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Nov. 27: When Tanbark Moulded Fiber Products began generating wood pulp packaging for Luke’s Lobster cabins in October, startup Saco took Maine’s century-old pulp and paper industry into innovative, uncharted territory.
But Tanbark co-founder and CEO Melissa LaCasse had an inkling early on that she was heading in the right direction, becoming one of the newest players in a struggling legacy industry that continues to reinvent itself as technology and markets evolve.
Her instincts were affirmed as she raised $3.2 million in seed funding from various sources, including the Maine Venture Fund, Coastal Enterprises Inc., the Maine Forestry Recovery Initiative and the federal Wood Innovations Grants Program.
Now, Tanbark is poised to upgrade thousands of pounds of single-use plastic foam, inflexible plastic, and plastic-coated boxes for Luke’s Lobster, Hannaford Supermarkets, and other companies hoping to meet the demand for products of all kinds from developing customers with little without plastic parts or packaging.
LaCasse is already looking to expand to a second manufacturing site in one of Maine’s empty mills, possibly even a paper mill shuttered by flagging demand that has decimated the state’s forest industries in recent decades. And she plans to answer growing need for research and development to produce additional climate-friendly alternatives to plastics from Maine’s commercially managed forests.
“We didn’t know how right we were,” LaCasse said. “But corporations know this is coming. They know that plastics are bad, and they know that their consumers are tired of not having plastic-free alternatives. Now we just have to evolve at the right pace. “
Tanbark joins other Maine corporations already producing cutting-edge forest products, said Heather Johnson, commissioner of the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development. These include Timber HP in Madison, which makes wood fiber insulation for construction, and the Louisiana Pacific plant in Houlton, which makes durable siding and engineered wood filament technology with wood joinery.
“We are creating new markets for forests and helping one of our heritage industries meet the growing global demand for climate solutions,” Johnson said.
LaCasse and others working in the forest bioproducts sector got a boost last month, when the Maine Advanced Forest Bioproducts Manufacturing Technology Center, run by the Maine Institute of Technology in Brunswick, was designated a federal generation center during the Biden administration.
The Maine tech hub is one of 31 designated nationwide. It will get a $500,000 grant to make plans to apply for an additional investment of between $50 million and $75 million in the five to ten designated centers. The cash will be used for studies and progresión. de plant polymers and other wood fiber bioproducts to upgrade poisonous plastics and chemicals, sequester carbon, and build resilience in the chain of origin.
The Mills Administration partnered with MTI and more than 30 Maine companies, innovators and representatives to propose the Forest Technology Hub, bringing together the University of Maine, the Roux Institute, Sappi, Idexx and the AFL-CIO.
The purpose is to invest in promising forest product inventions for a key Maine industry, provide an economic boost to rural Maine, and promote global climate responses that will boost Maine’s economy. “State,” Johnson said.
It’s a precedent for the governor’s team, which has worked to increase Maine’s output GDP by 11% since taking office, from $58. 9 billion in the first quarter of 2019 to $65. 4 billion in early 2023, more than 4 times the national rate of 2. 4%. It increased during the same period, according to the U. S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
And it aims to counter what has happened in recent decades in Maine’s pulp and paper industry, which has gone from 20 generators supporting 18,000 jobs in the 1980s to about 8 generators with about 4,000 in 2022, according to state sources.
EVERYTHING NEW IS OLD
LaCasse readily admits that molded fiber generation is not revolutionary. Martin L. Keyes, a native of New Hampshire, granted the first U. S. patent in 1903. The factory that opened in Waterville in 1908 still makes Chinet plates, school food trays, drink holders and other products owned by Finnish food packaging giant, Huhtamäki.
Likewise, some legacy paper mills have refitted machines that previously made reams of glossy paper for magazines, catalogs and brochures. Now, they produce so-called kraft paper and cardboard that have answered increasing international demand for packaging and shipping materials.
The global packaging market is growing 2% to 3% annually and expected to top $1 trillion in 2030, according to Smithers, a multinational product research firm. Key drivers of that growth include advances in packaging technology, continued expansion of online commerce, and increasing consumer concern about plastic products and packaging.
“There is a particular focus on plastic waste, and as a high-volume, single-use item, plastic packaging has come under particular scrutiny,” Smithers found. “As sustainability has become a key motivator for consumers, brands are increasingly keen for packaging materials and designs that demonstrably show their commitment to the environment.”
In line with those trends, Tanbark is expanding molded fiber generation beyond egg cartons and other packaging made from recycled paper.
Tanbark’s smooth-finished, embossed, and highly customizable boxes are made from dry wood pulp produced through ND Paper in Rumford. The wood is collected from the understory of Maine’s timber forests, pulls carbon dioxide from the environment, and stores it in trees, weeds, roots. systems and soil.
“A well-managed forest is the most productive carbon capture device on the planet,” LaCasse said at the company’s official launch party in October. “We are creating new markets for a product that supports a forest that sequesters carbon. And we’re all for more plant-based fibers to add to our portfolio. “
Tanbark turns the 30-by-30-inch sheets of market pulp into a slurry that is molded, dried and formed into clamshell containers and other packaging that is fully recyclable and compostable. And it’s produced on proprietary equipment that was custom designed for Tanbark’s 10,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Saco.
