Beyond Plastic Bans: Creating Products To Replace It

One of the BillerudKorsnäs packaging redesign projects replaced the plastic casing around camping gear with cardboard

Cassandra Profita / OPB

Packaging designer Ryan Gaither believes in the power of cardboard.

At the Swedish-owned BillerudKorsnäs design lab in Portland, Oregon, he’s laid down a massive sheet of it, as big as a king-size bed.

He flips the switch on a machine that zips around the cardboard, stabbing and cutting it like a robotic exact-o knife.