Earth Nurture
Earth Nurture makes conventional plastics biodegradable - in compost facilities; in landfills; and in natural bodies of water, using food-contact approved chemical mixtures which induce biodegrading behavior in wild microorganisms resident in the environment.
Business summary: The company has the know-how to make any plastic biodegradable, by simply mixing in a mixture of chemicals approved for food contact into the plastic, as it is being melted for fabrication into end products.
Consumer problem: For reasons both practical and aesthetic, people are upset that plastic is not biodegradable. Lightweight non-biodegradable disposable plastic bags have been outlawed in China, India, Italy, Ireland, and other jurisdictions for this reason. Compostable plastics must be composted, and are expensive, fragile, and reduce the food supply in a world in which hunger is a major problem. Earth Nurture Additives are the answer to these problems.
Target market: Plastics converters that make disposable products, that is companies that make disposable plastic items. There are about 90 million metric tonnes of plastic disposable products made every year, and they will last for centuries in landfills. Packaging is the largest market segment targeted.
Management: Tim Dunn, M.A. Tim Dunn founded and ran a company that sold to Costco for many years, Steel Silhouettes. Tim also founded North Seattle Treatment Services, and Greenlake Counseling Center. Tim is the creator of the company's proprietary IP.
Customers: Many plastic converting companies are very interested. Sealed Air's (manufacturers of Bubble-Wrap brand,) Italian subsidiary, for example, has signed Earth Nurture's NDA. Earth Nurture has many companies worldwide who have requested samples and which are ready to make initial orders of 1000 kg.
Sales and marketing strategy: Internet marketing has created quite a bit of buzz on Linkedin, for example. The company has 18 sales reps worldwide, most of them sub-agents of Earth Nurture Europe. The company would also advertise in trade magazines, trade websites, and man booths at shows in the packaging and plastics industries.
Business Model: The company intends to generate revenue by selling the additive mixture for mixing into plastics at the time of final products' manufacture. The company does not propose to engage in manufacturing directly. There are efficient companies already established capable of 1) Mixing and grinding the ingredients in sanitary facilities; 2) Mixing the active ingredients with vehicle resins, to make it easy for plastics converters to mix them in plastics being melted for final manufacture; 3) Warehousing and fulfilling product orders.
Competitors: The company has only one legitimate competitor, meaning a competitor with testing by third parties to demonstrate efficacy. This company is Bio-Tec, their product is called Ecopure, and their major distributors are Enso and BME Masterbatches. Earth Nurture additives (ENA,) can be marketed at 1/3 the price per unit of treated plastic, based on pricing and concentrations recommended by BME Masterbatches.
Technology: ENA has been proven to biodegrade LDPE (the plastic used to make disposable bags,) quite quickly, in third party testing. ENA is designed to biodegrade PET, PP, PE, PS, EPS, LDPE, HDPE, etc.
Funding purpose: To manufacture a second test batch designed to be clear and translucent, which also meets EU requirements for food contact plastic products, to obtain worldwide patenting, to manufacture an inventory for the currently outstanding orders, and to engage in marketing.
Manufacturing: A production chain is in place in North America with partners who have signed Earth Nurture's NDA. Manufacturing can commence within a few weeks of funding.
Contact Earth Nurture: Tim Dunn, President, 17604 11th. Ave. N.E., Arlington WA 98223, USA; 360-652-4703; ; Skype earthnurture; .