Estonian startup Woola, which makes packaging from wool, has raised €2.5 million to work on creating protective packaging to replace plastic.
According to the company, 141 million tonnes of plastic packaging is produced every year, of which only about 14% is collected for recycling, and an even smaller fraction is actually recycled.
“At the same time, up to 90% of sheep’s wool is burned or buried in countries across Europe – that’s 200,000 tonnes of wool that goes unused in Europe every year because it’s too coarse for the textile industry. Estonian company Woola is tackling both problems at once by creating protective wool packaging to replace plastic,” the company said.