Molded pulp is made by forming recycled paper fibre in a slurry against a shaped screen, then pressing and drying it. The result protects like a lightweight foam but goes into the paper recycling stream or a home compost bin. For brands under pressure to remove plastic from the pack, it is usually the only insert format that satisfies both the protection brief and the sustainability brief.

The catch is tooling. Pulp needs a metal mould, which is a real upfront cost and roughly three to four weeks to make. That makes pulp the wrong answer for a 500-piece test and the right answer for an established SKU running tens of thousands a year, where the tooling amortises quickly and the per-unit cost undercuts foam.