Biodegradable plastic packaging that 'disintegrates like orange peel' expands into coffee

To coincide with National Coffee day on September 29, the coffee bag is 100% compostable offering air tight freshness and the company will announce more partnerships in bakery and snacks soon. 

Silver Edison Award

Tipa was set up by software engineer Daphna Nissenbaum​, CEO, and industrial designer Tal Neuman, senior vice president of products, in Israel in June 2010. (Tipa is Hebrew for 'droplet').

It now has an R&D team, bio-plastic manufacturing team and sales and marketing departments, with a subsidiary sales office in the US. 

It recently won a Silver Edison Award for the development of its compostable, flexible plastic packaging in New York in April

"You can treat our plastic packaging like any other organic waste and literally toss it into a compost with your food and the entire package will turn into compost and together with the whole compost, will regenerate new plant life​," said Nissenbaum.

"Tipa is made from several materials, all of which are fully certified compostable. It puts an end to flexible plastic life so it can eventually take part in a new plant life​."

According to Nissenbaum food and beverage packaging is currently accounting for more than half of the world's non-recyclable flexible plastic, but its technology ‘may turn the tide’.

“Two decades ago, bioplastics were hailed as the solution to solving the plastic waste problem, however they have failed to deliver due to challenges around limited physical properties that do not provide a comprehensive end-of-life solution for packaging​,” she said.

Moisture barrier

“The fundamental flaw of current flexible packaging is that it's made up of several materials, and not pure polymers. It's the blended materials in flexible packaging that make recycling a long-term challenge, along with the lack of awareness among consumers of which plastics can actually be recycled​.”

Tipa packaging can be incorporated into a variety of design structures from basic "poly" and zipper bags to multi-layered structures, which require moisture barrier, printing and other essential properties.

"Our vision for Tipa was to provide manufacturers and consumers with a plastic that they are accustomed to and that the planet could adapt to without any extra effort from humans​," said Yifat Bareket, chief technology officer, Tipa.

"Plastic is a necessary evil for everyone, so our goal was to develop a technology to make it good again, and we've accomplished that​."

Early US adopters of Tipa Sustainable Packaging include brands such as BOSS Food Co., Sheffa Foods, Lamb Farm Kitchen, Question Coffee, VitalBulk and Reuseit.

"We're seeing a growing number of brands who want to use Tipa Sustainable Packaging because they want to stay true to their sustainability missions and believe that this form of packaging, despite its higher costs, is an effective tool for differentiation with the mainstream consumer who is becoming more hyper-vigilant to our planet's environmental issues​," said Elzaphan Hotam, vice president, sales US, Tipa.