Our journey towards creating bioplastics began with an observation of retail food waste. During a visit to a chain restaurant in London, our co-founder, Bella, noticed the volume of surplus food and waste generated. In 2019, she proposed an original idea to reduce food waste by selling surplus food at discounted prices during restaurant closing hours, but the idea is carried away with her other colleague who parted from the original vision. Despite this, the challenge of food waste remained substantial, with unwanted food waste (like potato peels and fish bones) reaching a staggering total of 1.3 billion tons annually with various solutions are being proposed.

​

It is not only Bella, in the meantime, Sinta and Luca are pondering with the waste solution that incorporate circular economy model and how they could contribute based on their backgrounds. We finally cross path and discover our shared passion on circular economy at college. In our discussion, we realised significant portion of food waste originated from food manufacturing companies, not only retail restaurants and households. In addition, plastic and packaging waste from commercial and household activities totaled 400 billion tons each year, while estimated only 9% being recycled. Poor waste management habit or system also makes these wastes to be mixed up in the landfill and ocean. (Fun fact: Bella and Sinta's family home is located quite close to local landfill, like in the picture, we can say the smell is not great at all). 

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

We also reckon the surge in e-commerce activities, food groceries, and fast fashion encouraged consumers and businesses to use single-use plastic packaging. We came to the conclusion that it would be very difficult to ban single-use plastic entirely. 

 

From here, we embraced the idea of using food waste resources to innovate a simply better bioplastic. We aim to address two waste problems by producing everyday plastic to be bio-based as possible. Given our backgrounds in sustainable enterprises, we felt confident in our capacity to innovate these bioplastics.

​

Bella, who studied finance and strategy management, focused her Cambridge thesis on circular economy adoption and its profitability with Resource-Based View (RBV) analysis. Sinta, with her background in engineering and food technology, wrote her thesis about utilising fish bone waste as collagen-based materials for bioplastic. Luca brought extensive knowledge from his experience in Private Equity and Consultancy, specifically regarding ESG.

​

Leveraging our thesis and experiences we strive to innovate eco-friendly bioplastic products made from food waste and other bio-based materials. Beyond being eco-friendly, we are also committed to ensuring our products are durable, user-friendly, and bring real value to customers. This commitment stems from our personal experiences, like the discomfort of using an eco-friendly straw that becomes mushy before finishing a drink, or the inconvenience of a paper shopping bag that suddenly tears apart. These experiences significantly drive our pursuit of a better bioplastic.

​

In essence, at Starchy, our straightforward aim is to produce the most convenient and eco-friendly bioplastics that benefit both us and the earth.

​

​