Camm Solutions to end microplastics

"Our 'Camm' material is a mix of PVOH, a thermoplastic, and other ecological materials, and is characterised by its versatility," said Bergstein. This includes a microplastic-free cup that the Greentech platform has just brought to market. "For us, market readiness means that production on standard machines is running at normal speed. This product innovation will only make it out of the niche and onto the market, if Camm's products can survive under conventional production conditions, said Bergstein. After stints in sustainability management at Tchibo and the Otto Group, she noted: "I saw a lot of exciting approaches back then, but in the end the problem was always scalability."

Bertsch, a serial entrepreneur with over 25 years' experience of building businesses, had this in mind from the start for Camm. To this end, he brought on board an interdisciplinary group of shareholders and partners from the entire ecosystem including raw materials and recycling. Camm Solutions is headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, with offices in Spain, Switzerland and the U.S. A new factory on the east coast of the U.S. is being planned.

"Now that our cup is market ready, naturally this applies to all other types of food containers," said Bergstein. Camm Solutions is now focussing on multilayer packaging. "In conventional packaging, a plastic coating acts as a kind of barrier to prevent oxygen or fats reaching the product. However, until now, this coating was not recyclable or glued the other components of the packaging together. They had to be burnt at the end of the product’s life cycle." The Camm-Layer, on the other hand, can be disposed of in the paper bin and breaks down into its original building blocks of oxygen, carbon and biomass during the recycling process. "This is because we can design Camm to meet specific needs: water-soluble or water-resistant, heat-resistant and with a service life of one, ten or 20 years," said Bergstein.

Camm's customers include well-known logistics and packaging companies in Europe, as well as the Grucci pyrotechnics manufacturer in the U.S. state of New York. "Grucci has replaced the plastic components in its fireworks with Camm. So when the new or outgoing president is greeted with fireworks after the election, they will not release microplastics." Asked about Camm Solutions’ latest goal and the next big fireworks display, Bergstein said: "Our goal is to make the sustainable packaging solution so holistic that it acts as a carbon sink thereby reducing the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere - and to be commercially successful as well.”
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