Tanbark is using a process that is a century old and bringing sustainable packaging options to companies of all sizes.
Tanbark is using a process that is a century old and bringing sustainable packaging options to companies of all sizes.
The latest breaking updates, delivered straight to your email inbox.
Tanbark is using a process that is a century old and bringing sustainable packaging options to companies of all sizes.
One of Maine’s newest manufacturing companies is looking to the past to help create a plastic-free future.
Tanbark, based in Saco, makes sustainable packaging out of molder fiber, a product and process that has been around in Maine for more than a century and was actually invented here.
“For the last 30 years, people have said ‘We have plastic and styrofoam, what do we need this for?’ That’s changed,” said Melissa Lacasse, founder and CEO of Tanbark.
The company’s packaging products are made from wood and plant fibers and Lacasse calls them an environmental solution to all the single-use products.
“If we end up in the ocean or the forest, we go away,” Lacasse said. “This is a product that degrades naturally in the environment, and it goes back into the soil. It’s home compostable.”
The process is pretty similar to what it was a century ago. The wood pulp and plant materials are turned into liquid, which is then molded into a wide range of packaging forms, including the popular clamshell box.
There are several companies across the country making the same product, but Lacasse says Tanbark, thanks to confidential technology, is able to do something other companies can’t.
“What makes it different is that we’re able to produce these in lower volumes,” she said.
Lacasse says the ability to do smaller orders means that almost any business that needs packaging, no matter the order size, can have access to eco-friendly formed-fiber products.
She says most companies require a minimum order of hundreds of thousands of parts.
“We can do as low as 5,000 parts per year, 500 parts per year all the way up to 20 million parts per year. So we can scale companies as they grow; we have a real modular production platform,” said Lacasse.
In Maine, Luke’s Lobster and Hannaford have already signed on, and Lacasse says the returns are starting to add up.
“Hannaford’s material, we’re one little skew is going to replace 250,000 pounds of plastic a year. One little skew in one little region of the country,” said Lacasse.
She said with global changing attitudes about plastic waste, a sustainable future using locally sourced raw materials is in growing demand.
“I’m really excited about reinvigorating this industry in Maine and having a company that really leads from a place of shared prosperity for its workers, the loggers who supply the materials,” said Lacasse. “And so what we see is that we’re already making plans for a second much larger mill.”
Lacasse says their current mill will continue to be used for research and development along with producing smaller orders while the second mill handles the larger production needs.
Hearst Television participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites.