Teysha Technologies has entered into a new partnership, with empowering women in Africa at the heart of the deal. The partnership is with the Kind Planet Company, which produces organic skincare products. The natural ingredients for the range of products are grown on 43 farms in Ghana in West Africa.

Women in the local communities are provided with the tools and skills required to cultivate the fruits and pick, pack and process them. These skills ensure that each farm is run as a profitable enterprise where the women can secure a regular income to help their families.

Matthew Stone, Teysha Technologies’ Managing Director, commented that this was very close to the values of the company, which has many female employees in senior positions. These include inventor and Chief Technology Officer Professor Karen L. Wooley and Head of Research and Development Dr Ashlee A. Jahnke.

The role of Teysha Technologies in the partnership will be to produce a range of biodegradable packaging lids for the Kind Planet Company’s skincare products, using its patented platform to create biopolymers from natural waste products. The ethical products will then be packaged in sustainable materials that can be broken down once finished with, leaving no micro materials or pollutants behind.

The partnership hopes to meet the demands of an increasingly environmentally and socially aware consumer base seeking products that are ethically created and sustainably packaged. In this way, Teysha takes responsibility for the products behind the packaging as well as its own materials.

The first stage of the process will involve Teysha creating prototype packaging lids, which once tested can then be moved to full scale production. Duncan Clark is Teysha Technologies’ Head of Business Operations. The operational timeline aims to enter full production by early 2021. The Teysha platform is fully tunable, allowing for the development of biodegradable plastic alternatives for hundreds of potential applications, all derived from landfill waste.