June 20, 2025 (Industry Intelligence Inc.) –
A roundup of recent trends pitting technology against the printed word:
Trees: James Cropper upcycles paper coffee cups into children’s books
A paper cup’s next chapter could be as imaginative as its final form—a children’s book. UK-based paper company James Cropper helped bring this project to life through its CupCycling recycling system, which strips away plastic linings for separate recycling and then pulps used cups into high-quality paper and molded fiber. The final product is a book called “Little Coffee Cup and the Big Surprise,” which uses about 13 recycled paper coffee cups in its 36 pages, according to a company release on June 13. The book’s author Hayley Slack hopes her book opens new doors for both publishing and recycling. “The publishing industry is set in its ways,” Slack said. “This book kind of challenges the way books are made now.”
Trees: Paper-based casings for electronic devices aim to mitigate global e-waste problem
With electronic waste surpassing 62 million tonnes globally each year, the crisis is compounded by small plastic-encased devices like routers and smoke detectors that are hard to recycle. Austrian designer Franziska Kerber set out to solve this problem by developing PAPE, a paper‐based alternative to plastic and fiberglass for electronic device casings and printed circuit board substrates. Made from unused paper fibers, PAPE parts are durable, heat‐resistant and biodegradable—and can be selectively dissolved, enabling simplified disassembly and material recovery of circuit boards and electronic components for recycling. Kerber’s innovation shortlisted her for the European Patent Office’s Young Inventors Prize 2025, and she is exploring partnerships with startups and industrial companies, according to a European Patent Office release on May 5.
Trees: Malaria-detecting paper test could help track disease in remote areas
In an effort to track malaria infections in remote regions of the world, researchers at Ohio State University have developed a paper test that could diagnose people with asymptomatic infection. Made from wax-patterned paper layers embedded with antibodies and ionic probes, the device can capture malaria antigens from a drop of blood, according to a university release on June 16. After a buffer wash, a handheld mass spectrometer reads the signal from the device in about 30 minutes to determine whether the malaria antigen is in an individual’s blood. In a Ghana field study of 266 asymptomatic volunteers, the devices detected 184 positive cases—outperforming microscopy, rapid diagnostic tests and even PCR—with 96.5% sensitivity. “It’s very promising,” said Abraham Badu-Tawiah, lead author of the field study. “Technology will go hand-in-hand with vaccination, and you need a sensitive tool that is deliverable.” He envisions adapting the test to detect other conditions such as colon cancer and acute pancreatitis.
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