OUTER PLANET 54 PETplanet Insider Vol. 24 No. 01+02/23 www.petpla.net OUTER PLANET Best (eco-) mate, ocean safe by Ruari McCallion Experiences of marine pollution while scuba diving led Scott Nicholas to establish Supa Products and to develop eco-mate, a totally plant-based, paper bottle that he says is ‘ocean friendly’; it will biodegrade completely, without leaving any long-lasting contaminants or pollutants in the environment. “After I sold my previous business I spent a lot of time diving in the sea and I saw the damage being done to the marine environment by plastic bottles,” said Scott Nicholas, CEO of Supa Products. Supa stands for Single Use Plastic Alternative. “These things are sitting at the bottom of the ocean and it is getting worse and worse. I am a design engineer; I like making things and I thought that if there is a way that I can do something to try and help, to have some impact with a bottle that doesn’t rely on fake recycling, that could break down without causing long term damage, that I should do so.” Scott’s previous business was architectural components, which is very different from packaging. He took the time to learn about the needs of the industry and set about realising his objective. The result is the Supa ecomate bottle, which is made of paper constructed from byproduct waste fibre from the refining of sugar cane. The biggest challenge for packaging made of porous material, like paper or board, is making it proof against fluid leaks and loss of material integrity if it is soaked. The liquid-proof membrane is where a lot of good intentions fall down. Using plastic, such as LDPE, makes the pack a composite that can be difficult to recycle; if left unprocessed then the board or paper will biodegrade but the plastic membrane will persist in the environment. “Our membrane is a natural latex, made from plant sap. We have gone out of our way to make sure that our bottle will not leave anything nasty in the environment; it will completely break down,” Scott explains. He won’t say exactly how the material is made, for commercial and intellectual property reasons, but is adamant that it has been independently verified to be plantbased and fully compostable. “There is nothing in the bottle that isn’t bio-based. You can bury it in your garden compost heap, where it will get nice and warm and break down into dissolvable pieces. How much time it will take depends on the circumstances but however long it takes, it will not leave any microplastics behind.” The company was formed in 2019 and the eco-mate bottle has been in use commercially since mid-2022. Currently, it is targeted at household cleaning and non-food markets; testing for barrier effectiveness and food contact certification is ongoing. It is produced with two distinct appearances: either straw-coloured ‘natural’ or an opaque white. The latter has the advantage of being identifiable as a cleaning product package; the natural, unbleached version appears to be the more popular. “That rustic, natural look and feel slots into that eco trend. The trouble with fine surface finishes, which you can get with paper, is that it then looks like everything else on the shelf,” Scott says. “The mottled, papery look stands out and identifies itself as a different sort of material.” The closure is made of cork waste and bamboo fibres. The current range is 500ml capacity, with a 350ml version under development and Supa has received enquiries for a 650ml version from a Swiss cosmetics company. In terms of weight, while paper is lighter than glass or PET, dies and tooling for the bottle are supplied to customers, who make them themselves for on-site filling and thus reduce transportation costs. The Supa bottle is, currently, more expensive than the established alternatives but Scott Nicholas says that costs are coming down as production scales up. “We have a lot of testing and development ongoing, especially on compostability. There are some tough standards that have to be met and a minimum of eight months before any kind of certification can be achieved but I think that we will see some exciting developments about March or April 2023,” he concluded. “We are quite excited about it.” www.supa-water.co.uk
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