Great Wrap launches compostable pallet wrap made with food waste to end industrial plastic pollution in Australia
Great Wrap, a Melbourne-based material science company, launches the world’s first Compostable Pallet Wrap, made with food waste, to combat the global reliance on petroleum-based pallet wrap and plastic pollution. The Tullamarine facility is home to what will soon be the largest stretch wrap manufacturer in the country.
Great Wrap’s 10,000sqm facility in Tullamarine is home to state-of-the-art machinery that will make 5,000 tonnes of compostable stretch wrap in 2023 and 20,000 tonnes by 2025 — which will make them Australia’s largest stretch wrap manufacturer and significantly decreasing the need to import stretch wrap from other parts of the world.
In this country alone, we send over 100,000 tonnes of stretch wrap to landfill each year, including cling wrap, catering wrap, silage wrap and pallet wrap. Pallet wrap, the connector of all businesses, is a critical part of the global supply chain. Every day millions of pallets are wrapped to transport goods to their eventual consumer. Unfortunately, very few facilities can recycle petroleum-based pallet wrap — meaning more than 90% goes to landfill.
Great Wrap is home compostable, and when it is composted and returned to soil then it can decrease Australia’s carbon footprint by over 100,000 tonnes every year by lowering our dependence on fossil fuels. This latest innovation can solve the plastic pollution problem as it can be composted or repurposed to create new materials and returned to the soil to add microbial value to agricultural land.
Jordy Kay, Co-founder of Great Wrap, says, “We’ve completed commercial trials with major Australian retailers, food and beverage manufacturers and household name brands, and their feedback is consistent — Great Wrap performs as well as petroleum-based pallet wrap. We’re calling on all Australian business owners to switch because the high-quality product means the only shift is where they purchase it.”
Julia Kay, Co-founder of Great Wrap, says, “We’ve had a huge demand building over the past three years from businesses far and wide. Most businesses, whether you know it or not, are using petroleum-based pallet wrap to send and receive their goods. This product is unavoidable, it is essential, and it’s a global problem that we are solving.”
Great Wrap’s vision continues beyond creating a compostable and planet-friendly alternative to industrial plastic wrap. In addition to manufacturing Compostable Pallet Wrap, Great Wrap is working on its own pallet wrap collection service.
While currently targeting Australian plastic waste, Great Wrap also launched its direct-to-consumer line in the US in 2022. Their international demand is growing as businesses and governments understand they need to support climate-positive innovations.
By 2025, Great Wrap plans to open a biorefinery that will convert local potato waste into 20,000 tonnes of PHA. PHA is a marine degradable material made from microorganisms metabolising potato waste.