News

Apple is reportedly going to distribute its new iPhone 3G in packaging made from potato starch when it is launched on 11 July.

Dutch firm PaperFoam, which produces CD and DVD packaging and custom-made packs for consumer electronics and pharmaceutical packaging, is expected to supply the iPhone in a cardboard box with a recyclable starch inlay.

The firm claims the starch packaging has "very low" carbon emissions and energy use compared with plastic.

PaperFoam was established in 1998 in Barneveld in the Netherlands with the intention of making packaging using potato starch. Once the injection-moulding technology had been fine-tuned, the first commercial products came on line. By 2004, more than 150 million PaperFoam trays were being produced and a second line was added in 2006.

The company has previously supplied packs for Apple's iPod nano and iPod video, as well as for Motorola mobile phones.

PaperFoam sales and marketing manager Willem Derkman would not comment on how many packs the firm would be supplying, nor would Apple confirm that its latest product would be packaged by PaperFoam.