
Ask HN: Ideas for startups to solve the plastics & packaging pollution problem? - andrewstuart
I&#x27;m wondering if solving the plastics pollution problem represents an opportunity for startups to create businesses.<p>Does anyone have any ideas for a startup that could help solve this problem that is plaguing the world?
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andrewstuart
My idea is that we have to take the focus off cleaning up, and put the focus
on stopping the infinite creation of packaging/garbage.

Instead put the focus on creating a system of highly standardised containers
for selling food and other products in.

These containers would be washing and refundable, and could have paper
branding stuck on them.

Surely there's opportunities here for a startup to be the creator of such a
system?

~~~
schappim
I don't think that will fly as a significant number of companies want to be a
unique snowflake when it comes to packaging.

My e-commerce startup uses reusable Ikea containers[1] for shipping and
reusable Little Bird Bag[2] for local pickups.

In Australia packaging is already regulated to a high degree (you don't hear
about it in the media). Next year my company will have to pay an AUD 800 (USD
590) per year fee to the federal government, larger companies have to pay up
to AUD 250,000 (USD 185,000) per year. This fee is in addition to other
duties/taxes/levies on the local, state and federal level such as e-waste.

While a "highly standardised system" sounds excellent on face value, there
will be edge cases that break things. An example that comes to mind is e-waste
in Australia.

My company imports _many_ Raspberry Pis into Australia. The federal department
of environment saw from the importation documents that they were "computers"
and then wanted to charge the company for e-waste. In Australia, e-waste is
calculated by weight, and the government stated that an average computer is
20Kg+ (by contrast a Raspberry Pi maxes out at 42 g)!

[1]
[https://www.ikea.com/au/en/catalog/products/30160964/](https://www.ikea.com/au/en/catalog/products/30160964/)

[2] [https://www.instagram.com/p/Bi_Oa6ygtqR/?taken-
by=littlebird...](https://www.instagram.com/p/Bi_Oa6ygtqR/?taken-
by=littlebirdelectronics)

~~~
cimmanom
Did you contest the e-waste tariffs? What was the outcome?

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is_this_valid2
Biodegradable bioplastics. Soybean + hemp is carbon-negative if the carbon is
sequestered, there's a clean production process, and transport uses clean
energy.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soybean_car](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soybean_car)

Trash sorting robots.

Production-byproduct CO2 capture with algae.

Contained plastic-eating bacteria.

Biodegradable fungi instead of plastic packaging.

Reuse airpacks for cord storage.

~~~
cimmanom
Even highly biodegradable things (e.g. newspaper) typically don't biodegrade
on a human timescale when placed in a landfill. This is mostly because of how
densely packed landfills are, creating an extremely oxygen-deprived
environment.

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dfundako
'startups cleaning up plastic' on Google is a great starting point.

