Partner profile: Port Erin Commissioners
Five friends are selling WaxyWraps, a low-cost alternative to traditional plastic food packaging, as they compete in Junior Achievement Isle of Man's Company Challenge. They tell us what motivates them:
Sphere is built up of five determined friends who have developed a product to compete in this month's Junior Achievement Isle of Man Company Programme.
Junior Achievement helps young people gain the essential skills they need when they leave education.
Our passion for protecting the planet led us to market and promote an eco-friendly product that had our small Island in mind.
Many resources are made up of single-use materials, which end up filling our beaches and landfills, causing environmental harm.
Earth is the only planet, as yet, to host life. It is our home and people are abusing it and taking advantage of its resources, causing species to be wiped out. We want people to take steps to fix what’s been damaged before it’s too late.
We decided to produce a reusable alternative to single-use plastics.
Cling film is still the main means used in the kitchen to preserve food in fridges, lunchboxes, etc.
175 compounds of plastic chemicals from cling film leach into our foods, risking cancer, fertility and foetal issues.
The average person using cling film digests 70,000 microplastics a year.
Households' reliance on it made us realise there would be a good market for a beeswax alternative. Beeswax wraps are sold locally, but can be expensive.
It is difficult to persuade people to purchase eco-friendly products that are above their means when they can buy the alternative for a quarter of the amount.
For this reason we decided to source our product from China to make it affordable, although we recognise that transporting goods also has environmental impact.
One pack of WaxyWraps contained three individual wraps - a small, a medium and a large. As well as the product, our packaging is eco-friendly.
Wraps are made from cotton coated in beeswax and jojoba oil. The wax allows the wrap to be breathable, waterproof and reusable.
Our WaxyWraps last up to a year and are on sale for £6.99 for one pack and £12 for two. They can be bought through the IM Local website or via our own website, https://sphereiom.weebly.com
Single-use, non-recyclable plastic food wrapping such as cling film can end up in landfills, oceans and as litter.
Therefore switching to beeswax wraps makes a huge difference by gradually reducing this problem.
We believe the wraps keep food fresh for longer than cling film would, which reduces food waste, too.
UNESCO Biosphere Isle of Man and Sphere are both making a difference in our environment and are helping to raise awareness of the complications of plastic usage that mistreat our environment.
Therefore, we got in contact with the project to take a stand together and fight this matter in question.
Wish us luck in the Junior Achievement event on 18th March at the Villa Marina.
And feel free to contact us via iomsphere@gmail.com or via Instagram and facebook.
Posted up on 8th March 2020
