These Paper Batteries — Yes, Paper — Are the Best of CES Winners. They come for your technique

Wandering the halls of the world’s biggest tech show can sometimes feel a little overwhelming and find little to do to solve our planet’s biggest problems. I attend every time CESI keep my eye on technology that has the potential to make a deeper mark on society, and I discovered a humdinger at this year’s show. (Here are a few more the most eye-catching finds.)

Read more: Official Best of CES 2025 Winners Awarded by CNET Group

Singaporean startup Flint makes rechargeable paper batteries, which was named a CNET winner. Best CES Sustainability award on Thursday. They are fully flexible and can be shrunk down to the size of a coin battery or inserted into a smartwatch strap.

Flint’s paper batteries share a structure with traditional lithium-ion batteries, but that’s where the similarities end. Their main component is cellulose, which acts as a natural medium for the transfer of ions between the anode and cathode, a critical chemical exchange necessary for batteries to function.

The extraction and production of lithium-ion batteries causes significant CO2 emissions, toxic chemical leaks and waterways depletion, all of which contribute to the wider climate crisis. As our battery demands increase rather than decrease, solutions like Flint are key to reducing the environmental impact of our technological obsession.

“Our supply chain is very rich and we don’t require rare earths or toxic materials and scarce materials,” said Flint co-founder Carlo Charles. Some of them, like zinc and manganese, can even be found in food and in your body.

Disposing of traditional batteries also creates a huge burden on the environment, but paper batteries can biodegrade in six weeks. Charles tells me that at the team office in Singapore, they compost the batteries they use to feed the office plants.

Right now, the company is focused on making smaller batteries for smaller consumer electronics, but there’s no reason why it can’t scale these up one day. “We want to go further and see how we can put our products on your smartphones,” Charles said. “Foldable smartphones could have foldable batteries…there’s a lot of potential.”

Far down the line, a paper battery can be sized to fit into an electric airplane’s electric door or wing door. Because the batteries are so thin, they can be layered and also don’t pose the same fire hazard as their lithium-ion predecessors.

A week before CES, Flint secured $2 million in funding, which the company plans to use to build a pilot manufacturing facility in Singapore. Charles says setting up the pilot in a country that lacks cobalt, lithium or any of the other minerals traditionally used to make batteries will help prove the battery industry can be decentralized.

The company already plans to return to CES next year with an even bigger presence — though this year’s booth was an impressive feat of sustainable engineering in its own right. Everything is made of cardboard that can be packed into a box.

For all that, Flint planted a flag at CES 2025. We’re excited to see where the company’s paper batteries go next.