Innovating Sustainable Packaging with Julia Bialetska

In this episode, Cory Connors welcomes Julia Bialetska to discuss her journey from bioecology to tech, and ultimately to creating S.Lab — a company producing mycelium‑based packaging that replaces polystyrene. Julia shares how witnessing massive plastic pollution in Bali inspired her to take action, eventually leading to the development of a fully compostable, natural material made from plant waste and mushroom mycelium. She explains the environmental benefits, the challenges in certification and legislation, and the breakthrough technology behind S.Lab’s decentralized mini‑factories designed to eliminate freight and reduce CO₂ emissions. Julia also highlights her Women in Leadership Award, the team’s mission, and the growing demand for truly circular packaging solutions.

Key Topics Discussed:

• Julia’s background in bioecology, software product management, and leadership
• The moment in Bali that motivated her to solve plastic pollution at scale
• What mycelium is and how it binds plant waste to create a strong, natural packaging material
• How S.Lab’s material replaces polystyrene and other protective packaging
• Benefits of full home compostability and recent OK Home Compost certification
• Challenges with industrial composting, legislation, and certification systems
• Use cases across beauty, electronics, décor, and future food/pharma applications
• S.Lab’s patented technology enabling decentralized, on‑site mini‑factories
• How eliminating freight reduces cost and emissions
• The importance of circularity, sustainability, and leadership in the packaging industry
• How companies can partner with S.Lab or pilot a mini‑factory

Resources Mentioned:

• S.Lab 
• OK Home Compost certification (TÜV Austria)
• S.Lab’s: Instagram
• S.Lab's: LinkedIn
• Julia Bialetska’s: LinkedIn

Contact:

Listeners can connect with Julia and the S.Lab team through their Website, LinkedIn, or Instagram. Julia welcomes direct outreach via LinkedIn.


