Paper circuits: the future of electronics?

Posted: May 02, 2025

In the fashion industry, RFID (radio-frequency identification) tags have become thoroughly ubiquitous. Each tag—usually directly attached to items in stores—includes a microchip that stores item information as well as a metal antenna, which makes that information accessible to radio frequency readers. These RFID tags have proven a game-changer for anti-theft measures, supply chain tracking, and inventory counting, not to mention the savings enabled by self-checkout systems.

But what about the waste? One UK startup, PulpaTronics, is on a mission to reduce the number of single-use RFID tags that end up in landfill—tens of billions per year, by its reckoning—by manufacturing them entirely out of paper. In late 2023, the company announced it had developed a way to produce fully recyclable paper-based RFID tags with no metal or silicon: just a circuit lasered directly onto a paper substrate.

“Essentially what we’re doing is turning the carbon ingredient in our paper into a conducive, carbon-based material closer to graphite or graphene,” explained CEO Chloe So. “By doing that, we actually reduce and eliminate components. We simplify the entire manufacturing process, and the end product is simply just paper.” PulpaTronics figures they can achieve overall carbon dioxide reductions of around 70% compared with traditional RFID tags, in addition to full recyclability and a lower price point.

If they can successfully reach the marketplace, it will represent a landmark in ongoing efforts to improve the sustainability of electronics manufacturing overall.

Why paper can revolutionize electronic devices

Worldwide population growth, coupled with technological advancements and the rising per-capita utilization of electronic devices, has driven a rapid increase in the demand for electronics. The global market for consumer electronics is expected to continue soaring into the future. And to truly unlock the advantages of Industry 4.0—enhanced connectivity, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence—electronic devices will undoubtedly be required, from the RFID tags used in supply chain management and smart retail to wearable sensors and beyond.

There is serious potential, then, in innovations that make electronics more sustainable to produce and easier to recycle. RFID tags, for instance, often end up in landfill. But they also offer major upsides for sustainability more generally, whether by preventing food waste in groceries retail or by guiding clothing recyclers with automatically-accessible information on every garment.

Enter paper, an increasingly viable alternative material for the production of circuit boards. Paper is flexible and recyclable; conductive inks and other functional materials can be printed easily onto paper without having to etch plastic substrates using hazardous chemicals. Paper is also cheap to mass produce.

“We want more data, we want more connectivity, we want to have internet everywhere, so the amount of electronics needed to equip that is growing constantly,” says Corne Rentrop, a Dutch researcher who leads an EU-funded sustainable electronics initiative named ECOTRON. Rentrop’s team is looking to replace traditional circuit boards with ones made from renewable materials, including a printed electronic label that can be used in smart packaging. “We are making an electronic device which is regarded as paper,” Rentrop says. “This is recycling by design.”

Taking stock of new paper-based developments

A relatively early innovation in the integration of paper and IoT electronics came in 2019 in the form of RFID paper, a collaboration between ISBC and Sappi that embedded RFID circuits and antennas into paper sheets that remain flat and smooth after printing. RFID integration can enable paper-based applications like contactless public transport tickets as well as badges, key cards, and admissions wristbands. According to Sappi, these paper-based RFID tags lower the consumption of energy and resources while reducing waste, both during production and after use.

Companies have also marketed NFC tags that use paper—rather than plastic-based film—as the substrate on which the RFID antenna is applied. In 2023, the packaging firm Toppan announced the development of a paper-based NFC tag with a laser-applied antenna that had no reduction in performance and was 30% thinner than plastic alternatives.

An EU-wide initiative named CircEl-Paper aims to create circuit boards as much of the non-paper materials as possible is replaced by paper. Participants have set about replacing the composite material, glass fiber, and polymers with paper substrates—and exploring ways to increase the proportion of materials that are bio-based and recyclable. The Italian manufacturing firm Fedrigoni, a member of the consortium involved, estimates a reduction of up to 60% in carbon dioxide equivalents. Ultimately, CircEl-Paper aims to develop fully functional printed circuit boards that can be disposed of and recycled in the traditional paper recycling process. Three use cases have been identified as a litmus test: a skin-based medical sensor for measuring glucose, a time-temperature indicator for logistics, and a greeting card that plays music.

“Papertronics” and the drive for integration

Some researchers have gone one step further by seeing paper, not just as a cheap and eco-friendly substrate for off-the-shelf electronic components, but as an integrated component material. Seokheun Choi and his “papertronics” team at State University of New York, Binghamton, have been developing a totally paper-based circuit board that can be burned or left to degrade after use, since it contains no harmful chemicals.

For their first prototype, Choi’s team printed channels onto a sheet of paper using wax, which they then melted. When they printed semi-conductive and conductive inks onto the paper, it soaked into the areas not blocked by the wax; then they applied further conductive components via screen-printing and cast a gel-based electrolyte onto the sheet. This process takes advantage of paper’s rough and porous texture, which poses an impediment in other papertronic contexts, to fabricate intricate electronic components with precision. In a recent article, Choi and his colleagues reported that their papertronic systems—which they are still improving—managed to “exceed performance benchmarks” and “establish papertronic systems as a feasible, eco-friendly alternative in the electronics industry.”

And then there is PulpaTronics, which is due to run pilot trials this year. By using the geometric pattern of the circuit to store and convey information, they have been able to do away with the RFID microchip; their paper tags can be recycled along with regular paper and card waste. They have also called for the introduction of a new symbol that designates which RFID tags are recyclable. That symbol may well become a familiar part of the retail store of the future.