We should make a far bigger effort to live in harmony with nature, according to Paques Biomaterials co-founder, Joost Paques. “That’s why it’s our mission to come up with all-natural alternatives to the use of fossil plastic and find ways to scale their use worldwide,” he explains. He started development back in 2011 and co-founded Paques Biomaterials in 2015. Its core business is to transform organic residual flows into polyhydroxyalkanoates, or PHAs.
Joost: “These are polyesters, but produced in nature by microorganisms and bacteria. Technically, we’re looking at a fully natural replacement for fossil plastics. As a result, PHA is entirely biodegradable. It’s what we call a ‘bio-polymer’ as it is entirely made by nature, with natural materials. This makes it fully circular, because it will be degraded by nature.”
Paques’ bio-polymer looks and behaves just like plastic, without the negativeby-effects. “It sports all of the advantages of fossil plastics: it looks just like it, it can be processed in similar ways, it’s lightweight. But we cancelled out the primary downside, as it’s not made from fossil fuels, but from organic residue instead,” Joost says.
No doubt
“I’m a firm believer in ‘triple p’ – people, planet, profit. As we find ourselves within a capitalist system, it’s simply necessary to make profit in order for your business idea to survive,” he says. “As a result, the best solutions are the ones that benefit the climate, improve human health, and make money at the same time.”
Currently, PHA is already being used at a large scale for packaging and simple consumer goods like pens, cups, and so on. These PHAs are made of sugar and cooking oil. Paques Biomaterials produces it from organic waste streams and, as such, isn’t competing with food or feed production. Because of PHA’s superior biodegradability, Paques Biomaterials now primarily focuses on introducing it to the agricultural and horticultural sectors as well as the construction industry. Joost: “In all of these industries, bacteria and waste streams are common and so, the transition is relatively easy to achieve, as compared to the food industry for example, where bacteria aren’t welcomed as wholeheartedly.”
“If everyone starts using PHA, we will have far less plastic pollution, better health, more clean water, less dependence on fossil fuels, as well as a thriving economy because, no doubt, this technology is profitable,” Joost emphasizes.
.webp)
Here to stay
Paques Biomaterials participated in the 2021 BeStart program. Joost: “At the time, we were at the stage where we were ready to leave the lab and scale up to industry use. But this requires some solid thinking regarding your business model and market strategy. In that sense, BeStart turned out to be the perfect program for us at the right time. It proved to be of great value to be surrounded by the right people and peers and to consider scaling strategies together.”
As a result, their focus increased tremendously. “There’s plenty of waste streams to concentrate on, but during the BeStart program we realized the importance of picking and choosing. Consequently, we have focused exclusively on the paper industry since and it’s greatly improved our business and impact,” Joost shares. “And the same goes for selling markets, since BeStart we have added significant focus and it has helped our sales. Overall, I think it is fair to say that participating in BeStart has centered our attention and has brought peace to the company. We’ve matured a lot and that maturity is here to stay,” he adds.
“What’s more, we are now far more connected to our peers in the northern provinces of the Netherlands, which has contributed to our work a lot, too,” says Joost. “There’s a ton of likeminded startups here that, as a result of BeStart’s presence in the region, know how to find each other quickly and easily. Within these ecosystems, companies group together to accommodate the types of scaling facilities that they need. Also, they team up to jointly advocate for changes in legislation and regulations. We join hands as a group to benefit the whole in ways that we could never do by ourselves as just a small startup.”
