Ecofriendly paper packaging and boxes made from rice and barley straw reduce air pollution in India, used by Corona and IKEA

Every year over 3.2 billion trees are cut down for paper packaging and for fashion fabrics like viscose. 

Many of these trees come from the world’s most vital, carbon and biodiversity-rich forests.

At the same time, millions of tonnes of agricultural residue are burned becoming a major source of air pollution in cities like New Delhi.

Luckily we have solutions to solve both of those crises.

Craste, based in India, is one of our innovation solution partners implementing them.

I was sitting in the Imperial College library one day and reading the newspaper that stated Delhi was one of the most polluted cities in the world and the problem of stubble burning. A part of my research at that time was already connected to biomass so I wondered if something could be done with the crop waste instead of burning it down.

Shubham Singh - Co-Creator and CEO of Craste

Craste’s innovative technology takes residues such as rice and barley straw left after the harvest and saves them from the burn pile by turning them into packaging boxes.

Their process is 100% tree-free, requires ⅓ the water of traditional processes, provides a guaranteed income for farmers, and keeps 1460 kg of C02 per tonne of straw out of the atmosphere by preventing crop burning.

Their low-impact packaging products are already being used by companies from Corona to Ikea. 

These are the types of Next Generation Solutions we need to implement and scale.

Canopy is working to do just that. Join us.

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