Israel’s Tipa, a sustainable plastics company that creates plastics from plants, has started working with Wyld, a cannabis edibles company based in the US. Wyld is adopting TIPA’s 608 home-compostable laminate for its edibles packaging, as well as pouches and outer parcels. The laminate was recently brought to North America for local production and is set to package Wyld’s products across the US and Canada this year.
Tipa’s plastic is TÜV OK Home Compost certified which means it can be placed in home composters at end-of-life to break down into nutrient-rich soil and leave no waste behind. The laminate produced by TIpa is also said to run on most conventional plastic packaging machinery.
Edibles are cannabis products for recreation and medicine that come in all shapes and sizes, usually as gummies or candies, and can be infused with medical grade marijuana supplements such as THC and also CBD which gives pain-relief and perhaps a sense of calm, without the high. Budder, Lumi, and Kiva are other brands operating in this space.
Wyld, based in the Pacific Northwest was founded in 2016 and is now a leading edible brand in the US, and is now found in Canada too where cannabis is legal recreationally. Wyld’s Good Tide line, an innovative line of tropical-flavored hash rosin gummies was introduced in 2022.
What sets one edibles company apart from the next in a very competitive industry where Google does not allow the companies to promote products with THC in them online, is to set oneself apart in branding and marketing. Smart move Wyld.
“This marks a significant milestone in both companies’ commitment to environmental responsibility and underscores our dedication to meeting the evolving demands of sustainability-conscious consumers,” says Rodrigo Castaneda, TIPA’s VP and GM North America. “This collaboration is poised to make a positive impact not only on the edibles industry but also on the larger movement to move away from traditional single-use flexible plastics for the benefit of our planet.”
Wyld decided to do better with its packaging solution: We know that most of all the plastics produced in the United States are never recycled and those that are contribute to a serious amount of pollution and toxins to the environment and the people working in these facilities. Plastics remain as forever chemicals and then become part of our drinking water as PFAS. The only solution to plastics seems to be ones that are biodegradable in the real sense of the world. Not just break up into little bits of plastic when they go to a composter.
I was one of the first people to write about Tipa when they just started (we later covered them here) as an idea and how they have grown.
The edibles market in the United States
The new adult-use markets have put the legal edibles industry on track to more than quadruple by 2032 at an estimated $37.1billion value. As the market booms, so does demand for sophisticated sustainable packaging that meets both rigorous safety and compliance standards as well as high brand standards. Demand for alternative packaging is largely driven by consumers and businesses seeking to reduce reliance on single-use flexible plastics in the face America’s more than 40 million tons of plastic waste a year, with less than 5% of which is recycled.
Wyld’s journey, marked by a relentless commitment to sustainability, is a narrative of constant evolution and dedication. “Having been part of an industry known for its excessive single-use packaging that cannot be easily recycled, we searched for compostable materials that met our brand standards and provided product stability. That’s when we found TIPA”, says Kale Gray, Sr. Brand Manager at Wyld.
“By partnering with TIPA, Wyld has redefined packaging norms in the cannabis sector”, says Gray. “Our move to compostable packaging, as a Climate Neutral Certified brand, highlights our eco-friendly practices like using renewable energy and implementing waste diversion in our facilities.”
“The response to the new compostable packaging from customers and retail partners has been overwhelmingly positive, embracing Wyld’s transition to sustainable packaging”, adds Gray. “By using compostable packaging for our products, we have set a new industry standard.“
Wyld’s story with TIPA’s compostable packaging is more than a business move; it’s a statement of purpose, they say.
The next evolution in this deal, we think, is creating edible packaging from edibles. They probably heard that joke before.
In other news Brandmydispo has implemented smart packaging features into its own very expensive white label cannabis packaging, including QR codes, real-time freshness indicators, and state-of-the-art near-field communication (NFC) technology. A good solution if you can buy in bulk.
