More than 100 US communities have adopted rules that limit or outright prohibit the use of throwaway styrofoam, particularly in restaurants and for shipping food and other products. In the state of California alone, 97 cities or counties have a partial or full ban on single-use styrofoam, with another one slated to take effect in Los Angeles County this May.
Companies who ship or sell delicate items, food, or medical supplies that must keep chilled during transport still require materials with styrofoam’s lightweight properties, insulating capabilities, and manufacturability.
That’s where startup Cruz Foam comes in. Founded in 2017 by CEO John Felts and CTO Marco Rolandi the startup, which employees about 30 full-time today, has created an alternative to expanded polystyrene, better known by its trade name styrofoam.
Cruz Foam is made from naturally occurring materials including chitin (pronounced like “kite-in”) along with starches and fibers diverted from agricultural waste streams. Shrimp and other crustacean shells, as well as the exoskeletons of insects, all include the polymer known as chitin. It’s biodegradable and generally safe for animals to eat.
Traditional styrofoam, on the other hand, is produced using powerful chemicals, degrades slowly, and proves dangerous when it breaks down and builds up in our oceans, contributing to the pollution caused by microplastics.
According to wildlife conservation researchers at Fauna & Flora International, when marine life ingests styrofoam it can “cause a range of problems such as digestive obstructions, a false sense of fullness that can lead to starvation, and reduced fertility.”
In addition, as styrofoam goods are frequently sprayed with flame retardants and can absorb other contaminants from the water nearby, any wildlife that ingests or inhabits the area where the discarded styrofoam is located is at greater risk.
Cruz Foam CEO and cofounder John Felts says that he and CTO Marco Rolandi bonded during their graduate studies in materials science over a love of the ocean, surfing and a wish to enjoy nature without causing any harm to it.
They named their business after the Californian city of Santa Cruz, which is well-known for its beautiful beaches, boardwalk, surf scene, and elephant seals.
They concentrated their efforts in the lab for nearly two years on creating a form of chitin-based foam that could act as the center of a molded surfboard. Chitin was already known as a promising bioplastic, but it was typically used to create bioplastic films and not so much puffy foams, Felts recalls.
As they experimented and tested, they came to the conclusion that if they focused on a market larger than surfboards, they may have a more significant impact on ocean health. They shifted their attention to packaging.
Since then, Cruz Foam has developed a foam pellet from natural materials which can be extruded and shaped into a wide range of packaging materials and containers on the same machinery that’s in place in factories making traditional styrofoam products today.
On Wednesday, Cruz Foam formally introduced its new line of shipping products including:
- A foam and paper wrap that can replace bubble wrap or styrofoam peanuts
- A foam-padded mailer
- Foam coolers that can protect and keep fresh and frozen items cold
- Foam products that protect large items like furniture.
All of its new packaging products are “curbside recyclable,” and compostable, said Felts.
“The foam dissolves in a tub of water and can be poured over a lawn or garden to safely add some nitrogen back into the soil,” Felts said. “And it’s safe if your dog, or your fish, eats any of the foam.”
To finance its growth so far, Cruz Foam got $2 million in grants from the National Science Foundation to develop materials and manufacturing processes. The startup has also raised just over $25 million in venture funding from climate tech and science-focused investors including At One Ventures, Ashton Kutcher and his climate fund Sound Waves, Helena Group, Regeneration VC and others.
At One founding partner Tom Chi said that his firm wanted to back companies making a difference to ocean health. They looked into “closed loop plastic recycling,” where companies take back the packaging that they make and recycle it, but the unit economics there don’t work because of the high cost of “reverse logistics and post-consumer material processing.”
Cruz Foam’s approach, Chi said, “solves the problem by using earth-compatible materials in the first place, but does so in a way that can be directly cost-competitive with virgin foam production.”
The startup has just kicked off a partnership with North Carolina-based Atlantic Packaging to bring its sustainable foam products to a wide range of grocers and retailers. And Cruz Foam expects to move into its first phase of high-volume production by mid-year 2023, Felts told CNBC.
Felts noted that there is a high demand for disposable insulated coffee cups and takeaway containers when it comes to new items. But this year, his company will continue to concentrate on e-commerce, shipping and safeguarding anything from meal kits and medical supplies to car parts.
“The pandemic has juiced e-commerce and shipping demand,” Felts said, “but many businesses are just now figuring out how to ship items they make or sell directly to homes, rather than to grocers or retailers, and that includes rethinking their packaging end to end.”
