Page 8 - Packaging News Nov-Dec 2019

DIARY
Start-up zeroes in on waste
NEWS
www.packagingnews.com.au November-December 2019
A CROWDFUNDED zero-waste packaging start-up is aiming to remove single-use plastic from 14,000 Australian households in twelve months, using refillable pouches made of recycled plas- tic and rigid containers made of plastic pulled from the ocean.
Zero Co, founded by Austra- lian entrepreneur Mike Smith, will allow customers to order home care products in refill- able rigid containers and pouches, which are shipped to their doors; once used, the pouches can be returned to be cleaned and refilled again, while the bottles are kept.
Smith told PKN that he was inspired to set up the company after an 18-month trekking and camping expedition with part- ner Alyssa Carter, on which he found plastic waste even in beautiful and remote areas. He began seeking seed funding in August last year.
“For any start-up, the biggest challenge is getting people to buy into the idea. I pitched to every VC fund, private equity group, incubator program I knew; I approached organisa- tions in the environmental field... I was knocked back over one hundred times,” he said.
Investors including Rob Chapman, a director on various
boards such as Coopers Brew- ery, raised a total of $700,000 to develop initial packaging con- cepts, and the Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign was launched in October; within eight days, it had already raised its initial $251,313 goal.
The pouches, supplied by O.F Pack, will be a first in this mar- ket, and it took some time to find a supplier willing to push the envelope with recycled plastic for a pouch application.
Joe Foster, managing direc- tor of O.F Pack, told PKN: “They took some time phon- ing around suppliers asking if they could purchase a spout pouch made from recy- cled plastic films and every- body said ‘no’ or ‘too hard
Audacious goals: Mike Smith, Zero Co.
basket!’. They called us and my answer was ‘why not?’. We have looked at the structure and source of plastic, and are very confident that we can deliver.”
The pouches will be produced from recy- cled post-industrial waste by O.F Pack’s partner company in
China, and Smith says the re- cycled claim will be certified and substantiated.
For the structural packaging design, Smith approached An- drew Simpson of Sydney- based industrial design agency Vert Design, whose “aesthetic sensibilities” Smith says he has come to trust through oth- er projects they have collabo- rated on; and for the graphic design, Zero Co engaged Syd- ney agency Born & Raised.
According to Smith, his next “big audacious goal” at time of writing was to get 14,000 Aus- tralian households to back the Kickstarter campaign, which he said would remove one mil- lion single-use plastic contain- ers from the waste stream. ■
Coles sees 32% boost
COLES has recorded a 32 per cent increase in soft plastic recycling during the 2019 financial year through its REDcycle initiative.
Coles chief property and ex- port officer Thinus Keeve said the increase showed how sig- nificant reducing waste had be- come for consumers. “We know that recycling is important to our customers, and we are see- ing many people changing their habits to reduce waste that ends up in landfill,” Keeve said.
Soft plastics – including packaging such as biscuit
packets, lolly bags, frozen food bags and bread, rice and pasta bags – cannot be recy- cled through most kerbside recycling services.
Last year Coles became the first major supermarket to roll out REDcycle bins in all its stores. In FY19, customers recycled 905 tonnes or 226 million pieces of soft plastics; since the scheme was imple- mented in 2011, it has recy- cled enough soft plastic to encircle the earth five times.
In related news, Lion has become the first major brewer
8
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