TIPA TECHNOLOGY EXPANDS GABRIELA HEARST’S SUSTAINABILITY MESSAGE OFF THE RUNWAY

NEW YORK (March 8, 2018) Gabriela Hearst’s Fall/Winter 2018­ collection was inspired by women in the workforce focusing on Victorian Coal Miners and workers in WWI, WWII. The collection arrived at the show venue, Café Altro Paradiso, in the future of plastic packaging. Pieces from the collection were delivered in TIPA Sustainable Packaging, making a statement that Hearst is truly leading the way in sustainability efforts.

Israeli-based TIPA Corp., founded by Daphna Nissenbaum and Tal Neuman, develops and manufactures breakthrough partially bio-based, certified fully compostable, flexible packaging solutions called TIPA Sustainable Packaging.  In fall of last year, Hearst and her husband Austin, director of the media conglomerate Hearst Corp., joined existing TIPA investors Horizons Ventures and GreenSoil Investments in a leading role to finance TIPA’s fully compostable, revolutionary packaging solutions.

TIPA is the first flexible film of its kind that can be easily incorporated into a large variety of design structures ranging from basic “poly” and zipper bags to sophisticated, multi-layered structures that require a moisture barrier, printing, and other essential qualities.

“Plastic harms the environment,” said Hearst, designer of the New York-based women’s luxury ready-to-wear and accessories sustainable brand, Gabriela Hearst,  “which is why we are implementing the use of TIPA Sustainable Packaging. TIPA is the solution to a big problem.”

Today’s flexible plastic packaging is typically made up of several materials including impure polymers. These blended materials make recycling a challenge. Even for pure polymer solutions such as plastic bags, recycling is rare due to multiple economic and technological challenges.  Mass production of plastics began six decades ago and quickly accelerated to become responsible for 8.3 billion metric tons of trash. Since conventional plastic takes more than 400 years to degrade and only 14 percent of plastic is recycled worldwide, most of it still exists in some form and it’s estimated that only 12 percent has been incinerated.

 

Of the 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic that have been produced, 6.3 billion metric tons have become plastic waste – of which only 9 percent has been recycled. Nearly 79 percent of plastic is accumulating in landfills or sloughing off in the natural environment and oceans as litter.

 

“TIPA is an easy way to do the right thing. Just like an orange peel, TIPA returns back to nature post-usage and will regenerate new plant life with the entire compost,” said Nissenbaum, CEO of TIPA. “Gabriela Hearst is a true change agent for sustainability in fashion. Our hope is that other designers follow this sustainable trend.”

 

The technology behind TIPA has been internationally recognized with a Silver Edison Award for the company’s development of its innovative, compostable, flexible plastic packaging solution. TIPA Sustainable Packaging is available in a wide range of packaging formats that can be specifically designed to a company or manufacturer’s specifications and is certified for both industrial and home composting regulations and requirements in the United States and Europe. Learn more at www.tipa-corp.com.

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