Q&A: In Conversation with Ved Krishna, Founder of Pakka Inc.

As a packaging producer and investor in new technologies, Pakka Inc. Founder Ved Krishna shares the opportunities and challenges facing compostable materials in this pre-summit Q&A.

What is the current state of the compostable packaging space? Where do you see opportunities and what are the challenges?

The world is clearly progressing and there are a lot of interesting developments happening. We need renewable resources and regenerative solutions, and both are needed at scale.

We sometimes get lost in the noise around composting infrastructure. I feel that it will evolve as more material becomes compostable and regenerative. We need to realise that there is no such thing as ‘recycling’, there is only ‘downcycling’ and that reaches a stage when it cannot be in the system. Nature has a fundamental law that each material decomposes to contribute to life and so must our materials.

There are enormous opportunities in each domain- carry, flexible packaging, rigid packaging etc. The greatest challenge is that of scale, along with performance and cost, and we need to find solutions with sustainable processes to overcome all three.

Pakka holds a unique position as both a producer of packaging and as an investor in new technologies. With this perspective, how can the ecosystem work more collaboratively to drive innovation?

We are firm believers in partnerships and collaborations. We know we cannot make a big enough impact on our own, hence we are working for ways to bring the ecosystem together. We have been encouraging the creation of a solutions platform called the Global Compostables Alliance by investing in We Grow PTE. This will enable others interested in the sector to face much fewer challenges as it will provide transparency in supply chains, innovation, funding, and marketplaces.

Our focus will be to provide possibilities for alignment and collaboration across the industry.

As regulators react to an influx of new materials and work to set standards and classifications for biodegradability, can you see change on the horizon for industrial composting and recycling systems?

Absolutely. We need to keep evolving materials and the rest will evolve in response. We all function as parts of a singular whole and our purpose is to do our best in building and disseminating more regenerative materials and then to encourage and collaborate with policy makers, composters and public at large to bring change.

We are thrilled to have Pakka as a Platinum partner for the summit, who do you hope to meet in London?

We are thrilled to partner with Rethinking Materials as well. We were so impressed by your effort last year and are fortunate to have become a part of this.

We look forward to meeting investors to enable building of agri-residue pulp mills and flexible materials that we plan in the coming year. Collaborators for research and innovations who can work with us to evolve more nature inspired technologies to evolve materials. Partners to collaborate towards manufacturing and distribution of our moulded products CHUK and the entire value chain to participate on the GCA platform.

Hear more from Ved here.

Pakka Inc. is a Platinum Partner for the Rethinking Materials Summit on May 4-5, 2022. Ved will join the panel ‘Corporate Innovation: Investing in Ideas for Sustainable Packaging Solutions‘ and Vig Kannan, CEO of the Global Compostables Alliance will give a presentation titled ‘Building an Ecosystem of Innovators and Compostable Solutions‘. View the full agenda here.