at the documentation behind forest-based materials when assessing packaging options.
Carccu®, the Finnish paper packaging manufacturer mentioned earlier, provides one example of this approach. Its newsprint paper is supplied under FSC® Chain of Custody and PEFC Chain of Custody certifications, while the company operates under certified ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 management systems. The paper it supplies also complies with the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR).
These frameworks do not change what newsprint paper can or cannot do as a packaging material. Rather, they provide documented information about aspects such as fibre traceability, process control and environmental management. Alongside practical considerations such as weight, handling and the conditions in which the packaging will be used, this information can form part of a broader assessment of whether a particular paper is suitable for a particular application.