Packaging that can go in the compost
Grounded, an Auckland-based startup, is producing plant-based, home compostable packaging which breaks back down into organic matter, not microplastics.
From this month consumers will be able to put the packaging directly into their own compost heaps.
Former restaurateur Ben Grant and sustainable packaging expert Josh Kempton started the business after Grant sold his restaurant chain Bird on a Wire. The restaurant trade brought Grant’s attention to ‘‘the wake’’ of plastic waste generated.
‘‘[As a result] we were one of the first businesses to start using compostable takeaway packaging and then go fully compostable. That piqued my interest into the idea and trying to understand the volumes of packaging that are generated in every part of the supply chain,’’ he said.
The packaging is manufactured to European OK Home Compost standards, which stipulate that home compostable packaging must biodegrade in 90 days and completely disappear in 180 days.
Sustainable Business Network chief executive Rachel Brown said the challenge with compostables was two-fold. Product labelling on whether packaging can be home composted or not and information for consumers on how to compost properly would be important.
The other issue was public infrastructure to deal with items that can only be composted commercially.
‘‘We need commercial composting collection, because if compostable packaging ends up in the same bin as rubbish it will end up in landfill,’’ she said.
Grant said kerbside food waste collection was increasingly being adopted or trialled by local authorities in New Zealand and Australia.
‘‘Forty per cent of waste that goes to landfill is food waste, which creates methane,’’ he said. ‘‘The priority is to deal with that.’’
The new packaging is two to three times the cost of regular packaging, Grant said, but that wasn’t necessarily a barrier.
‘‘Everybody is keen to have the conversation at the moment and everybody is looking to get plastics out of the supply chain.’’