A Polish start-up has developed a material that can replace plastic in many different applications, contributing to the reduction of non-renewable natural resources such as peat. It uses natural plant fibers for this. Today, it mainly proposes their use in agriculture – for substrates in plant cultivation. As a result, germinating plants are less prone to soil diseases, the crops are more regular and require less watering. In the future, the fibrous material could be used in construction as an alternative to mineral wool.
“We have developed a new material that has a number of interesting properties. It is fully compostable and biodegradable. Plants grow better on it than in alternatives” – said Paweł Przybyszewski, product director at FibriTech.
SubCel substrates are made of fully organic material. It is made of fibrous, three-dimensional material structures, characterized by a controlled fiber density. This structure theoretically allows the material to achieve properties that enable its use as an alternative to polystyrene or mineral wool. In the initial phase of production development, however, the company focuses on creating biodegradable growth media for modern hydroponic cultivation. The seeds are placed in them on a concave surface where they germinate. Once the plants have taken root, they are planted into the ground along with the cork in which they are growing.
“The potential of this material is huge, because at the moment we have about 50 defined applications. However, in the first place, we decided on a substrate for plant growth due to the advantages we have over the current alternatives and the size of the market” – says Paweł Przybyszewski.
The material is very popular among the recipients. The company plans to increase production, but an investor is needed.
“We sell everything that we are able to produce. At the moment, we are looking for investors, we have very advanced talks with several entities from abroad that are interested in financial support” – explains the product director of FibriTech.