Boosted by US$6 million Alibaba cash injection, Hong Kong compostable food packaging start-up takes on single-use plastics

Alarmed by the amount of rubbish they were generating by just drinking coffee and eating cup noodles, two former garments entrepreneurs decided it was time to find an eco-friendly alternative to all the plastic packaging that ends up in landfills globally.

George Chen Dah-ren and Vivian Chang first approached material scientists in Hong Kong and mainland China, and were in 2013 pointed in the direction of Alexander Bismarck, then a Materials Science professor at Imperial College London. The German scientist, now professor at the University of Vienna, later came up with a method for producing a plant-based food packaging material that was sturdy, heat-resistant, oil and waterproof, as well as fully compostable, together with colleagues from City University Hong Kong.

Together, they founded Ecoinno in 2015, to which Bismarck transferred his intellectual property. Chen and Chang were tasked with setting up a supply chain to turn the material into a commercially viable product. The company moved its operations to Hong Kong Science & Technology Park in 2018.

Their product, dubbed “green composite material”, is made from the leftover pulp of bamboo and sugar cane using Ecoinno’s proprietary processes. The material will completely decompose in 75 days when put in the soil. Chen said it has been approved by New York-based Biodegradable Product Institute and Germany’s Din Certco, which certify compostable products and packaging, as well as the US Food and Drugs Administration, for food consumption safety.

The start-up has received US$6 million from the Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund for manufacturing facilities – including a fully automated factory in Tai Po – that will produce fully compostable packaging and help the city wean itself off single-use plastics, Ecoinno said. The fund is a non-profit initiative of Alibaba Group Holding, which owns the South China Morning Post.

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Chang said it would cost tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars to equip the production lines at its pilot factory in Qingyuan, in China’s southern Guangdong province, as well as the planned plant in Tai Po. The production lines – designed and set up by Ecoinno’s in-house engineers – will feature robotics technology, she said.