Julia Bialecka — Replacing Styrofoam with Hemp and Mycelium

This is part six of a ten-part podcast series documenting the European Industrial Hemp Association's 23rd Annual Conference in Poznan, Poland, at the Institute of Fiber Plants and Medicinal Medicine, June 10-12.  Julia Bialecka is CEO and co-founder of S-Lab, short for Sustainable Laboratory. The company uses hemp and mycelium to make packaging that replaces expanded polystyrene. Based in Spain, S-Lab has already piloted its material with L'Oréal, Nespresso and JTI. "Every polystyrene Styrofoam packaging unit that was ever produced still remains somewhere on the landfills because it's 500 years there," she said. The material performs like polystyrene but fully biodegrades in 30 days and is certified home-compostable. Hemp makes up about 90% of the product, and mycelium is the other 10%, acting as a glue that binds the hemp shives together as it grows. S-Lab is closing a €2.5 million seed round and preparing to move from startup to scale-up. "My dream is that one day I go to the grocery shop, to the cosmetics shop, and I see most of the products packed into our material," Bialecka said. Learn More S-Lab (Sustainable Laboratory) s-lab.bio Institute of Natural Fibers and Medicinal Plants (IWNIRZ) iwnirz.pl European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA) eiha.org EIHA Conference eiha-conference.org Thanks to Our Sponsors Condor Seed condorseed.com HEMI — The Hemp Education and Marketing Initiative thegoodnessofhemp.org Bish Enterprises — FiberCut Hemp Harvesting bishenterprise.com/fibercut 1937 International 1937international.com