Erthos co-founder and CTO Chang Dong describes how her company’s plant-based plastic is a game-changer and what it was like to take on a heavily male-dominated industry
When Chang Dong moved from Canada to China in 2019 to expand Erthos, the cleantech company she had co-founded in 2016, she probably did not expect that it would mark such a turning point in the company’s trajectory.
She and her co-founders Nuha Siddiqui (CEO) and Kritika Tyagi (head of product) had established Erthos (then known as EcoPackers) while studying at the University of Toronto. Their ambition was to find a solution to plastic waste, and the trio believes that they might have just done so: they’ve re-engineered the structure of plastics to make them compostable in the soil.
The plastic is made from agricultural waste, “so there’s no burden on our food resources,” says Dong, and can be composted directly and quickly by waste-eating bacteria in the soil. It’s a solution that raises as many accolades as it does eyebrows, as most compostable plastics that are on the market need to be broken down at a landfill, and the manufacturing process is expensive and inefficient.
As a proof of concept, the team has already started pilot projects to commercialise the technology in India, with China and North America as the next destinations.
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As chief technological officer, Dong develops the science behind the technology and is responsible for scaling it up in a quick, cost-efficient and responsible manner. The Gen.T x Credit Suisse Social Impact Awards recipient says, “I actually studied all aspects of plastics first. We understood how to enhance the property of plastics so they can last longer in the environment. I wanted to contribute to the knowledge and experience that I have by transforming the technology and modifying the structure.”
Today, Erthos is one of the fastest-growing cleantech companies in China. The growth can be attributed to several factors, including Dong’s move as well as the country’s tightening regulations pertaining to climate change.
Her move to Shenzhen proved to be timely, as it coincided with China’s implementation of strategic green policies to reduce its carbon footprint. The country’s measures are ambitious, especially since it is notoriously the world’s top emitter of greenhouses gases. But Dong remains optimistic, stating that China’s policy-driven economics is beneficial for companies who are looking to reduce their carbon footprint. “In 2020, the government published a policy that will forbid single-use plastics within the next five years. That’s when we saw that the market is very favourable, and it helped with our expansion to Asia too.”
The company is also transitioning its research work to China, thanks to the abundance of resources and the speed at which the country operates.
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