We believe there is a better way of doing things,” says Richard Fine, founder and sustainability director of BioPak. For Fine and the company he started in 2006, that means addressing the twin problems of single-use plastic and food waste, piece by piece. Imagine you could visit a landfill in 400 years’ time and you’ll likely discover plastic containers that look virtually unchanged from 2020. You might even find plastic packaging you threw away last week.
That’s because plastic can take centuries to decompose, a worrying thought when currently only about 9 per cent of the world’s plastic is actually recycled. The rest is either contaminated with food, too small to be sorted, made of various materials that cannot be easily separated, or it’s simply dumped in the wrong bin. But we need containers, of course, because food waste – to the tune of some 7.3 million tonnes a year in Australia – is another equally confronting issue.
This is where BioPak comes in. Looking to address both problems, the Australian brand has developed a range of carbon-neutral, plant-based food-packaging products that can be composted rather than thrown in the bin.
BioPak offers disposable hot and cold cups, plates, bowls, trays, napkins, bags and more, and is the first company of its kind in Australia and New Zealand to become carbon-neutral. Its products are made from Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®) certified paper and wood, rapidly renewable sugarcane or bioplastic made from plants, not oil, making them perfect for any business serving takeaway food and wanting to put the planet first.
It’s frightening to think that how we serve a simple takeaway coffee or a plate of hot chips could create problems for centuries of future generations. Through using BioPak products, we are reducing the plastic burden. To put it simply, as Fine says, it’s “a better way of doing things”.