Other companies, many of them overseas, operate in facilities over 100,000 square feet and fill packaging orders of anywhere from 100,000 to 20 million pieces, LaCasse said, while Tanbark runs orders of 5,000 to 10,000 pieces.
“Our small machines allow companies to mold fiber solutions here in North America,” LaCasse said. “And as we locate broadly applicable answers, we can scale with our consumers as they grow. It sounds simple, but it’s a game changer. “
NO PLASTIC, PLEASE
This month, Luke’s Lobster, a Maine seafood company with 31 restaurants worldwide, began testing Tanbark molded pulp clamshell to-go packaging for their lobster, crab and shrimp rolls. They’re starting at four shacks, including the Portland Pier location, replacing cardboard containers.
“If the trials go well and we adopt all these containers in all of our shacks, this could replace close to 2 million of our current packaging items over the course of a year,” said Ben Conniff, co-founder and chief innovation officer.
As a Certified B Corp that has met certain social and environmental standards, Luke’s move to Tanbark products fits the seafood company’s goal to reduce its carbon footprint and dependence on single-use items by sourcing more environmentally friendly options. Plastics, which never really break down, are among the worst offenders.
The U. S. generated 40 million tons of plastic waste in 2021 but only recycled five to 6 percent of it, or about 2 million tons, according to the World Economic Forum. Most of the 400 million tonnes of plastic waste produced internationally each year ends up in paper packaging can also be problematic, Conniff said.
“Virtually all cardboard to-go packaging has an invisible plastic liner, which means that while it feels less wasteful than plastic, it is just as hard to break down and similarly harmful in a landfill,” Conniff said. Even cardboard lined with bioplastics is only compostable under ideal industrial conditions, and very few customers dispose of their takeout containers in that way, he said.
“The transfer to Tanbark means that our takeaway components do not use petroleum products and will single-handedly break down those needed for commercial composting,” Conniff said. “It’s also a great merit to know that all the other inputs in the component are sustainable. “
Although cardboard is rarely heavily covered in plastic, he says, it is regularly produced overseas from resources that are likely sustainably harvested. With Tanbark, Luke’s knows its packaging comes from sustainable local forestry that supports Maine’s industry and communities and doesn’t destroy ecosystems. .
“We’ve had incredibly strict criteria when it comes to buying seafood that is smart for our environment and for our community, and we thought it was time for our takeout packaging to meet those same criteria,” Conniff said.
Luke’s also hopes Tanbark’s molded fiber boxes will be more than just folded and glued cardboard.
“We find that close to 10% of our current packaging fails either because the joints become unglued, or because too much glue has been applied and multiple boxes are stuck together,” Conniff said.
And Tanbark’s low minimum order of 5,000 to 10,000 pieces will allow Luke’s to test the product and make innovations by committing to massive container ships of foreign-made packaging, he said.
“Now that they’re up and running, the time from when the order is placed to when the product arrives at the door is several months faster,” Conniff said. “We’ll keep in touch as they expand their features to see if they fit in with other elements we’d like to improve. “
Hannaford also plans to do something with Tanbark packaging, replacing the back of its two-muffin plastic shell with a molded dough container, said George Parmenter, Hannaford’s lead director of sustainability.
“I hear consumers all the time saying, ‘There’s too much plastic packaging,'” Parmenter said. “Reducing plastic packaging is an issue that many corporations in our industry are involved in. We’re seeing a lot of innovation because a lot of other people want to move away from plastic where it’s not needed.
Parmenter discovered Tanbark through his jobs at the Roux Institute and liked the idea of solving the plastic packaging challenge with hard work and local resources. Although the two-muffin boxes will still have clear plastic lids, the test with molded pulp bottoms will decrease Hannaford’s plastic waste amounts to 500,000 pieces, he said.
“For us, it’s a test to see if this packaging will work for our stores and our customers,” Parmenter said.
MOLDED WOOD FIBER OPTIONS
LaCasse founded Tanbark in 2021 with her husband Christopher, leveraging her and her own progress experience in molded fiber packaging machinery. He is Tanbark’s chief technology officer and also runs LaCasse.
Most recently, LaCasse joined the board of directors of the Maine Institute of Technology as president, believing that investment and organization are critical to innovation in Maine industries and startups like Tanbark.
“We are here for industries and businesses to take on the dangers we expect them to face and succeed in demanding long-term situations through innovation,” said Mr. LaCasse. “We’re offering investment and assistance to mitigate those hazards. “
Looking ahead, LaCasse expects it to grow from 20 workers to more than 50 over the next year. With the planned expansion to one of Maine’s former factories, Tanbark could add a hundred workers soon after.
The company would use Saco’s facilities for micro-orders, studies and development, he said, with larger orders being fulfilled at the factory. With all the plastic packaging that can be replaced with molded fiber containers, the future is endless, he said.
“Look around you at what’s out there in the form of rigid single-use plastic: food, makeup, creams, shampoo, vitamins,” one list lists. “Anything that’s wrapped in plastic when it’s shipped to you: electronics, medical devices, non-public items. Look around in a hospital or service setting. “
LaCasse said he’s advocating for reusable features first. She was satisfied when her daughter’s boating team recently asked its members to bring reusable water bottles.
“After that, we have to use sustainable materials for single use,” she said, “and molded fiber is one of the best.”