The steep rise of e-commerce has been a boon for shoppers, however all of the packaging that goes with it’s a large 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.
Main corporations, 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 corporations like TemperPack, Inexperienced 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 have completed is de facto constructed a course of which permits us to take this waste and primarily manufacture and switch it into giant scale replacements for plastics,” stated John Felts, CEO of Cruz Foam.
Cruz foam is produced from chitin, a fabric present in shrimp shells, bugs, and fungi. It’s biodegradable, so you’ll be able to both compost it or it can simply degrade shortly itself in a landfill. Felts calls it “earth digestible.” Since it’s produced from waste, the prices are decrease than different biomaterials. And Cruz Foam would not make the packages, it offers packagers with the fabric.
“We scale with present manufacturing and that has allowed us to succeed in economies of scale and value in a short time,” added Felts.
The corporate is already working with Rivian and Whirlpool, and traders see huge alternatives.
“It is an enormous area, the overall addressable market right here, between the municipalities and the states and the nations which are banning polystyrene, and single-use plastic,” stated Dan Fishman, co-founder of Regeneration.VC, a agency backing Cruz Foam. “And the concept corporates are making these pledges as nicely, there’s an enormous enterprise right here.”
Cruz foam has a number of merchandise, from chilly packaging for meals to protecting wrap to substitute for bubble wrap. However this can be a huge subject with different corporations producing packaging from pure supplies like seaweed, mushrooms, waste wool and recycled pulp.
Along with Regeneration.vc, Cruz Foam is backed by Helena, Sound Waves, At One Ventures, and One Small Planet, with complete funding thus far reported at $18 million.
