BioPBS Story

Many initiatives from national government level have come out aimed to reduce plastic waste with commitment for a greener future. Just like in Vietnam, where they have set to significantly cut use of single-use plastics by 2025. Several example of their 2025 ambitious goals includes the use of 100 percent of environmentally-friendly plastic bags and packaging at shopping malls and supermarkets; also to collect, reuse, recycle and treat 85 percent of plastic waste; to reduce the volume of plastic waste dumped to ocean by half; raising awareness among organizations, enterprises, brand owners and the community about the harmful effects of single-use plastic items to the environment, ecosystem and human health, and encouraging consumers to shift away from single-use and non-biodegradable plastics to eco-friendly alternatives. [1]

Lecka is one of the first mover snack brand in Vietnam and in Southeast Asia who acts on and is committed to address those key ecological concerns and to incorporate sustainability into their purpose, processes and product -- and their efforts to make a positive impact on the environment are winning the hearts of consumers and people in the local community.

Markus Gnirck, Founder of Lecka

Markus Gnirck, Founder of Lecka, shared with us the story about how the brand’s sustainable journey begins.

“It is amazing to see people going outside doing sports, being healthy and thinking green and sustainable. If you are within this community, you realize that there are not so many choices for healthy snacks. At the same time, you have lots of ingredients from local market like mango, cashews, jackfruits or cacao in Vietnam. It is like a powerhouse of cuisines and ingredients. Then you wonder why you don’t have anything in a more compact & efficient way to fuel your sporty activities. That is where Lecka was born 1 year ago, out of this sport community, to bring healthy nutrition to the market in a form of ‘Energy Bar’-like product. We put a lot of effort into only using local ingredients and to reduce our carbon footprint in
the supply chain and make it really a local product from Vietnam, for Vietnam and the world.”

Lecka Energy Bite Triplets comes with 3 different flavours; Juicy Mango, Tropical Cacao and Citrus Ginger

“Any good food product got to have a great recipe and a great packaging. Those two things come together. The first edition of Lecka packaging was actually banana leaf which is very common in Vietnam and all-over Southeast Asia. It is the perfect packaging for outdoor activities but has very short shelf-life.

So, we set ourselves a very high bar for the greenest packaging we can find in the world that also has a longer shelf life. It became clear to that we  want to create waste only if necessary and that will not outlive us. As a brand owner we have the responsibility to use packaging material that will disappear over time and that is non eco-toxic, just like a banana leaf. Hence we decided that the compostability of our material is an important factor when choosing our packaging.”

Lecka with banana leaf packaging

“We spent a lot of time testing, probably 30 different materials from all over the world. Then we settled on BioPBS in combination with kraft paper - both have home compostable certification. This certification is a guarantee that within 12 months the material will breakdown into CO2, H2O and biomass and doesn’t leave any toxicity behind. A word of caution, this material should never end up in nature and I’m not promoting to throw any material into nature. I’m advocating that the material ends up in home composting facilities alongside other organic waste, so we don’t have more waste and we ideally reduce waste in the long run. We believe that with BioPBS we found the solution for now that meets our requirements of compostability.  After months of research and testing, we are very excited to launch now with our Lecka 2.0 packaging this month. We are very happy to share the Vietnamese healthy cuisine with the world and hope to fuel many active people with our products. We believe that with our combination of yummy and healthy ingredients and the eco-friendly packaging, we hope to make a different in the world of snacking.”

Lecka with latest packaging incorporating BioPBS as a sealant layer

BioPBS can act as a sealant layer film in a flexible packaging where it provides good sealability with low heat seal temperature than conventional plastic film. It is also certified home compost by TUV at a thickness of 502 micron. The possibilities are endless with BioPBS™ – a bio-based and compostable biopolymer. For more information on BioPBS™ in Flexible Packaging, please contact info@pttmcc.com

Resources:

[1] https://en.vietnamplus.vn/vietnam-sets-to-significantly-cut-use-of-singleuse-plastics-by-2025/205139.vnp

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