A German pharmacist invented polystyrene in 1839. Today, the production of polystyrene produces more than 12.5 million metric tonnes of CO2 emissions annually, and 15 million metric tonnes are produced every year, with a less than 1% recycle rate.
In 2016, Tetra Pak was the first company in the food packaging industry to have its climate impact reduction targets approved by the Science-Based Targets (SBT) initiative. One year later, in 2017, Tetra Pak had a 13% reduction in its overall climate impact despite a 19% increase in packages sold.
The biodegradable packaging market was valued at $473.74 B in 2023 and is projected to reach more than $800 B by 2032.
Scaling biodegradable packaging
A Ukrainian startup, S.Lab, has been working to scale biodegradable packaging. The company was founded in 2021, but with the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the company moved its production facilities to Málaga, Spain.
Julia Bialetska, CEO and co-founder of S.Lab said they chose this area because the region is striving to become climate-neutral by 2030, actively investing in sustainability, fostering the development of related businesses, and serving as a convenient logistics hub.
Bialetska says Spain is an agricultural country with a lot of agricultural waste, including hemp and linen, which the company uses in its production. The local government also provided S.Lab with a production premise for five years.
In 2024, the company launched its first fully automated production line in Coín, with a capacity of up to 30,000 units per month. Bialetska says this is a full production cycle: from purchasing waste from local farmers within a radius of 50 km from the production site to producing the packaging itself.
Bialetska told Forbes that scalable biodegradable packaging solutions can be adapted for large-scale production to meet volume demands while adhering to environmental regulations and consumer preferences.
“These solutions must balance sustainability with functionality, ensuring no features are compromised while remaining safe for the environment,” said Bialetska.
From the forest and the fields to the lab
S.Labs leaned on nature when it developed its approach to biodegradable packaging using mycelium and agricultural waste.
“We borrowed the natural process of mycelium growth from nature as the baseline of our process,” said Bialetska. “Mycelium is a network of mushroom roots, and it is rapidly growing, creating long white nets that bind anything that they grow on.”
“This mechanic could be compared to a spider that creates nets and twists them around something nutritious,” she added. Bialetska says that, in their case, agricultural waste acts as a skeleton/matrix for the material, and mycelium is a glue that binds all the particles together.
“The main challenge was to transfer this process from the forest to the lab and then from the lab to the proper continuous manufacturing,” said Bialetska. “For that, we developed our own hardware technology.”
Agricultural waste of hemp stems and linen
France cultivates the largest hemp crop in Europe, but Spain has a history of growing hemp for industrial uses, and today, hemp is grown across the Iberian peninsula.
“Normally, stems remain on the fields after the harvest or are thrown away after the processing as there is no use of this part of the plant,” said Bialetska. “So instead of throwing them away, we take those stems and transform them into packaging that afterwards can be returned to nature and will fully biodegrade in 30 days in the soil.”
Hardware for continuous manufacturing
S.Lab filed two European Union patents in 2024 for its continuous sterilization process and forming and shaping robot. Three new patents are in progress and are expected by Q4 2025. The company has several active packaging pilots with L’oreal, JTI, and Nespresso and is an approved supplier with L’oreal.
“Our continuous, chemical-free sterilization method and innovative robotic forming mechanism of mycelium-based packaging solve the main problem related to bio-based solutions, which is scalability,” said Bialetska.
Bialetska added that while other companies may offer solutions using materials like mycelium or agricultural waste, they can struggle to meet industrial-scale demands and rarely disclose their capacities.
“This is why our production numbers matter, they demonstrate our readiness and reliability, making us a viable partner for industries transitioning to sustainable packaging at scale,” she said. “Our entire manufacturing process is controlled through advanced robotics, sensors, and computer vision, ensuring precision and reducing human error through real-time data monitoring and analysis.”
Bialetska says their production line can also adapt to diverse client needs, including custom designs and sizes, without adding to production costs.
“Our manufacturing technology is the first to produce mycelium-based packaging with precise 90° angles, mirroring the functionality of conventional packaging, which provides a lot of possibilities for packaging for various sectors,” she added.
S.Lab’s tech and production process can achieve up to three times the energy efficiency of traditional EPS production. “It is a closed-loop, energy, and water-efficient production, and this results in 90% lower CO2 emissions and 90% less water usage than polystyrene production,” said Bialetska.
Innovation at CES 2025
Visitors to the S.Lab stand (Venetian Expo, Eureka Park, Hall G—62659) at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January 2025 will be able to see S.Lab’s production line prototype and mini-factory, which will also include a number of biodegradable packaging samples.
Their mini-factory prototype is a self-contained 40-foot container featuring a built-in production line for on-site packaging production at customers’ facilities.
“By providing mini production lines, we offer clients sustainable packaging produced at their own premises without disrupting their existing processes,” said Bialetska.
