Best of Earth911 Podcast: Zume CEO Alex Garden on Replacing Plastic in Packaging with Molded Fiber

Best of Earth911 Podcast: Zume CEO Alex Garden on Replacing Plastic in Packaging with Molded Fiber

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Alex Garden, chairman and CEO of Camarillo, Calif.-based Zume, explains how firms can use waste pulp supplies to interchange plastic packaging for to-go meals and packaged items. Molded fiber can be utilized as an alternative of expanded polystyrene meat trays, to interchange the plastic scoops included with child system, as espresso cup lids, and in six-pack holders, amongst many different types of packaging. The firm’s water and grease-resistant meals packaging doesn’t use PFAS, or “without end chemical compounds” which might be dangerous to human well being and the surroundings.

Alex Garden, chairman and CEO of Zume Inc
Alex Garden, chairman and CEO of Zume Inc., is our visitor on Sustainability in Your Ear.

The plastic variations of this packaging is a $390-billion business that contributes to plastics’ 4.5% of worldwide greenhouse fuel emissions — 2.2 billion tons of CO2eq yearly — in keeping with a December 2021 research revealed in Nature Sustainability. The problem is rising manufacturing capability, and Zume is making speedy progress after being based in 2015.

Zume lately introduced a partnership with Transcend Packaging, a UK-based sustainable packaging maker to develop in Europe with new manufacturing capability coming on-line in 2023. It already has manufacturing areas within the United States and India. You can study extra about Zume at zume.com.

This podcast initially aired on September 5, 2022.