Corn offers green packaging option
Saad Hussain came to New Zealand from Canada three years ago and brought with him an idea that could revolutionise food and beverage packaging.
In a Rotorua laboratory at Crown Research Institute, Hussain turned corn into a compostable foam.
No-one is using the foam yet but Hussain said he was in talks with some of the world’s biggest food and beverage companies.
Convincing a global brand such as Coca-Cola to use his product would force recycling processors to take sustainability seriously, he said.
Polylactic acid (PLA), the polymer in the foam that is made from corn, decomposed on its own over time, but could only be broken down at an industrial scale in Europe.
Community Recycling Network New Zealand executive officer Dorte Wray said PLA could be decomposed and recycled here, but only with industrial equipment which was not commonly available.
Hussain said for sustainable packaging to become mainstream, the entire supply chain needed to support its use.
‘‘We just invent it … We are one piece of the puzzle.’’
He said he would not stop inventing green packaging solutions just because most brands had not begun using it yet.
He was adamant the cost of PLA would continue to drop and foam like his would eventually become more attractive.
For now, Hussain said he was looking at making his invention cheaper because the only thing stopping companies from printing their labels onto the stretched foamed film was the cost.
This packaging was more expensive than the paper or plastic-based material almost every food company used, he said.
Hussain said consumers were becoming more conscious of the environment and it would be in the best interests of consumer goods companies to take note of the trend.