User Friendly Meets Earth Friendly.
Paul Tasner is an over-fifty entrepreneur whose startup is Earth-friendly. PulpWorks, Inc. aims to replace toxic packaging with gentler and non-harmful alternatives.
When it comes to packaging, for Tasner, it’s not some passing fancy or something he’s been excited about for a couple of years. Instead, he spent his career working with the other guys, companies that manufactured the sorts of packaging he’s now endeavoring to replace. He worked in manufacturing and logistics for firms such as Clorox and Hepagen.
In 2011, the bespectacled PhD decided to depart from this line of work and found his own company. Along with Elena Olivari he founded PulpWorks to change the way the world packages.
The boss product of PulpWorks is the Karta-pack, meant to deliver a knockout blow to the blister pack. The blister is the enemy of the environment, and PulpWorks describes it as dangerous. Enter the Karta-pack, made of molded pulp and cardboard: fully biodegradable.
Their entire product line consists of environmentally-friendly packages to be used for a variety of products. Pulp of various kinds is the backbone of every product: in an NPR interview, Tasner referred to it as turning garbage into packaging.
And it’s not just about the re-using ethic either. Tasner endeavors to make his packaging easier to open than others on the market. You’ve heard the advice to be sure to focus on value for your customers, and Tasner follows that advice as well as one can. Anyone can appreciate an easy-to-open package, while environmentalists will thrive on the green appeal. In today’s market, it’s hard to get by without offering something different and valuable, and entrepreneurs of all ages can take a cue from the post-50 businessman, Tasner.
There’s no question that his lengthy experience working in packaging prepared him for his present business. He did tell NPR that he wouldn’t have minded getting started sooner. Post-50 entrepreneurs face the challenge of not having as much time to develop their businesses and to reap the benefits, yet without their experience and hard-won knowledge, they may not find the success in the first place.