Cruz Foam makes styrofoam alternative from shrimp shells and food waste

More than 100 cities successful the US person enactment ordinances successful spot restricting oregon flatly banning the usage of disposable styrofoam, particularly by restaurants and for shipping nutrient and different products. In the authorities of California alone, 97 cities oregon counties person a partial oregon afloat prohibition connected single-use styrofoam, with another one slated to instrumentality effect successful Los Angeles County this May.

Meanwhile, companies that vessel oregon merchantability fragile goods, nutrient oregon aesculapian supplies that request to enactment acold during shipping inactive request materials with the lightweight, insulating qualities and manufacturability of styrofoam.

That's wherever startup Cruz Foam comes in. Founded successful 2017 by CEO John Felts and CTO Marco Rolandi the startup, which employees astir 30 full-time today, has created an alternate to expanded polystyrene, amended known by its commercialized sanction styrofoam.

Cruz Foam is made from people occurring materials including chitin (pronounced similar "kite-in") on with starches and fibers diverted from cultivation discarded streams. Chitin is simply a polymer contained successful the shells of shrimp and different crustaceans, arsenic good arsenic insect exoskeletons. It's biodegradable and mostly harmless for animals to eat.

By contrast, accepted styrofoam is made utilizing dense chemicals, degrades slowly, and proves harmful erstwhile it crumbles and accumulates successful our oceans, adding to micro-plastics pollution.

According to wildlife conservation researchers astatine Fauna & Flora International, erstwhile marine beingness ingests styrofoam it tin "cause a scope of problems specified arsenic digestive obstructions, a mendacious consciousness of fullness that tin pb to starvation, and reduced fertility." Besides that, styrofoam products are usually treated with occurrence retardants and tin sorb different pollutants from h2o astir them, expanding the menace to immoderate wildlife that eats oregon lives amid the discarded styrofoam.

Cruz Foam CEO and cofounder John Felts says that helium and CTO Marco Rolandi bonded during their postgraduate studies successful materials subject implicit a emotion of the ocean, surfing and a privation to bask quality without causing immoderate harm to it.

They based their startup successful Santa Cruz, California -- a metropolis known for its gorgeous beaches, boardwalk, surf civilization and elephant seals, and utilized the sanction of the metropolis for their startup.

For astir 2 years, they focused their efforts successful the laboratory connected processing a benignant of foam from chitin that could service arsenic the halfway of a molded surfboard. Chitin was already known arsenic a promising bioplastic, but it was typically utilized to make bioplastic films and not truthful overmuch puffy foams, Felts recalls.

As they tinkered and tested, they realized they could marque a broader interaction connected water wellness if they addressed a larger marketplace than surfboards. They shifted their attraction to packaging.

Since then, Cruz Foam has developed a foam pellet from earthy materials which tin beryllium extruded and shaped into a wide scope of packaging materials and containers connected the aforesaid machinery that's successful spot successful factories making accepted styrofoam products today.

On Wednesday, Cruz Foam formally introduced its caller enactment of shipping products including:

• A foam and insubstantial wrapper that tin regenerate bubble wrapper oregon styrofoam peanuts
• A foam-padded mailer
• Foam coolers that tin support and support caller and frozen items cold
• Foam products that support ample items similar furniture.

All of its caller packaging products are "curbside recyclable," and compostable, said Felts.

The foam dissolves successful a tub of h2o and tin beryllium poured implicit a tract oregon plot to safely adhd immoderate nitrogen backmost into the soil, Felts said. And it's harmless if your dog, oregon your fish, eats immoderate of the foam.

To concern its maturation truthful far, Cruz Foam got $2 cardinal successful grants from the National Science Foundation to make materials and manufacturing processes. The startup has besides raised conscionable implicit $25 cardinal successful task backing from clime tech and science-focused investors including At One Ventures, Ashton Kutcher and his clime money Sound Waves, Helena Group, Regeneration VC and others.

At One founding spouse Tom Chi said that his steadfast wanted to backmost companies making a quality to water health. They looked into "closed loop integrative recycling," wherever companies instrumentality backmost the packaging that they marque and recycle it, but the portion economics determination don't enactment due to the fact that of the precocious outgo of "reverse logistics and post-consumer worldly processing."

Cruz Foam's approach, Chi said, "solves the occupation by utilizing earth-compatible materials successful the archetypal place, but does truthful successful a mode that tin beryllium straight cost-competitive with virgin foam production."

The startup has conscionable kicked disconnected a concern with North Carolina-based Atlantic Packaging to bring its sustainable foam products to a wide scope of grocers and retailers. And Cruz Foam expects to determination into its archetypal signifier of high-volume accumulation by mid-year 2023, Felts told CNBC.

When it comes to caller products, Felts acknowledged there's a immense magnitude of request retired determination for disposable insulating java cups and takeout containers. But the absorption for his institution this twelvemonth volition stay connected e-commerce, shipping and protecting everything from car parts and aesculapian supplies to repast kits.

The pandemic has juiced e-commerce and shipping demand, Felts said, but galore businesses are conscionable present figuring retired however to vessel items they marque oregon merchantability straight to homes, alternatively than to grocers oregon retailers, and that includes rethinking their packaging extremity to end.