This Thai company makes food packaging out of bamboo to cut down on trash

To deal with Thailand’s mounting trash challenge, just one corporation is turning to the country’s plant lifestyle.

Universal Biopack can make packaging that it sells to dining places and brands. But somewhat than plastic, it makes use of a combination of bamboo and cassava, crops that are commonly uncovered across the region.

Immediately after increasing promptly in current many years, Thailand has develop into a person of Asia’s most significant economies. But like lots of other international locations in the region, it’s been gradual to check out to battle the millions of tons of trash generated each individual yr.

“Waste management is a huge trouble just about everywhere,” stated Common Biopack’s handling director, Vara-Anong Vichakyothin.

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The organization is working with a engineering devised at a Bangkok university to make its zero-waste packaging. It hopes it will finally switch lots of of the Styrofoam boxes and plastic bags that stop up in big rubbish dumps across Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries.

Its eco-pleasant formula took five several years to acquire and is so adaptable it could conclusion up being made use of to package deal points like household furniture and even phones. The bamboo it takes advantage of comes from leftover scraps from the chopstick producing procedure.

In the metropolitan areas of Bangkok and Chiang Mai, where by takeout consume containers and noodle packets line the sidewalks, the business supplies dining places, natural and organic farmers and other corporations in the food stuff and consume industry.

But acquiring new consumers can be challenging.

Takeout food stuff suppliers in Thailand want to preserve charges down in a aggressive business with slim margins. Inquiring them to shell out extra on packaging for environmental factors is a difficult promote.

“The neighborhood economy still does not aid [this technology]” stated Common Biopack’s founder, Suthep Vichakyothin.

But that hasn’t halting other organizations from coming into the sustainable packaging sector in Thailand. Like Common Biopack, they’re betting on rising environmental consciousness finally primary to an improve in demand from customers.

To develop into additional competitive, Suthep’s business is investing. It is really aiming to ramp up production by creating a partially automated assembly line at its factory in the vicinity of Bangkok and doubling its staffing from 50 persons to 100.

The goal is to raise monthly ability from 300,000 models to just one million.

Similar: A startup that will make pencils that improve into vegetables

A large amount of the need arrives from abroad. One particular of its customers makes use of the purely natural packaging for coconut drinking water it exports.

Universal Biopack claims it really is also finding interest in its items from other international locations, specially in Scandinavia.

CNNMoney (Hong Kong) 1st published February 12, 2017: 9:08 PM ET