Kimberly Bolton On Using Innovative Business Solutions To Fight Ocean Plastics

Born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa, Kimberly developed a deep respect and appreciation for the environment early on.

She became interested in Corporate Social Responsibility and sustainability early on, leading her to studying Economics and Environmental Sciences at The University of Cape Town, and further, a Master in Business Sustainability at The University of Sydney. Everything fell into place when her group won the university's Inventing The Future program, allowing her to create a practical solution for the plastic problem and turn this into a company.

Now the founder and CEO of Carapac, Kimberly aims to tackle the plastic problem head on and change the world of packaging with this wonderful product. She hopes generations after her will be able to enjoy the biodiversity, coastal walks and ocean swims she loves so much.

Kimberly discusses the endemic issue of plastic waste globally, and how business models with a social purpose can help address this problem.

Highlights from the interview (listen to the podcast for full details)

[Indio Myles] - To start off Kimberly, could you please share a bit about your background and what led to your passion and work in social enterprise?

[Kimberly Bolton] - I was born and raised in South Africa, and I was really lucky growing up there because I was exposed to the most incredible environments and wildlife. I developed a really great appreciation for biodiversity and seeing thriving environments. But also, in this juxtaposition, I saw certain environments where there was so much pollution and many socioeconomic issues that tied into that pollution. When you see the two issues and the two different environments right next to each other, it can just show you how much work needs to be done, and also the value of preserving a lot of those pristine environments. It's clear as day the purpose in doing that. Growing up there, I was always really invested in environmental, social and economic issues and got involved in a number of charities and initiatives who were doing incredible work and trying to solve a lot of these sustainability issues. But I found that the actual organisations didn't necessarily have a sustainable structure. I really did see firsthand how the actual structure of a social enterprise and using business to drive impact was really the most sustainable business model going forward and it just made a whole lot more sense. For example, I was working on an initiative called Spring For Her, and it's a fantastic initiative which I still stand by as well as a lot of the work that we did with it. It's an online movement for survivors of sexual abuse. It's been fantastic and we've done a number of fundraisers, but the actual structure of the program and initiative was not necessarily sustainable. Going forward, I knew I wanted to lead a more impactful life, so I decided to dive into more of the social enterprise structure.

As the CEO of Carapac, can you tell us a bit more about your business' core social mission and the product you sell?

The mission of Carapac is to change the world of packaging, and it's an exciting space. The single use plastic waste problem is significant across the world.

There's obviously a number of ways to actually tackle the plastic waste problem, and there are some incredible repurposing and recycling solutions. But I really saw the value and gap in the market for a better single use plastic solution.

There are actually quite a lot of biodegradables and compostable materials in the market which are branded as very green. It is a big step forward and a lot of those materials are much better than traditional plastics, but they're still not necessarily as sustainable as one might think. They're not necessarily made from sustainable inputs, or they have for example, a lot of corn starch, which is actually made from an old strain of corn that is inedible to humans. These producers are using a lot of land to grow corn and make plastic, and the corn is grown on one side of the earth and the pellets to make the actual plastic are made on the other side of the planet, so they actually have a much bigger carbon footprint than one might think. Also, they don't necessarily break down as fast as people believe. Biodegradable means it only has to break down over a certain amount of time. Typically, they take up to five years, but people think biodegradable solutions break down a lot faster than five years and even industrial composting facilities plastics can take up to 180 days in conditions of 70 degrees Celsius to actually break down, which is not necessarily intuitive. At Carapac, I wanted to create a new material that can really serve that gap in the market where you get a beautiful plastic alternative that serves all of your packaging requirements and needs. Furthermore, anyone can dispose of this solution in a sustainable and safe way that's actually made out of the sustainable input. We're making our material out of crustacean shells, and a lot of people ask, "do you mean prawns and crabs?" That's exactly what I mean! The actual shells are collected from frozen food facilities, who actually take the meat out and then freeze the meat. That's what you get in the frozen food aisles at supermarkets. But, around the Asia Pacific, there's about 8 million tons of crustacean shell waste generated annually, so we can take that shell waste and make it into a wonderful plastic alternative material that looks, works and functions like any other plastic. Then, you can use that for your packaging needs. It's actually more effective because it's naturally antimicrobial, so you can extend the shelf life of particularly fresh food products by an extra two weeks roughly, which can actually save a lot of food waste in the next stage of the supply chain.

Once consumers are actually done using their packaging, they can simply throw it in a pot plant or garden, and it takes three to six weeks to fully biodegrade and then becomes a slow releasing nitrogen fertilizer.

It's great once it's actually in the soil, but also not many people actually have gardens or composting facilities, so we've made sure that it's dissolvable over a certain amount of time. People can take some of the packaging, put it in a bucket near their sink, dissolve it overnight, and wash it down the drain. It’s fully dissolvable in the ocean acts as nutrients in the water, and oceanic plastic waste is such a critical issue. It definitely tackles a lot of those issues whilst preventing waste along the supply chain.

How prevalent is plastic waste globally and what positive contribution is Carapac making towards addressing it?

The plastic waste problem is huge, and just to give you a bit of idea in terms of scale, plastic and the use of it really started to become popular in the early 1950s. Around the 1950s, about 2.3 million tons of plastic was produced annually across the world, and if you compare that to 2015 (60 years later), we're creating 448 million tons of plastic every year. That production is expected to double by 2050. That's just the scale of plastic that's actually put out into the world every year. Only 9% of total plastic ever produced has actually ever been recycled, so it's a lot lower than a lot of people anticipate.

