The Estonian start-up Woola is replacing plastic bubble wrap with wool. The solution for e-commerce is designed to safely package goods such as cosmetics, jewellery or electronics in envelopes and as cushioning material and help protect the environment. Wool scraps are used.
With this alternative packaging material, the young company also wants to fulfil consumers„ desire for more sustainability. Founded in 2020, the start-up Woola has therefore found a creative way to address two problems in the packaging industry at once: dependence on fossil fuels and disposability. “We need to free ourselves from both in order to make packaging more sustainable," says Anna-Liisa Palatu, CEO and co-founder of Woola. The overarching vision is to Eliminate half of the global consumption of plastic bubble wrap by 2030. To this end, the Tallinn-based company has set up a new type of production chain that transforms wool scraps into protective packaging. Until As at 30 November 2022, the packaging start-up had thus already generated 32,374.40 m2 Plastic bubble wrap replaced. Now Woola is bringing this innovation to Germany.
Landing across Europe up to 90 per cent of the entire wool production in waste, as only the best fibres are used for clothing and the like. The “inferior” rest is disposed of in a less environmentally friendly way. These huge quantities prompted Anna-Liisa Palatu, Jevgeni Širai and Katrin Kabun to found Woola in 2020. At the time, the founders were running an e-commerce company themselves and had first-hand experience of the packaging problem. The Lack of sustainable and scalable protective packaging led to the rediscovery of wool.
„Sheep's wool is an unused and little-noticed resource - more than 200,000 tonnes of unused wool is burned or buried in Europe every year. That's enough to cover 120 per cent of the global demand for bubble wrap. With Woola products, we can reduce the demand for single-use plastic packaging by offering a better alternative - protective packaging made from wool scraps.“
Anna-Liisa Palatu, CEO and co-founder of Woola
The first test phases quickly showed the Durability and versatility of the rediscovered material shown. Wool offers Protection for fragile objects, is water-repellent and resistant to extreme temperatures. This has resulted in Woola's packaging solutions made from wool scraps - the wool envelopes, bottle sleeves and wool padding materials - which effectively replace bubble wrap for shipping fragile goods. These can be printed by e-commerce companies with their own branding and are suitable for shipping fragile goods ranging from beauty products and jewellery to small electronic devices.
“Just like the supply chain or shipping, packaging in e-commerce is an important part of the customer experience and the sustainability promise. This is something that partner companies and online retailers can no longer ignore. We therefore believe it is essential to offer creative solutions in this area.”
Anna-Liisa Palatu
Following the successful launch in Estonia, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and France, the company is now coming to Germany with its team. The aim is to, Enable e-commerce and mail order companies to switch to sustainable packaging products. The first German customers, such as Atmo Home, the environmentally friendly cleaning product range, are already working closely with Woola. The plan is to further expand activities and the partner network in Germany.
Source: Woola
