Issue 2 2020

14 CORPORATE VISION / Issue 2 2020 , Dec19433 It’s Easy to go Compostable As customers start to demand amore ecologicallyminded approach to purchasing, the provision of climate-friendly products has become increasingly important. TIPA Compostable Packaging was born out of the need to reduce plastic pollution and its success has seen it awarded Corporate Vision’s accolade forMost Influential Leader in Clean Technology – 2020. In the light of this victory, we profiled the company to discover more. TIPA believes that in order for its packaging to be environmentally friendly, it should behave like an orange peel, which decomposes after wrapping a product, leaving no toxic residue. What remains of its packaging can be used as compost. When TIPA was co-founded by Daphna Nissenbaum, it was on the ‘orange peel’ principle. The company aims to tackle a vital segment of the plastic waste challenge: flexible plastic packaging. Though rigid plastics are partly recyclable, flexible packaging isn’t, and it is taking up a growing portion of the world’s packaging market, due to being lighter, more convenient, and smaller in volume. Until now, environmental activism and waste initiatives have largely focused on recycling to solve the problem of materials like plastic, without accounting for whether or not the item is actually recycled. Conventional flexible plastic packaging cannot easily be recycled because its material is complex, contaminated by food, and too lightweight to be recycled on a practical scale. TIPA set out to replace a virtually un-recyclable offender with something that has the end-of-life of organic waste. The company’s vision was to have it all. TIPA’s experts created flexible packaging that offers consumers and brands all of flexible’s positive elements, such as the durability, transparency and shelf life that they have come to expect from conventional plastics, with the same end-of-life as organic matter. Having come from a business background, Nissenbaum knew that compostable packaging could only hope to gain traction against its conventional counterparts if it met the same performance specifications as conventional flexibles, and fit seamlessly into today’s plastic methodology, logistics, and manufacturing practices. TIPA’s IP covers a range of one-ply films and multi-ply laminates with a range of packaging applications, including open bags, zipper bags, resealable bags, bar wrappers, and stand-up pouches, as well as reels of film for converting, flow- packs, and lidding for a variety of products and packaging types. All of which are manufactured and processed using existing chains of supply, allowing the company to scale up quickly, and globally. TIPA’s products fit the bill in many respects. The films, laminations, and product applications are manufactured using the same machinery used to produce conventional plastics