A SPANISH startup named Sheedo has developed a type of seed paper that can be planted to grow new plants. Made from residual cotton from the textile industry, Sheedo’s seed paper doesn’t require trees to be cut down nor does it involve toxic bleaching. It’s a 100 percent sustainable product and it ends up germinating into a plant at the end of its life. “We want to give disposable paper a new lease of life,” explained Gonzalo Mestre, CEO of Sheedo. Considering all its team members are below the age of 25, some might say Sheedo did impressively to persuade the likes of Telefónica and Coca-Cola to get on board with their product, a seed paper that can be planted to put an end to single-use paper. The idea eventually evolved and the startup diversified to the point where Sheedo offers products like a “sowing” kit, earth pills and plantable chocolates. However, the road has been a long one, demanding constant innovation, reinvention and problem solving. Mestre was a university student looking at innovating sustainable espadrilles with a partner when he came across plantable seed paper. Although the product he stumbled on couldn’t be printed, let alone marketed, Mestre “fell in love with the concept.” From that moment, the partners had a vision for how they might shape a product but had almost no information on how it would work, so they asked themselves: “What if we just do it?” The first obstacle to overcome was to get the paper printed without destroying the seed. At the beginning, they were strongly tempted to throw in the towel. But then they found someone who could, Antonio Sardá, a Catalonian expert in paper-making with a career spanning over 40 years. In conjunction with the Sheedo team, he found an exact formula to create a paper capable of holding chamomile seeds, which could later germinate. The next challenge would be to find customers. Initially, Mestre thought his product was perfect for florists. “None of them wanted it,” he recalled. “We worried we’d managed to produce a product only to find it didn’t fit in the market”. They decided to focus on companies that sold organic products and the strategy paid off. “We ended this year with clients like Coca-Cola,” said Mestre. As well as Coca-Cola, their products are already used by companies such as Danone, Forbes, Oysho and Massimo Dutti. The young entrepreneurs started printing the paper from their office themselves as orders arrived. The printers have had to be modified to adapt to their paper and to retain the seed. According to Mestre, the lack of technical knowledge was “one of the biggest hurdles.” Looking to the future, they are considering “not only working with products, but designing sustainable campaigns” according to Mestre. “We may not be expert paper manufacturers or printers,” he said, “ but we’re good as a supplier of sustainable products and we’re good at innovating.”(SD-Agencies) | 