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Transcript

0:06

Welcome to Sustainable Packaging with Cory Connors presented by Atlantic Packaging. I'm your host, Cory Connors. In today's episode, I connected with the CEO and co-founder of S-Lab, Julia Bialetka. We talked about their innovative material and a solution that I think will surprise you where they can put a packaging facility at your location on site to eliminate freight. I'd also like to thank our sponsors, 3M, SpecRite, and Lorax EPI. We couldn't do this show without Welcome to Sustainable Packaging with Cory Connors. I'm so excited to have you on today, Julia. Welcome. Thank you so much, Cory. I'm happy to be here, for sure. It's been something we've been trying to put together for a long time. And uh I'm very excited. I think what you do as the CEO and founder of S-Lab, it's an impressive company that you started and you have an impressive background. Let's talk about that. Tell us a little bit more about your background and what motivated you to start this new innovative company. Yeah, I mean, every founder probably has this personal story and why they start something. So ASLAP is really close to my heart and I think to my life mission. But in terms of my background, so I do actually have a master degree in bioecology. So by education, I'm a scientist. And I wouldn't say that that was too much involved into the materials when I was studying, but still, you know, we were covering every kind of part of biology when I was at the university. But the interesting thing that I was a bit disappointed, discouraged when I was studying at the university because science was not practical at all at that time. And it was 15 years ago, almost 20. So it was different at that time, I would say. So after the university, I actually was working in the software industry. So I was building Well, I was managing people who were building software. I was launching products into the market. So basically managing many teams in several locations for many years. So I did learn or I was able to practice all of that. leadership and management skills that you need when you become a founder basically. I think now at ASLAB, I personally combine the best parts of those both worlds from science to being actually a manager and a leader, knowing all of the agile approaches, you know, and being able to pitch and so on. So like so many skills that I actually needed. So that's about me personally, but what actually sparked ASLAP is that I was living the dream life, I would say. I was a digital nomad, as they call those people, where I was able to work remotely and just travel around the world. And I was traveling through Asia and I was living for a couple of months in Bali in Indonesia. And there I went to the beautiful seaside, do a surfing session, but instead of beautiful nature, I saw huge piles of plastics and it was like a huge mountain of plastic. was not that someone just throw it away after the picnic or something like that. And I mean, everyone knows that plastic is bad and no one wants to actually use it. But when I saw this amount with my own eyes, it actually changed my perception, I think. And I'm the type of a person who never thinks, well, this is bad and just, well, dwell on how bad it is. I'm rather let me see if there is anything I can do. And I know it was so naive, kind of, when I look back, like naive to think that I could change something, but it does look like that it's happening step by step. Yeah. So that's, when this moment started that I started to think, we should create a new material that should be both environmentally friendly, could be returned back to the nature. But also I knew that it has to have those properties and this convenience that customers are already used to. So it has to be strong, durable and all of this. So was looking into the market. There were not that many solutions, especially at that time. So that's when basically we started to experiment with my co-founder and try to come up with a new material. So yeah, after that, everything is a story or history right now. Well done. I've had Gary on from, Sungei watch. They are based in Bali and, uh he, he showed me these, uh, they're all they do is clean the rivers there and the ocean. And, it's, it's an absolutely massive issue. And, and they're one of the, one of the most polluted areas in the world for this, this plastic somehow. The way that the ocean moves and the way that the society there handles waste is a real challenge for them. They've grown up just throwing it in the river and thinking that that's all you have to do. But now as the packaging change to single use plastic, they all of a sudden need to say, Don't do that. These aren't banana leaves you're throwing in there. is, this is things that are going to hurt all these fish and, and people and everything. So I'm impressed that you, that you saw that problem and that you're working to fix it. Let's talk about S lab and the material that you, that you make and what it, what it is and what, what it will replace. I always like to show how it looks like so those who are watching us will be able to see it. So this is our material. Very soft, very nice to touch, very natural feel. And it has just two ingredients, nothing else. So one is plant waste. So we take straws of the plants. And then we mix them with mycelium and mycelium is a network of mushroom roots or so-called root system of the mushrooms. So when you imagine the mushrooms, you normally think of a fruit body or a leg in a cup, but then there is actually a wide network of those roots under the soil. So we cultivate mycelium in our own laboratory so we don't hunt for the mushrooms. And then we take mycelium with plant waste, we mix them together. And mycelium starts to create nets and binds every particle of the plant waste together like a spider. And then at the end, we get this strong material that can fully replace polystyrene or styrofoam. So we are talking about replacing not transparent film or not plastic bags, but rather polystyrene or styrofoam, this kind of formed plastic that is like a secondary packaging or so-called secondary packaging in this industry. That's excellent. And it's so necessary for the future of packaging to replace some of these materials that have hundreds of years of life when they're only used for a few months. And uh so I commend you for that. I also wanted to congratulate you. You're the winner of an EIT Women in Leadership Award. Congratulations. Can you talk about that and what it means to you to be a oh a female leader. Oh, yeah, I mean, there's so many layers into that being a