How it all happened
2010, a holiday in Borneo. Our founder witnessed a worldwide problem at first-hand. Vast areas of forest being destroyed and beautiful beaches awash in a sea of plastic waste. He decided to do something about it, he quitted his job and started a company.
The initial idea was growing bamboo on building sites, for co-firing in coal plants. This won the Zuid-Holland Prize and reached the finals of the TEDxAmsterdam Award in 2011 and in 2013, bringing the company to the attention of the media. However, we realised that bamboo wasn’t the answer. We approached Wageningen University, who pointed us in another direction. Elephant grass.
Elephant grass is fast-growing, needs hardly any water and can grow almost anywhere. In fact, it absorbs four times more CO2 than a European forest of the same area. So far so sustainable. Elephant grass also contains cellulose, perfect for making all sorts of sustainable materials. The company first produced paper, then bio-concrete and finally bioplastics and was nominated for the Top 100 most innovative SME-companies in The Netherlands.
The idea wasn’t to make a war against the plastics industry, building companies or papermakers. In fact, quite the opposite. The idea is to work with these companies, all over the world, and together make a real difference.
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