The steep rise of e-commerce has been a boon for shoppers, however all of the packaging that goes with it’s a huge draw back for the planet. All that single-use plastic and Styrofoam, particularly for chilly packaging, is contributing to greenhouse gasoline emissions and consequently local weather change.
Major firms, like Amazon, say they’re making an attempt to cut back packaging, however of the 380 million tons of plastic produced yearly, about half of it’s for single-use functions, like product packaging and Styrofoam.
Now firms like TemperPack, Green Cell and a California-based startup known as Cruz Foam are making extra recyclable and biodegradable packaging. Cruz Foam is making it out of shrimp shells.
“What we’ve done is really built a process which allows us to take this waste and essentially manufacture and turn it into large scale replacements for plastics,” mentioned John Felts, CEO of Cruz Foam.
Cruz foam is constituted of chitin, a fabric present in shrimp shells, bugs, and fungi. It is biodegradable, so you may both compost it or it would simply degrade shortly itself in a landfill. Felts calls it “earth digestible.” Since it’s constituted of waste, the prices are decrease than different biomaterials. And Cruz Foam does not make the packages, it supplies packagers with the fabric.
“We scale with existing manufacturing and that has allowed us to reach economies of scale and cost very quickly,” added Felts.
The firm is already working with Rivian and Whirlpool, and buyers see large alternatives.
“It’s a huge space, the total addressable market here, between the municipalities and the states and the countries that are banning polystyrene, and single-use plastic,” mentioned Dan Fishman, co-founder of Regeneration.VC, a agency backing Cruz Foam. “And the idea that corporates are making these pledges as well, there’s a huge business here.”
Cruz foam has a number of merchandise, from chilly packaging for meals to protecting wrap to substitute for bubble wrap. But this can be a large subject with different firms producing packaging from pure supplies like seaweed, mushrooms, waste wool and recycled pulp.
In addition to Regeneration.vc, Cruz Foam is backed by Helena, Sound Waves, At One Ventures, and One Small Planet, with whole funding to this point reported at $18 million.
Source: www.cnbc.com”