MakeGrowLab dodges COVID-19 disruptions with locally upcycled food waste packaging

17 Apr 2020 --- Coronavirus-induced supply chain disruptions have affected many in the F&B and packaging industries, but not MakeGrowLab. The Poland-based biodesign consultancy creates customizable, home-compostable plastic alternatives by upcycling locally-sourced food waste. Co-Founder Roza Janusz tells PackagingInsights that MakeGrowLab is able to deflect internal shortages by being part of a closed loop supply chain, where the company is “much more independent in production.”

“This COVID-19 experience assures us that local production is crucial for the future. Although our work style changed completely, we haven’t observed any disruptions in the supply chain and COVID-19 was a motivation shock to bring materials to commercialization faster,” she affirms.

Responding to COVID-19
MakeGrowLab has directly responded to the ongoing pandemic with the commercialization of Babcha Boy, a fermentation kit for home-grown foods (and in the future, packaging) that goes beyond conventional at-home bread- and beer-making.

“For now, Babcha Boy is made to ferment your own foods, but it might be a step forward to the biorevolution-democratic approach to work with natural processes. Beyond that, the fermentation kit is packed with SCOBY packaging material [for anyone] to see how beautifully it can compost in the garden,” Janusz explains. Babcha Boy helps ferment homemade beverages, vegetables, fruits and vinegars.

Having launched its upcycled material alternatives in mid-2019, Janusz reports that her company has already received “great feedback from all around the world” and is encouraged by the “huge demand” to share the technology on a global scale.Babcha Boy is a home-fermentation kit for foods and potentially packaging as well.

Mission compostability
What began as a thesis research question turned out to be the company’s core mission: “What if we could grow materials instead of making them and at the end of their cycle, use them as fertilizer, which would then be used to continue the cycle of a biological production system?”

This resulted in the company’s flagship material, SCOBY, a toxic-free, versatile plastic alternative that is touted as being “stronger than paper” in terms of product protection. It is sourced from unsold and wasted roosts, fruits and vegetables from local farmers within a 50 km radius of its Pulawy headquarters.

The home-compostability property is an additional eye-catcher, considering most compostable materials in the industry are only industrially compostable. Typically, this makes the packaging’s end-of-life disposal dependent on consumers with access to industrial composting facilities.

Regardless of how effective a waste system may be, “the materials will always find their way to nature,” according to Janusz. “Think even about small sugar sachets, when we open them, we usually tear off pieces of material smaller than 1 cm. It is so hard to collect these small pieces of materials and even harder to segregate them. If the material we use is home compostable, it has a much higher possibility of [not harming the] natural environment,” Janusz details.

The rise of plant-based packaging
Innova Market Insights has named “Plant-Based Packaging” its fifth top packaging trend for 2020. Largely fuelled by anti-plastic sentiment and the desire to find more eco-friendly solutions to packaging disposal, biodegradable and compostable packaging is hitting the market in higher numbers and with increased sophistication.SCOBY packaging is made from upcycled food waste sourced from local farmers.

However, barriers to the mainstreaming of compostable packaging still remain. This is most recently exemplified by UK retailer Tesco rejecting compostable packaging from its stores as UK collection services remain limited. A contributing factor to this problem is consumers confusing compostable packaging with conventional packaging and incorrectly disposing of the former.

“It is very hard to recognize commercially available bioplastics among fossil fuels-based packaging, so it is often put in the wrong recycling bin. That is why we are developing our materials to be highly recognizable without the necessity of labels,” Janusz outlines.

SCOBY packaging is designed to differ from conventional plastic by sensory and visual appearance. MakeGrowLab further proposes natural designs to its clients to challenge the concept that alternative packaging should mimic both plastic storage properties and its look.

In the meantime, Janusz hints that in terms of future projects, MakeGrowLab is currently executing “many more than the pipeline can handle.” To stay updated on recent COVID-19 news, check out our daily updates here.

By Anni Schleicher

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