Vogue magazine recently titled its cover story “El papel del éxito” (“The Role of Success”), featuring the writer Virginia Feito. Whether intentionally or not, the phrase highlights the rich, layered meanings of the word papel in Spanish. Few words carry so many lives in so few letters. Papel is the blank space where dreams take form, where novels, letters, and projects begin. But it’s also the role we play in our daily lives: the papel of a mother, a boss, a friend — the lead in our own story.

Things get more complex when we try to translate it. In other languages, the meanings are split: in English, paper refers to the material, and role to the function or part we play. French separates papier from rôle, German has Papier and Rolle. Spanish alone maintains that beautiful ambiguity — one word embracing both what is written and what is lived. The Spanish Royal Academy defines papel as anything from a physical document to a role in a play, a part performed, a function fulfilled.

Inspired by this richness, we’ve designed an unusual and suggestive navigation menu on our website Labolsadepapel.com:
“Juega tu papel por la sostenibilidad”,
“Juega tu papel por tu marca”,
“Juega tu papel por los consumidores”,
“Juega tu papel para llevarlo todo”,
“Juega tu papel por la reciclabilidad”.

Each section invites you not only to browse, but to step into an active role in a shared, sustainable story.

Because papel — in all its meanings — still plays a leading role in a world that calls for conscious, meaningful action.