Melbourne brothers unbox sustainable shipping packaging

Shipping produces a lot of waste, and much of it goes into the landfill, but now two brothers are working to create sustainable options for the sector through the creation of sustainable packaging. Their company, HeapsGood Packaging, was founded in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic to address the millions of tonnes of plastic waste that are produced each year in Australia.

With around 2.6 billion parcels sent around Australia last year, the company wanted to produce alternatives to bubble wrap, shipping mailers and printing labels, which all take many years to decompose. It has a range of compostable products — which started with the Ecomailer, an alternative to plastic mailer, and has since expanded to the bubble wrap alternative Hex Wrap and the thermal label Ecolabel.

The products are all made from various materials that naturally break down in a much shorter time than plastics. Plastic is replaced with paper, cardboard, cornstarch and other plant-based ingredients.

“Everybody loves the convenience of e-commerce, but nobody wants to talk about the elephant in the room, and that’s the plastic used in our online retailing addiction — last year, there was the equivalent of 268,000 fully grown elephants of plastic waste generated globally,” said HeapsGood founder Adam Sarfati.

The company has now developed a network of suppliers and is planning to offer its products in the US in the future. The company is carbon neutral due to its policy of planting trees through its partnership with Ecologi — a relationship that has already resulted in over 15,000 trees being planted.

Image credit: HeapsGood Packaging.