Aquapak Polymers is delighted to have been shortlisted from nearly 450 teams in the USA’s prestigious Beyond the Bag Challenge 2020 which aims to push the boundaries of material innovation and design to reinvent getting goods from retailer to home.
Our entry is a grocery bag, made from paper that has an extrusion coating of HydropolTM to strengthen it and allow re-use. As the HydropolTM layer completely dissolves in paper mill’s repulping processes, it allows the bag to be easily disposed of through domestic paper recycling. And if a bag is accidently littered, the HydropolTM layer will biodegrade with the paper.
The competition to reinvent the retail bag is being run by OpenIDEO who have partnered with Closed Loop Partners and supported by large retailers such as Target, Walmart, Walgreens, Kroger and CVS Health. The brief was to share ideas on how goods can be transported from retailer to destination in a way that is compatible with diverse retail systems, delivers ease and convenience for customers, and reduces environmental impact.
Aquapak, along with the other 57 shortlisted ideas now enter the next phase of the competition to present prototypes and plans to scale the business model plus give demonstrations on how the solution satisfies the goals of the challenge.
