Meshpack GmbH awarded entrepreneurship prize

Meshpack GmbH, a netting solutions company based in Germany, has been awarded this year’s Vorsprung award for entrepreneurs by the East German Economic Forum. 

Meshpack is Germany’s only producer of Christmas tree netting, and the company says the plastic used to make the nets can be recycled and returned to the circular economy. In addition, it has launched a compostable bioplastic net made of maize starch.  

In the summer, Meshpack Managing Director Thomas Hartung’s office is strewn with Christmas tree nets, and he says it is in preparation for the Christmas tree trade fair held in August in Denmark. “The tighter the trees are wrapped in the nets, the more will fit on a truck. This means fewer trucks on the roads and a reduction in exhaust emissions,” Hartung says. 

“Every Christmas tree is packaged twice. The first time is after it has been cut down, then the packaging is removed so that the end customers can see what the tree looks like and, after this, it is wrapped up again,” he adds.

It would be better for the environment if the nets could be disposed of by composting them, Meshpack says, so it has added biodegradable nets made from maize starch to its product portfolio. 

Half the company’s revenue comes from Christmas tree nets—110 million meters every year—and the other half from fruit and vegetable nets, plant and agricultural netting and nets to provide protection and shade.  

The plastic nets are made from polyethylene (PE), which can be recycled several times. This means plastic nets can be made into new nets, while nets made of maize starch can stay out in the garden and be turned into compost.  

Hartung says his development goal is for the maize starch nets to turn into compost in three to four weeks. Because of this, Meshpack partners have joined the BioZ research group. With the help of the Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems IMWS in Halle (Saale) among others, Meshpack is working to develop biodegradable bioplastics.