The company, called Azul won the Rotary Club of Christchurch Sunrise YES Regional Excellence Award for Social Enterprise at the Young Enterprise Scheme regional awards last fortnight.
Azul’s chief executive, year 13 pupil Strev Balmoria, who lives in Riccarton, said it was a privilege to be recognised as one of the top six young enterprise companies in the region.
Said Strev: “We are grateful to have had this opportunity to showcase a solution to the ever-increasing plastic issue facing our society today.”
The E-Wrap product the company designed is gelatine-based and is 100 per cent environmentally friendly.
The wrap is produced at a shareholder’s house, and Strev said the production process is fairly simple. Once the mixture is formed, it is left to set for a few days before it is packaged.
The idea from the product came from the group members shared passion for the environment.
“Every day we see single-use plastics, wrapped in our food and in abundance in our school canteen, so we were inspired by our surroundings to come up with an alternative to single-use plastics,” Strev said.
The group has made nine sales and have profited $76.50.
The five year 13 pupils will not continue the business after the school year finishes, but Strev hopes the initiative of the company will inspire future students to look for solutions for environmental issues.
“We faced a lot of difficulties producing our product but, despite that, our passion for saving the environment became our driving force to continue making our product a reality,” Strev said.
