The Australian entrepreneur who built frank green into a global re-usable powerhouse has launched a new venture to eliminate the millions of tonnes of single-use plastic wrap dumped into landfills every year.

Australian companies use 100,000 tonnes of plastic pallet wrap every year – enough to wrap the Earth more than 270 times – and 95 per cent is dumped in landfill after just one use.

Benjamin Young’s new company No Wrap replaces plastic wrap with an innovative system of reusable Backbone Corner brackets and high-tension Loop and Lock straps that fit existing pallets.

Designed, patented, and manufactured in Victoria, the system aims to disrupt a $10 billion global packaging industry that relies on a product used once and thrown away.

The launch of No Wrap, which is endorsed by Sustainability Victoria, comes as the price of oil-based plastic wrap has soared by 25 per cent in the past couple months due to the war in Iran blowing out the cost to business.

Benjamin Young

“My vision is we stop using single-use plastic pallet wrap,” Mr Young said.

“Almost everything we buy in retail, healthcare, supermarkets or department stores is at some point transported on a pallet and the boxes are secured in position using plastic wrap.”

“Single use plastic wrap is growing every year in Australia by about 3 per cent and globally creates about 6 million tonnes of waste, which is obviously unsustainable and no one seems to be talking about it.”

“This is not just a plastic wrap replacement. It’s the future operating system for sustainable logistics because it simply makes sense and is cheaper, faster and safer than plastic wrap.’’

As Chief Executive of frank green, Mr Young said implementing No Wrap at his Dandenong Distribution Centre eliminated approximately 7 tonnes of plastic wrapping each year.

“I knew there had to be a better way to secure pallets and avoid all the plastic going into landfill, so we invented the solution,” Mr Young said.

“We removed plastic wrap from our business and cut minutes of wrapping time per pallet. Our operations team prefers it because it’s safer and easier, because there are no cutters – and our waste bins stay empty.”

The world’s desire to achieve greater sustainability has powered frank green to become a global leader in design and innovation of reusable coffee cups, drink bottles, pet and homewares.

“Sustainability is no longer a marketing trend, it’s an operational imperative,” he said.

Under new mandatory climate-related financial disclosures businesses need to treat carbon emissions such as plastic use like any other cost in their profit and loss statement. Environmental, Social and Governance scores now influence access to capital, insurance premiums, and mergers and acquisition activity.

Tender requirements in retail, transport, tech, and public sectors now include carbon audits and businesses must prove they are reducing emissions or risk financial penalties, customer loss, and regulatory investigation.

“Failing to act is no longer just non-compliance, it’s commercial negligence,” Mr Young said.

Sustainability Victoria Chief Executive Matt Genever endorsed No Wrap:

“We are excited that a Victorian company has developed a world-leading innovation to help eliminate single-use plastics across our retail and logistics supply chains,” he said.

“No Wrap is a simple concept, but with the support of Australian businesses the positive impact on our environment promises to be huge given the many tons of plastic wrap sent to landfill every day.”

“Frank Green’s reusable containers helped eliminate millions of plastic bottles and single-use coffee cups and hopefully No Wrap can create the same transformational change with plastic wrapping.”

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