Materials
The materials used for our production, come from places that deal with packaging. Unfortunately, the best and cheapest solution in the industry to keep food fresh is plastic bags. In order for all of us to have Tea, coffee beans or Nuts from from India or South America for example, requires these products to be packaged in plastic, so they can last the trip , keep fresh for longer and be protected against weather, pests and handling.
These plastics are usually LDPE (Low density polyethylene), which is also found in applications like milk and soft drink bottle tops. And HDPE (High density polyethylene), which is also the same material used for making milk bottles and other kinds of food containers.
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Are they waterproof?
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HDPE and LDPE plastics are certainly water proof. But only for a certain amount of time. Under constant moisture or heavy rain, for long periods of time water permeates, and it can damp the inside. Also, the seams are sewn not sealed, so water may also drip through the seams. We are working on making something that is completely waterproof, and we are not so far to achieve it.
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Are they safe?
These types fo plastics are used in food products because they are chemically inert, tear resistant, water resistant and incredibly long lasting, under regulated conditions.
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But why HDPE and LDPE plastic?
These plastics are chosen, because they are recyclable. However, due the lack of regulation, it means that most of the bags that are not labeled go to landfill every day, by the hundreds of tons, due to the fact that waste centres cannot easily determine the materials recyclability without a label, and most of the times it comes contaminated.
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How plastic bags transformed into materials?
The process to turn plastic bags into useful material is very simple. It only requires a regular clothes iron and greaseproof paper. Several layers of plastic bags are trimmed and layered, then fused with the iron. The heat is transferred through the paper at a temperature of around 170 - 190 degrees, in which it is perfect to bond the plastics. These process requires very little energy consumption, yet it creates a material that has all the qualities that mass produced materials like, polyester, nylon, polypropylene have, at a fraction of the energy and resources needed to create such materials.
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Just because not everything can be made out of plastics, we have started introducing upcycled fabrics, curtains, tents and anything that we could possibly use to line the bags. This has taken the bags to another level of quality and craftsmanship that we are very proud of and very excited to be sharing with you.
