“Determined to make a change in the way consumers use single-use plastics, Jon Reed set his sights on certified home-compostable plastic alternatives traditionally found in the kitchen: Cling Wrap and Resealable Storage Bags.
Founded by Reed in 2018, Compostic spent years developing products that provide the same functionality as traditional plastic wraps and resealable bags with the capability of breaking down in home compost at the end of the product’s useful life.
“I set out to develop a sustainable product that would mimic the convenience of plastic variants, making it easy for consumers to convert away from plastic,” he says. “Compostic is driven by its mission to eradicate plastics from our lives, providing 100% home compostable kitchen plastics that are entirely zero-waste, from the products to the packaging. Our long-term goal is to remove the need for consumers to use any traditional plastic products in their homes.”
Made from a blend of biopolymers, Compostic’s Cling Wrap and Resealable Bags also are vegan friendly, FDA-approved, BPA-free, non-GMO and non-toxic. The Cling Wrap’s packaging is free from any metal or plastic cutters, features soy-based inks and comes in a recyclable and compostable box. The wrap incorporates pre-perforated markings for seamless use, according to the company.
In a Q&A with Waste360, Reed discussed the product’s debut in New Zealand and talked about how quality and sustainability are driving Compostic’s newest innovations.
Waste360: What drove the idea behind the design for Compostic wrap/resealable bags? Why plastic wrap and resealable bags?
Reed: There was so much media attention on businesses switching away from plastic bags when the New Zealand government announced a ban on single-use plastic bags. We asked ourselves, but what about the plastic people use every day at home?
How are they going to be able to remove plastic from their lives? It’s not as easy for consumers to do it at home without an easy alternative available to them, and businesses are only half of the plastic problem.
So we started talking closely to consumers – what products do they find really useful in their homes, but perhaps felt guilty for using because of the plastic? We were constantly told the same thing; cling wrap and resealable storage bags. So it felt like the obvious place to start. From the beginning, we’ve always strived to solve problems for consumers with simple and sustainable solutions.
Waste360: How much plastic wrap/bags will this save from landfills each year?
Reed: In New Zealand alone we use over 119,000 km of cling wrap each year – that’s enough to wrap the circumference of the world three times – and NZ’s population is just 5 million people. The ultimate goal for us is to provide sustainable solutions to all household products in the long term, eventually removing the need for any household plastics to go to the landfill, and in doing so we hope we can inspire and encourage changes to our waste management systems as well.
Waste360: Can you please explain the process behind the design of this plastic wrap/bags? What kind of research and development went into designing something that could be discarded in home compost?
Reed: We spent over three years working on the cling film in particular. A lot of work has gone into this space already over the last 20 years, so we were able to start testing with materials that were already available at times. The difficulty was refining the compounds into something that mimicked and then improved the function of traditional cling wrap products…..”
View the whole story here: https://www.waste360.com/plastics/compostic-clings-home-compostable-plastic-alternatives