SEOUL/TOKYO — An "eco-friendly" range of paper tubes and pouches touted by Yonwoo, a South Korean maker of packaging for cosmetics, has reaped unexpected benefits from the Iran conflict, which has disrupted supplies of the plastic needed to produce single-use wrapping.

While the conflict has sent prices of plastic soaring to roughly four-year highs by choking off flows of the required raw materials like oil and petrochemicals, the company says it has fueled inquiries threefold for paper-based options.

"Interest initially came from companies focused on sustainability …but if the plastics issue gets prolonged we expect demand to further increase," said Kim Min-sang, a senior manager at parent company Kolmar Korea.

The supplier to major firms, such as France's L'Oreal, has fielded inquiries mainly for paper tubes encasing items such as sunscreen and lotions that use just 20 percent of the plastic employed by conventional packaging, Kim told Reuters.

Across Asia, home to some of the world's biggest plastic users and polluters, changes that environmental groups have sought for decades are quickly being adopted, even if they may prove to be a short-term fix.

Asia is not only heavily reliant on feedstock imported from the Middle East — it is hooked on plastic.

The region also accounts for more than a third of all plastic waste leaking into the environment, thanks to poor waste collection methods in low-income Southeast Asian nations.

Japan ranks behind only the United States in terms of plastic production and consumption per head, according to a 2025 study by researchers from Beijing's Tsinghua University published in the science journal Nature.

Wholesalers there have been warning about possible shortages of plastic trays and bags, said Kensuke Takahashi, product manager for Marutake supermarket in Saitama, adjacent to Tokyo.

"We now have to discuss how to sell our products if trays are no longer supplied at all," said Takahashi. "I'm very worried. We really don't know what will happen."

Japanese makers of plastic bags and cling wrap, Mitsubishi Chemical and Sanipak, have said they will raise prices by about 30 percent in the coming weeks for some products as the conflict drives up costs of raw materials.

Talks for a global treaty to tackle plastic pollution stalled last year after the United States and plastic-producing countries pushed back against a drive led by the European Union to cap the production of plastics.

Some companies are adapting to new alternatives.

In Malaysia, dairy producer Farm Fresh said it has temporarily switched to paper-based milk cartons because of the plastic supply disruptions.

But there is no quick fix for others, such as a South Korean company called Gaone, which makes packaging for face masks.

The 20-year-old factory is now warning clients of a wait of up to eight weeks for orders to be filled, and expects revenue to suffer accordingly, said sales team manager Han Kyung-hun.

"I hope things return to normal as soon as possible," said Han, but cautioned that recovery could take a couple of months, even if the war ended immediately.

Agencies via Xinhua