Awards finalist gets big boost

Biopolymer Network chief executive Sarah Heine says being named in the KiwiNet awards is an endorsement. Photo / File

Some days trying to get her product to market seemed like one long, uphill battle with one step forward and two steps backwards - so being named a finalist for the KiwiNet Research Commercialisation Awards was just the boost Rotorua's Sarah Heine needed.

Biopolymer Network and Barnes Plastics were today named finalists in the research and business partnership category for their work developing ZealaFoam - a sustainable alternative to polystyrene.

Ms Heine, who is the chief executive of Rotorua-based Biopolymer Network, said being a finalist was really encouraging.

"When you're trying to get a product to market, it's an endorsement that you're on the right track."

Ms Heine had been working on creating the low density moulded bioplastic foam for almost a decade and said at times, it could feel incredibly difficult.

She said while they had some good successes in terms of getting it made in a factory and partnering up with Barnes Plastics, they'd come across hurdles along the way.

"We are trying to get to the next level to say yes, we can make it at volume in a commercial environment."

Ms Heine said because they were doing something that had not been done before, it was difficult to know what challenges lay ahead.

"I would like to say that this year will be the one we get it to market. We've spent so much time getting it to this stage I hope we are in the home straight."

Because the awards were judged by fellow scientists, it was an added recognition they were on the right track, she said.

She said while there were days when she thought "surely this shouldn't be so hard", she and the team had such a strong belief in what they were creating and the worldwide benefits in offering a sustainable alternative to polystyrene that giving up was not an option.

The awards are designed to celebrate commercialisation success within New Zealand's universities and Crown Research Institutes looking at ideas that turned clever science into commercial value.

As a finalist Ms Heine will present to judges in Auckland in June.