Inside Minerva Mill – Natupharma

For the fourth in our series of tenant stories, we hear from Martin Greaves, sales director at Natupharma.  They have been tenants at Minerva mill for 2 years.

We have offices in Denmark, Sweden, Brazil and Alcester.

I started with Natupharma in 2011 and then we were based in Stratford and then moved to Hatton Rock, when I moved house to nearer Alcester in 2017 I decided to move my little office into Minerva Mill, I must say it has been one of the best decisions I have made.

Even in these difficult times it is better to exchange pleasantries with a mask covered face rather than the sheep out at Hatton. A serviced office is the best fit for me as a business giving me an escape from home to come into work and concentrate fully on all of our activities.

As a company we started selling food supplements and although this is still our ‘bread and butter’ business we have set up an Eco side of our business and that is what I would like to share with you today, just a small insight.

Before learning about Natupharma’s Green Plastic, we want to tell you a few important things about our planet:

You’ve probably heard of global warming. It happens because today we use energy for everything we do. Producing this energy releases carbon dioxide (CO2) into the air. This CO2 contributes to the greenhouse effect, which increases global warming.

Plants absorb CO2 from the air as they grow.  It’s a way nature finds to fight against the greenhouse effect.

Sugarcane is one of these plants. Sugarcane is a type of plant that grows in Brazil. It is also called biomass, because it generates energy. Whenever energy is created from natural sources that can regenerate, which means they never run out, like sugarcane, we call them renewable energy sources.

Plastic is a material that was discovered over 100 years ago.

It’s very important to the economy and to people’s comfort:

It’s used in packaging to protect food; in car parts, making them lighter; it helps farmers grow and store food; it’s used to hold your beauty products; to make refrigerators, televisions and computers; and much, much more.

There are many different types of plastic, and each has different characteristics: some are harder, while others are more flexible. And some are made from petroleum, while others are made from sugarcane or other raw materials

We had a great idea

Sugarcane absorbs carbon gas from the air as it grows

Green Plastic is made from the sugarcane produced?

When we use energy in our day-to-day activities, CO2 is released into the air

Now that you’ve learned about plastics, global warming and CO2, it’s time to tell you about a great idea we had: Natupharma’s Green Plastic!

And, don’t worry, it’s not actually green.

It’s made from sugarcane, which is why we call it green.

Now you know that Green Plastic is good for nature and is recyclable. But we haven’t told you that it’s just as robust as plastic made from petroleum.

This means that you can use Green Plastic to make many things with the same high quality as other plastics.

Now we have the CO2 neutral element we cleverly mix that with a plastic additive that when placed into polymers rapidly enhances the ability for plastic to biodegrade in anaerobic and aerobic environments. Plastic when placed into active microbial environments begin to decompose at very slow rates by microorganisms, typically in excess of 450 years.

The Natupharma biodegradable plastic additive enhances the ability for the plastic product to decompose by microorganisms. Products that have been treated with the biodegradable plastic additive can see results of biodegradability in landfills, anaerobic digestion systems and aerobic facilities within 10 years.

Manufacturing with Natupharma’s biodegradable plastic additive will give microbes the ability to secrete acids and consume your product, turning the products into Ch4, Co2, biomass and water, in the fastest time frame on the market. Natupharma’s biodegradable additive enhances the ability for microbes to consume the plastic at a much faster rate by adding in key features to the polymer. This in turn enhances the biodegradability of our plastic. Without changes to your physical properties, without changes to final product’s shelf life, without an increase of resin used. This results is an end product that is 100% shelf stable.

Your product will be able to solve the market’s demand for an earth friendly solution, all while keeping your manufacturing costs in line.

More about what we do can be accessed at www.natupharma.co.uk

STAY SAFE

Martin Greaves

Natupharma UK Limited

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