Business is moving at light speed for CTK Bio.
The Cloverdale company recently began supplying businesses in the U.S. with it's products and they are starting to gain a lot of traction south of the line. Closer to home, they are having a harder time.
Daniel Shum, COO, said they are supplying their products to several large distribution networks in the U.S. However, the company is facing some legislative obstacles at home—something Shum says doesn't make sense.
Located in an 11,000 square-foot facility off 176A Street and 66A Avenue, CTK Bio is one of the only businesses around making practical and fully biodegradable plastics. Shum and CEO J.K. Park opened their warehouse and office space in Cloverdale in 2022.
According to Park, many biodegradable plastics are 80 or 90 per cent biodegradable, but no one is currently making a product like CTK’s that can fully biodegrade in a short period. All of CTK’s products use waste materials that biodegrade and compost in all environments. Park and Shum say their products can replace any type of plastic with a fully biodegradable one.
CTK’s plastics biodegrade at different rates, depending on usage. Camping cutlery, for example, can be washed by hand, but if you put it in the dishwasher it will fall apart after a few cycles.
Park said CTK’s mission is to “accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable materials using waste byproducts so we can reduce all the plastic pollution.”
Despite the advance in technology, government's north of the line, including both the Province and the Feds, are digging in their heels for an outdated understanding of what single-use products can be, explained Shum.
“We have a one-of-a-kind product and, clearly, the U.S. is adopting these materials,” he said. "Most paper cups and containers often contain up to 10 per cent conventional plastic lining, which makes them nearly impossible to recycle and leads to unnecessary landfill waste.”
He said CTK’s products are free from traditional plastics and have a 100 per cent compostable liner. He said his cups can replace plastic Solo cups as they can hold both hot and cold beverages and can hold liquids with more than 40 per cent alcohol content.
“We are already making inroads into the U.S. market and are looking to encourage Canadian distributors and businesses to adopt this innovative alternative,” Shum said.
CTK has partnered with a major public tourist authority in the U.S. and the tourism authority, in turn, runs several very large sporting events down there. As such, CTK’s products are in high demand. Shum said the partnership is a “significant step” toward lasting environmental sustainability.
“These paper cups, along with other sustainable products such as cutlery kits and additional paper products, are crafted from CTK Bio's advanced compostable materials,” Shum explained. “This ensures they are not only biodegradable but also compostable."
Despite their success south of the 49th, Shum noted CTK wants to do business in Canada too.
“The U.S. market is way, way bigger—and it’s more than what we can chew, just within the U.S. alone—but we are a Canadian company and we want to make Canada better,” he noted. “So why isn’t Canada adopting this?”
Shum said CTK Bio wants to build some awareness in Canada in an attempt to break down the legislative barriers that have been erected. He said when recent legislation banning most single-use products came into effect, there was nothing in it that made an exemption for 100 per cent environmentally-friendly products.
And while there are no barriers for CTK’s cups and containers, it’s a different story when it comes to straws and cutlery.
“The legislation doesn't target materials, per se, it targets the application,” explained Shum, adding now that single use plastic straws and cutlery are banned, people have moved over to paper straws and wooden cutlery.
“That just ruins customer experience for businesses,” Shum said. “On top of that, some of these products really aren't that sustainable. A lot of these products are generally still lined with plastic and that almost makes it worse.”
He said legislation should have exemptions for fully biodegradable and compostable plastics.
And while there are exemptions for paper cups or takeout containers, they aren’t as environmentally-friendly as everyone thinks.
“All of those containers and cups are lined with traditional plastic,” he said. “People think it's a sustainable alternative, and they adopt these paper products, but when they throw them away, those paper products can’t be recycled.”
He said two factors contribute to this, 1.) the product is contaminated with grease and food, and 2.) recyclers have no way of separating the paper from the micro-plastic lining.
“The plastic is also too thin for a machine to separate and reprocess, so it ends up in the landfill anyway and the 10 percent plastic lining won’t break down there.”
Shum said while sustainability is great, the idea of sustainability without any actual sustainability is terrible. He said the new legislation may be having the opposite of its intended effect—it may be creating more landfill.
CTK had been making biodegradable plastic films and bags until the recent legislation banning plastic bags and other single-use plastics came down. The company then had to pivot and figure out how to fuse their unique biodegradable film onto paper to create their new sustainable products.
After spending a lot of time in research and development, CTK finally figured out how to fuse the products together in about April of this year.
“All our paper cups and paper containers are lined with our home-compostable material,” Shum noted. “We managed to put our biodegradable film on paper, so our products naturally break down—100 per cent of a cup, 100 per cent of a container.”
Right now Shum said the only barrier left to jump over is the Canadian market. Even without the legislation problems, he’s hoping businesses will adopt CTK’s unique cups, containers, straws, and cutlery.
“We want to raise awareness here too,” he said. “If we have to use paper cups, containers, etc., then we might as well use products that actually break down and biodegrade.”
For more info, visit ctkbio.com.
