Newmarket-based packaging company Eco Guardian CEO Anil Abrol said seeing governments and businesses taking action keeps him motivated.
His company strives to make more sustainable packing to replace the plastics in wide use — and has done so again with a new line of packaging meant to address hard-to-recycle meat and seafood packaging in grocery stores.
“Every entrepreneur, when they start something, they start with a dream. And they wake up with their dreams every day. They wake up with their challenges every day, and they solve those challenges and keep moving forward,” he said, adding that the government “wants to ban the single-use plastic. That gives me motivation. What we are doing, everyone is validating.”
Sobeys was the latest to validate the company after Eco Guardian won the grocery chain’s Plastic Waste Challenge. The win comes with a $25,000 cash prize, a pilot for the packaging and the opportunity to negotiate with Sobeys for wide distribution.
The packaging is made of sugarcane and bamboo fibre. Sobeys indicated it would be used in select stores in Nova Scotia for meat and seafood products.
“This packaging we’re doing is 100 per cent composite packing,” Abrol said, adding they have worked on products like this for the past few years. “We designed different kinds of products because we know there’s not one solution for anything we need.”
The challenge was a partnership with several Atlantic-based organizations, including Ignite Atlantic, Divert NS and the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency to find ways to reduce plastic in stores.
“This initiative is underpinned by a strong partnership of Atlantic-based organizations who share Sobeys’ vision of a more environmentally conscious way to keep food fresh,” the company said.
With Sobeys piloting it, Abrol said he hopes the packaging might become more widespread.
“Hats off to Sobeys, who has taken the lead,” he said. “Everybody watches the leaders worldwide, like Sobeys … It will be very exciting for us in the near future to see where this will go.”
Although there is plenty of plastic and other non-renewable packaging out there, Abrol said this is one of many steps toward solving the issue.
“We are making good progress,” he said. “We need to look at how we can get the packaging that is sustainable… It’s baby steps, but it’s bold steps.”
