Green Packaging: These Brazilian Cassava Bags Decompose in a Mere 60 Days

Cassava package by CBPAKBrazil’s CBPAK, with 15 employees, produces 300,000 packages for food each month. But they are not those common polystyrene packages. The CBPAK packages are made out of cassava starch. Ecologically correct, they take just 60 days to decompose and do not pollute the environment.

The idea of packages made out of starch arose in 2001, when engineer Claudio Rocha Bastos heard from a friend that a group was researching the possibility of using cassava as raw material. “I saw that that could become technology,” explained Bastos who, in 2006, concluded the process for development of the packages.

Located in São Carlos, in the interior of São Paulo, CBPAK received its first raw material from large starch producers and now has around 40 clients, especially in the sectors of organic agriculture and events. The company has also closed a deal to supply cups and trays to aerial catering company Lufthansa Service Group, starting in 2010.

Bastos says that the company is currently undergoing a phase of capitalization, and that after this period it should start investing in the foreign market through joint ventures. According to the businessman, the European market has already shown interest in the product.

Also in July this year, the company should receive a new machine to expand production to 3 million items a month. Bastos believes that will be the right moment to start exporting. The company has already sent products for testing in Chile, Uruguay and Argentina.

With the growing production, Bastos still hopes to expand the number of employees at his company to 80, working in three shifts. The forecasted revenues for 2011 are also good, reaching 10 million Brazilian reais (US$ 5.7 million).

The government of Brazil has part of the business. In 2007, CBPAK signed a contract with the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) to help in the consolidation of technology. Today, the BNDESPar, the bank’s investment arm, has 35% of the company’s capital.

Despite the high cost of cassava packages, the ecological appeal is strong and has already called the attention of companies that transform food, as well as the sugar and alcohol and electronic product sectors, as the organization is developing starch products that may replace the polystyrene protectors that come in cardboard boxes.

Service

CBPAK Tecnologia
Telephone: (+55 16) 3368-5935
Site: www.cbpak.com.br
E-mail: cbpak@cbpak.com.br

Anba

Tags:

You May Also Like

Brazil Soldiers Bring AIDS and STDs to Yanomami Indians

AIDS and other sexual transmitted diseases (STDs) are spreading among tribal peoples, including the ...

Brazil’s Easy Export Shipping System Being Adopted by Other Countries

The experience of Brazil with exporting through the Postal Service is being reproduced in ...

Brazil Spends 8% of GDP in Communications, But It’s Still Too Little

Between 1998 and 2004, the countries of Latin America advanced in the field of ...

Brazil Says It’s Ready to Be a UN Security Council Member

Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Relations stated that the G-4 Group – Brazil, Germany, India, ...

Brazil’s Petrobras Gets Contract to Explore Oil Off New Zealand’s Coast

New Zealand’s Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee awarded his country’s first petroleum exploration ...

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez

Brazil Senate Intent on Blocking Venezuela from Mercosur over TV Shut Down

Despite recent conciliatory gestures between the presidents of Brazil and Venezuela, Brazil's Senate has ...

Brazil Rises from 21th to 11th Among World’s Favorite Places for Events

Business tourism is growing in Brazil. According to a study disclosed yesterday, July 27, ...

With UN’s Help Brazil Becomes Center of Fight Against Global Hunger

Brazil and the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) have joined forces to launch ...

Despite Crisis Brazil to Invest US$ 9 Billion in New Ethanol Plants in 2009

Whatever hardships the next sugarcane crop may undergo "the solidness of the sector fundamentals ...

U.S. Snow: ‘Delighted for Brazilian Friends’

I was pleased to hear the announcement by my counterpart in Brazil, Finance Minister ...