From Banana Farm Waste to Award-Winning Paper with Bethelhem Dejene
About this episode
Cory Connors interviews Bethelhem Dejene about her innovative startup Zafree Papers, which creates sustainable packaging from banana farm waste.
In this episode, Cory Connors welcomes Bethelhem Dejene to discuss her journey from observing waste at an Ethiopian fruit and vegetable market to founding Zafree Papers, an award-winning startup manufacturing tree-free virgin pulp from banana farm waste. Bethelhem shares how she iterated through multiple business models before discovering the potential of banana fiber, how Zafree partners with converters to supply sustainable packaging materials, and what it meant to become the first African ...
People in this episode
Host: Cory Connors
Guest: Bethelhem Dejene
Topics covered
- sustainable packaging
- banana farm waste
- entrepreneurship
- innovation
- environmental impact
Keywords
- sustainable packaging
- banana fiber
- Zafree Papers
- entrepreneurship
- waste management
- Ethiopia
- virgin pulp
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Zafree Papers
Places: Ethiopia
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