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All of the thermal paper mills are busy reformulating their thermal papers to meet the ever-changing requirements implemented in California and Washington. This year, California added BPS to the Proposition 65 list of chemicals, which prompted all the mills to focus on creating a paper that does not contain BPA and BPS. This conversion is pretty much completed, with only a few grades still making it through the change.
Eliminating all Phenols (BPA and BPS are both Phenols) has been a bit more daunting. This is the 2026 mandate for Washington State. While some grades are now available as Phenol-Free, we are far from being able to offer “ALL” grades as Phenol-Free. This conversation is expected to be closer to completion by the fourth quarter of 2025.
With the formulation changes, we are seeing some differences in image quality. Some good and some not-so-good. Upon investigation, this has a lot to do with what developers the mills are choosing to use as an alternative to the Phenols. Additionally, depending on the Mill and the Paper Grade, cost changes range from 0%-14% increases. We assume this will be slightly narrowed once the products are fully developed and deployed into the markets.
If you have any questions, please contact Brandon Kent at bkent@telemarkcorp.com
