Always ahead of the curve. We’ve been thinking Zero since 1999.
Andreas Huber and Günter Buzek have been conducting research on the development of organic materials for industrial injection molding since 1999. Although it was not a topic that businesses, governments and the public were talking about back then, a great deal of effort went into tweaking the biodegradability of PVA coatings as well as developing biodegradable materials and bioplastics made from starch and starch derivatives. They were used to regularly develop marketable bio-based products such as tabs, PLA screw caps or integrated packaging solutions.
But first we have to differentiate between efficiency and effectiveness. Efficiency means that you do something right. But when it’s wrong, it turns out to be really wrong. A country like Poland did a much better job of protecting the environment for a long time compared to Austria – simply because of inefficiency. I think the Austrian cabaret performer Helmut Qualtinger was one of the greatest thinkers in the last century. He once explained the difference between effectiveness and efficiency in a joke. Here it goes: One guy says to another guy, “I have a new motorcycle. It’s twice as fast as my old one.” The other guy says, “Great. So where do you want to go?” – “I don’t know, but I’ll get there twice as fast.” This joke is the best way to explain the ideology of growth.
Prof. Michael Braungart
The time has come for a circular economy. Governments, industries, businesses and consumers are pushing for sustainable solutions.
The European Commission has defined ambitious goals which are being introduced into national legislation step by step. Because of upsetting images of mountains of plastic in the ocean, with whales or dolphins whose stomachs are full of plastic, consumers are ill at ease and unsettled. Ideally, consumer goods and businesses will adapt faster and better than policy guidelines suggest; by signing the Ellen MacArthur Agreement, they promise to offer solutions which are effective and sustainable as of 2025.
Back in the day, it was visionaries and progressive thinkers who addressed topics such as the circular economy. Nowadays, these are questions which concern the future of our economy and our planet.
Zeroplast will shape this future.
The idea of the circular economy will be translated into actual products.
Zeroplast is an innovator. Our aim is to develop alternatives to conventional packaging for everyday use and to make them marketable. Our focus does not lie exclusively on maximizing profits and lowering prices; instead, we are looking for sustainable solutions for which a market will exist and will have to exist sooner or later. Similar to a stone we throw into a pond, the circular economy is a system of cycles relating to organic and inorganic raw materials. Inside it, for example, is the waste generated internally during production. Further outside, we have the cycles of the biodegradable raw materials extracted from nature, or everything from the post-consumer recycling processes we use to develop our own recycling and upcycling to forward-thinking projects, such as the use of CO2 as a raw material for bioplastic.
