the story
Years ago, Friendlypak founding director Kevin Graham became concerned at the change from ‘deposit based’ returnable and reusable packaging to ‘disposable’ packaging even though his career, at the time, helped develop disposable packaging. Kevin did not appreciate the damage and cost to the environment or the impact that such waste would have on future generations and lifestyles.
Kevin admits he did contribute to the waste mountain as his career involved designing and developing plastic packaging. He has since however ‘gone over to the other side’ to help develop and provide alternatives to disposable packaging; specifically products and materials that do not last forever, do not pollute, do not depend on oil, do not waste non-renewable resources or destroy our increasingly scarce and valuable land with rubbish dumps.
The Friendlypak story began over a decade ago…. when during Kevin’s work as an Engineer in the Plastics and Packaging Industry, he was asked to test a newly developed biopolymer that was compostable. Kevin recalls being really excited, as even though the initial trials were very much failures - for the first time he realised that there could be biodegradable alternatives to plastics that were still fit for purpose. Kevin became driven to see this innovation succeed… so the concept for Friendlypak was born!
The concept was to promote compostable and biodegradable products and materials ‘Cradle to Cradle’ not ‘Cradle to Grave’ to meet a growing world demand and need. The concept included the separation of these products from the general waste stream along with organics to be composted back to the earth from where it came and energy recovered from gas emissions. This all requires specialised marketing, product and material knowledge, development, promotion, education, lobbying and even legislation. Friendlypak was formed to promote and provide these services.
There are certainly serious issues facing the world and future generations today. We are bombarded with doom, gloom and bad news, always out-selling the good. However, there are many positive innovative people who discover exciting solutions and great causes! We are continually encouraged to be working towards making a difference and are amazed at the speed of change for the better in so many fields. From what we have learnt, a sustainable world is indeed possible.
Friendlypak has a vision and commitment for conservation, stewardship and the treatment of people, animals and the environment with care and respect.
Sir Peter Blake once said, “Having vision is not enough. Change comes through realising the vision and turning it into a reality. It is easy to espouse worthy goals, values and policies; the hard part is implementation”… So do it…
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