That's almost best case scenario, that 9% is recycled. Recycling is also not necessarily an infinite solution. You can recycle a certain part of plastic a number of times, but you always have to add in a certain bit of virgin material, so recycling is not a perfect solution. Although I think there's definitely a place for it. If you look at the breakdown solutions (compostables and degradables), they only actually account for 2% of the market at the moment. There's definitely space for that to grow. I think the reason why that hasn't accounted for more of the market is that a lot of those solutions are perceived as being more expensive. Yes, they are more expensive than plastic, but people don't take into account the life cycle cost of disposing and recycling and all of the other costs associated with cleaning up plastics in our environment. When you look at the actual environmental cost of plastic waste, every single year 8 million tonnes of plastic waste is thrown into our oceans. It's just a huge scale, and the actual amount of plastic waste is still expected to grow; it's exponential. I really do appreciate plastic as a material for packaging, I think it is actually phenomenal in terms of its properties and how it has been able to revolutionise a lot of supply chains. It's allowed us to package a lot of goods in a light and easy way that has made transport a lot easier. For example, with a lot of food in grocery stores, it is covered in plastic. I used to be one of those culprits saying, "why do you need to put a cucumber in plastic, cucumber's just fine on its own. But actually, when you do a bit of research, packaging in that space saves 40% of the world's food from going directly to landfall because we now have those larger supply chains. If we didn't have that packaging, particularly fresh fruit and vegetables would get damaged a lot easier and then would have to be thrown away immediately.

You are actually saving this food waste, but plastic itself even though it's a fantastic material in a lot of aspects is also very damaging because it just doesn't break down.

Also, a lot of the additives in plastics, the actual chemicals that give the different plastics the different properties can be so harmful when leeched into water and if consumed. I know BPA plastic and BPA free has been a very successful campaign, but there are still so many other chemicals and additives that are very damaging to our health and environments as well, which is also an unseen impact of the plastic waste issue. Then you get into when the plastic actually does break down, it breaks down into microplastics. Now they've seen that microplastics can actually be transported across the blood barrier, which is a big area for concern and humans on average eat about a credit card and a half of microplastics every year just from the food that they eat. Once it is in our environment, it's also in and around our bodies and around animals’ bodies as well, and is external and an internal problem I really believe. It's just a huge scale. All hope is not lost, because that's why Carapac is coming in, and that's why I really wanted to create a solution that's advised by practical sustainability.

You need a solution that anyone can dispose of in a sustainable way, where anyone can have access to a sustainable disposal process, and material that's actually made from a sustainable input and from a more natural input.

This is using what I've developed; a more zero waste way to actually produce the Carapac packaging, which is fantastic as well. It's a really innovative material that can be a simple, or I like to call it a shrimp or swap solution for a lot of packaging we see in grocery stores or online. We're first trying to tackle fresh produce packaging, because we can add that added benefit of extending the shelf life, which is a huge benefit for not only farmers, but retailers and consumers, because then your fresh fruit and vegetables just last longer. You can get a lot more mileage out of them. That's why I wanted to tackle the fresh food space first, but there's so much opportunity to do a range of different packaging in the e-commerce, general retail and even the pharmaceutical space, because there's a lot of single used plastic waste. There's a lot of opportunities and waste from the crustacean shells that we can use to actually really tackle and make a big impact and dent into this global plastic waste issue. I really do see this huge issue globally needing to be tackled by a range of different solutions. I definitely see the value in repurposing, recycling and a variety of breakdown solutions. But I think Carapac is really powerful in terms of anyone can rest assured and be guilt free that they can throw away their packaging in an easy and sustainable way.

You are a past alum of the HATCH Taronga Accelerator Program. What were some of the key lessons you took away from that program that would be useful for other founders listening today?

One key idea that stuck with me through this program is that purpose is not actually enough. Purpose really is just an intent at the end of the day whereas impact is really where you need to be driving initiatives forward. Impact is really the success of tackling these social, economic and environmental issues. That was a big mental shift for me; purpose isn't enough, impact is where it is. The Taronga HATCH Accelerator program was fantastic, and I learned so many lessons and met incredible people through the program, but that's something that's really stuck with me. Another fun lesson I learned through the program was you need to be so consistent in your messaging to markets, whether it's your actual marketing, pitching or addressing your problem and pitching your solution in any format. Just the use of words versus tone versus body language can really be super impactful. I didn't realise that when you're actually pitching, the words you speak only account for 7% of what the audience actually takes in, whereas body language is about 53%. The accelerator program taught me so much more, but these were two really key lessons that were just food for thought I carried forward.

Just to jump in there, it's such an incredible community of support. You don't have to go at it alone, which is really reassuring for founders out there.

What inspiring projects or initiatives have you come across recently which are creating a positive social change?

I recently came across She's A Crowd, which I am so excited about. It's an online data platform collecting data for victims and survivors of sexual abuse and domestic violence which really tied into an issue that I have been obviously really concerned about in my past. It's a great platform doing a lot of work, and I'm so proud of another start-up Xylo Systems. They were actually one of the other start-ups in the Taronga HATCH program, and they're just doing incredible work and I'm always inspired by their founder, Camille Goldstone-Henry. Another initiative I recently came across where I'm just saying, "yes, this is amazing, you guys are doing such good work," are the Black Mambas. They're actually on the border of South Africa, and they're this all-female anti-poaching unit doing incredible stuff preventing rhino and elephant poaching in Africa. They've just empowered all of these incredible women and are saving all these animal lives and it's very exciting. Those are just some really inspiring initiatives that I've just been lucky enough to been exposed to lately.

To finish off, what books or resources would you recommend for our listeners?

My number one recommendation is the classic start-up book The Lean Startup. It just teaches you a different way of thinking. I also really love Let My People Go Surfing, which is about Patagonia and the philosophy behind the company. It really ties into that social impact space. Another book that I've just really appreciated having on the side when things get a bit overwhelming are Small Steps Are Perfect by Catherine Greer.