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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

waste-free

Ecoinno Raises $6M for Compostable Food Packaging Made of Sugar Cane and Bamboo

Ecoinno, a Hong Kong-based company making sustainable packaging from plant fibers, has raised $6 million in Series A1 funding from Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs and Alibaba Taiwan Entrepreneurs Fund (h/t South China Morning Post). This brings the startup’s total funding to $8.8 million.

Founded in 2015, Ecoinno uses a patented technology to make a sustainable packaging material out of pulp from bamboo and sugar cane. Called green composite material (GCM), the product is compostable and will decompose in 75 days.

Thus far, GCM has been trialed chiefly in CPG applications like coffee capsules, as well as single-use takeaway food containers. South China Morning Post reports that it’s first customer will be an undisclosed Hong Kong airline… once the coronavirus pandemic passes and flights to and from Hong Kong resume in full. The airline will use Ecoinno’s biodegradable food and drink containers to serve passengers.

Ecoinno will use its new funding to scale up production of GCM and expand R&D for more applications of its biodegradable packaging. It’s also building a fully automated factory in Tai Po with robotic assembly lines.

Since most of us are relying on takeaway and delivery to get our food these days, packaging is definitely top of mind. Even before COVID, fast food chains like Taco Bell and Starbucks had outlined ambitious plans to cut packaging waste and switch to recyclable or compostable options.

But not all compostable packaging is actually, well, compostable. Some contain so-called “forever” chemicals which are harmful to humans and never break down. Sweetgreen and Chipotle have both taken big steps in 2020 to transition to truly compostable containers, though it’s tricky to find biodegradable food packaging that’s strong enough to hold food, especially liquid, without breaking. Ecoinno’s GCM is made of 100 percent plant fibers, so no pesky forever chemicals.

Of course, the GCM hasn’t been put to the test yet. But considering we’ll probably see more to-go orders for a long time yet, even after restaurants reopen dining rooms, now is certainly an opportune time to invest in green packaging innovation.

Daily Harvest Switches to Home Compostable Containers

Daily Harvest makes frozen containers of pre-prepped food that are supposed to be better for your health than most frozen meals. But are they better for the planet, too?

The company has taken at least one step towards sustainability. Starting in April, Daily Harvest will roll out its new Re:generation line of containers which are 100 percent home compostable and made from plant-based renewable fibers. They’re also adjusting its portion size; the savory Harvest Bowls + Soups will be 1.5 times larger, and the Oats + Chia Bowls will be .75 times their current size.

Daily Harvest is also working more upstream to make the entire production process — from manufacturing to shipping — more sustainable. According to a release from the company emailed to The Spoon, Daily Harvest is in the midst of “working to eliminate all single use plastic and non-recyclable materials through our supply chain.” Where exactly they are on that process is unclear.

I tried out Daily Harvest’s service last year and really enjoyed the taste, health, and convenience of the frozen meals. I was happy to learn at the time that the cardboard delivery box in which the meals com is recyclable, as are the meal cups themselves. The liner holding the dry ice included in the shipment is supposedly also biodegradable and made of recycled denim.

Making the cups not just recyclable but home compostable is an encouraging step to cut waste in the very wasteful home meal delivery space — and one that I hope to see other companies following. Some already are. UK supermarket chain Waitrose has debuted fully compostable packaging for prepared meals. Pizza tech company Zume also pivoted into compostable packaging last year, though it’s currently dealing with lack of funding and major layoffs.

Other companies, like NadaMoo, are learning just how complex making home-recyclable containers actually is, especially for leak-prone products like ice cream.

One major question I had when learning this news was whether or not Daily Harvest’s new containers will contain PFAS, or chemicals that do not ever biodegrade. Last week Sweetgreen began rolling out new to-go meal bowls that were compostable and free of PFAS (their old containers were compostable but did have PFAS). As of today, Chipotle has pledged to remove PFAS from its own bowls by the end of 2020.

I’ve reached out to Daily Harvest to find out if its new packaging does, in fact, contain PFAs and will update this post when I hear back. Until then, it’s still encouraging to see a company so synonymous with frozen food delivery taking steps to reduce its packaging footprint. Here’s hoping Daily Harvest’s actions will encourage other delivery-only meal companies to follow suit.

Initiative Backed by Starbucks, McDonald’s Begins Testing Waste-Free Cups in the Bay Area

As a planet we produce the astounding 264 billion paper cups per year. Some of them are recyclable, some aren’t — but no matter their label, the vast majority end up in landfills because of an inner plastic inner lining which make the cups tricky to actually recycle.

That overwhelming amounts of coffee cup waste is the target of the NextGen Cup Challenge, a global competition to create a scalable zero waste cup solution. It’s the first project from the NextGen Consortium, an initiative aimed at reducing food packaging waste that’s managed by Closed Loop Partners as well as big-name food corporations like Starbucks, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Nestlé and others (h/t Nation’s Restaurant News).

The 12 winners of the NextGen Cup Challenge were selected last year, and this week they’re beginning to roll out their cup solutions in participating cafés in the Bay Area. In San Francisco and Paolo Alto, coffee shops will be testing out reusable cups tricked out with chips and tracking codes. Once they’re done with their drink, customers can return their smart cup to any participating café or other designated drop off points. After that, NextGen will collect and sanitize the cups, then re-send them back out into circulation. San Francisco shops will use cups designed by Indonesia-based returnable packing service Muuse, and those in Paolo Alto will feature cups made by British startup CupClub.

In March, cafés in Oakland will start piloting their own waste-free cup solution. Instead of reusable cups, participating cafés will use fully recyclable single-use cups — that is, cups that don’t have pesky plastic liners, which sometimes make other “recyclable” cups difficult to actually, well, recycle.

Even though big chains aren’t using sustainable cups yet, this a still big step for the NextGen Cup Challenge. Launching in small, local cafés is an important proof of concept, as well as an opportunity to see which type of waste-free cup is the easiest to implement and most popular with consumers. The end goal is to roll out the most successful solution on a large scale — to national chains like McDonald’s and Starbucks.

NextGen Cup Challenge isn’t the only group out there fighting coffee cup waste. Elsewhere in the Bay Area, Nestle-owned chain Blue Bottle is also testing a zero-single-use-cup program (featuring reusable cups) as part of their initiative to go waste-free by the end of this year.

Back in January, my colleague Jenn Marston predicted that 2020 could well be the year of the waste-free coffee shop. With NextGen Cup Challenge, a project backed by industry giants, finally starting to take off, there’s a chance that might actually happen.

The Wally Shop is a Grocery Delivery Service with Zero Packaging Waste

Even if you’re trying to shop sustainably — buying in bulk, choosing local produce, bringing your own bag to the supermarket — chances are, your weekly grocery order isn’t totally waste-free.

But one startup in Brooklyn wants to make zero-waste grocery shopping a reality. The Wally Shop is an online grocery-delivery service where the packaging, delivery, and bags are all waste-free. Seriously.

Here’s how it works: If you’re in an area where The Wally Shop is active (they currently serve a dozen-ish zip codes in Brooklyn), you can shop on their website for goods from local farmers markets and bulk stores (produce, coffee, tea, grains, etc.). After choosing your goods, you then pick a delivery time between 6-8 p.m. If you order before 2 p.m. you can have your order delivered same day.

Once Wally receives an incoming order, the company’s in-house shoppers will hit up local markets and bulk stores to find the items on your grocery list. Back at the company’s warehouse, those goods are repacked into reusable containers. Think glass mason jars and muslin bags. The entire order gets put in a reusable tote bag and delivered to you via bicycle. Each packaging item costs one dollar; customers can return the containers and get their deposit applied to their next order, or they can keep the packaging.

The Wally Shop launched in October of 2018, but CEO Tamara Lim has been developing the concept for two years — ever since she realized the inefficiencies of America’s recycling infrastructure while working in packaging and shipping department at Amazon. There, she learned how tricky recycling infrastructure is in the U.S., where packaging is difficult to recycle, and recycled packaging is more expensive for companies to buy than virgin. According to the EPA, in 2015 only about half of packaging (boxes, plastic coverings, etc.) was recycled. The remaining ended up in landfills, totaling over 29 million tons (21 percent of the total landfill).

The staggering amount of packaging waste isn’t just because people are lazy. It can be tricky to figure out how to properly recycle various packaging components, especially when it comes to ice packs and tiny containers that keep groceries and meal kits chilled en route to your doorstep. Instead of trying to convert to 100 percent curbside recyclable packaging, like meal kit service Purple Carrot did a few months ago, Lim decided to do away with the problem altogether. “I wanted to make it really convenient for people to be sustainable,” she told me over the phone.

Photo: The Wally Shop

The Wally Shop’s timing could not have been better, as it’s situated squarely at the convergence of three major food trends:

1: Consumers want local, sustainable, organic food with a transparent supply chain, and are willing to pay more for it. With The Wally Store, they’ll have to: As with most farmers market produce, Wally’s prices are higher than your average corner grocery. On top of the actual shopping bill, all orders have a 15 percent service fee tacked on, plus the packaging costs and a $3.99 delivery charge. That can add up, so we’ll have to see if consumers are willing to pay a handsome premium for ethical grocery shopping.

2: Convenience is king. Zero-waste grocery stores do actually exist (though not many), but The Wally Shop will be able to serve a wider range of customers by taking advantage of the growing demand for grocery delivery. And while the Wally Shop can’t compete with the 2-hour delivery windows of Amazon/Whole Foods, their zero-waste angle will likely draw in consumers who are willing to wait longer for a more sustainable shopping experience.

3: In the wake of single-use plastic straw bans and pushback against meal kit/delivery packaging, people are waking up to the widespread problem of non-recyclable plastics and packaging. Even big brands are getting onboard: just last week Pepsi, Nestlé, and Unilever teamed up to ditch plastic and sell their products in reusable containers. Branding themselves as “waste-free” is a smart way for Lim and her team to generate a consumer base of ethical shoppers.

As of now, Wally’s team is a pretty small operation: They have four full-time employees and four to five shoppers. Lim told me The Wally Shop has roughly 500 customers signed up right now, and currently has friends & family funding. Next, Lim told me she plans to expand their waste-free grocery delivery service to Manhattan and, eventually, go beyond NYC into San Francisco, Boston, and L.A.

When speaking to Lim, I couldn’t help but think of Farmdrop, the U.K.-based ethical grocery delivery service that sources goods from local farmers and purveyors. The company also has an option where consumers can choose to have the food unpacked at their house (no packaging left behind). I wrote that Farmdrop is a good option for those who want to support local farmers markets but don’t have time to physically shop there, and I think The Wally Shop could serve the same demographic. Lim also mentioned that the service is a good tool for mobility-challenged consumers who still want to shop sustainably.

While I’m cautious that their high prices and service fees will make it hard to attract a larger consumer base and scale up, The Wally Shop’s sustainable business model could generate enough buzz to carve out a grocery delivery niche that’s actually waste-free — at least in wealthy urban areas.