leader, being a female, then being in a sustainable area industry. So, I mean, I say that this leadership award is like my own Nobel Prize, because as long as I remember myself, I always wanted to be a And even at that age when you don't really understand what does it mean to be a leader, I just knew that if you really or my mission is to kind of make some changes and see the better society. So you have to lead this change if you want to see. So I think this is a real recognition for me that I'm for me personally that I'm doing what I'm supposed to do. That's this is my right place and that here I'm actually fulfilling my mission and I feel fully fulfilled. um And then of course it This is the recognition also of the whole team and all effort, because you cannot be a leader without a team. So obviously, this is a recognition for my team who also has, who believes in me, who trusts me, who follows my lead. And then I think lastly, this is also a recognition for the cause because I don't often see that packaging, sustainable packaging and overall circularity is recognized. I mean, it is recognized, but not as much. And doesn't have that hype as some other industries have like AI. But this also kind of shows the support of the society and such a big institution as European Innovation Council. They recognize us, myself and the contribution to the community that we Wow. It's big. That's a big, big deal. And I think a really important message. I agree with you that sustainability and packaging isn't as hyped up as some of these other alternatives, know, alternative energies and things like that. AI, which is all these things are necessary and part of the future of sustainable packaging, I think. But yeah, well said and really important to, to focus on the future here. and how this material will be used. I wanted to talk about compostable and biodegradable packaging has kind of come under fire recently uh because like in California, they're saying, well, it's not approved and it might actually be banned as part of this, these new laws coming up, extended producer responsibility laws. Can you talk us through that and how, you and your team are, kind of preparing for that? Yeah, I mean, to be honest, I think that it's bad and good news at the same time. know, good news is that we are actually recognizing that, that there are some alternatives, they might not be as good as we want them to be. And that's good that we recognize that. uh there is industrial composting and home composting and industrial composting does require, well, tankers, high pressure, high temperature, and it does lead to CO2 emissions and it's not necessarily always the best solution. So I really like that we are looking into this and that society is actually asking this question, is this really compostable? Is this the claim? Because, know, when you think of, we don't want to mix those that Compostability doesn't mean that you can throw it anywhere, but industrial composting doesn't really mean that at all. So, well, in our case, actually, we have some good news to share that we obtained a certificate that is called Oak Home Compost from Tew Austria. This is the entity that provides the certification and this... Thank you so much, Yet. Oh my, it was a long and expensive project for sure. So we did... go through all of the tests and this two Austria certification that is called all home composed does certify that our packaging can actually be thrown really anywhere. mean, if you have your own home composed, it can go into that bean, organic bean or whatever it is called in your country. I think there are different names for this in different cities and different countries. So if you have that, can safely throw away our material into that bin or into that channel, I would say. But then it does also mean that it can be thrown really anywhere because if you throw it in the nature, will compost there as well. So that's how, well, we were not really anticipating this kind of conversations that are happening that you mentioned. because we already made our own tests, you know, we did all of the... simple tests as throw it into our garden and then we see how it decomposes and so on. But we also wanted to have this kind of label that would really like give this secure or like feeling that it is secure to use our packaging to our customers and then customers of our customers. So I think, yeah, that's what helps us in that sense. Yeah, it certainly was a curve ball for, for many companies and for a lot of us packaging professionals that thought, compostable is great. Why wouldn't we want to do that? And, I had Rhodes Yepsen on from the, think he's the executive director of BPI, the biodegradable packaging Institute. And he's dealing with this every day, uh, to, help fight, to, change the law, to make products like yours totally acceptable everywhere. And I hope he succeeds because I think what you offer is really great and it's an awesome alternative to polymer based packaging materials. So thank you. Well, let's talk about what kinds of products people would use your packaging to package. So we can kind of sell this product to the people listening. Well yeah, that's what I like the most. I mean, our material is quite versatile, so it can be any shape, any size, and we normally say that it can be used in all of the same cases as polystyrene or any other type of the protective packaging. Our material is strong, durable, waterproof, thermally insulating, And as I mentioned, the best part is that after the usage, it can be thrown anywhere. It will just biodegrade in 30 days. So the industries that we work with are mostly beauty, self-care, electronics, devices, decor, any sort of fragile products. We are also looking into food and pharmaceutics in the future, but this is another layer of certification and another lengthy and expensive project. that's what we also want to work with. yeah, as I said, just anywhere where polystyrene would be used, we can apply our product. That's really exciting. And to use it in food would make a lot of sense. Cause, you know, as they get rid of the, egg shells or whatever, you know, whatever the case may be, you can just put it all in the same uh compost bin or yard debris. Yeah. into that for the certification is that, know, that in order to certify our material as food grade, it needs to be classified in their, you know, in their list of the materials. And they don't have uh mycelium or hemp or plant waste that we use in the classification. However, they do have polystyrene plastics and so on. So yeah, it's kind of nonsense a little bit that the natural material cannot or is not yet in their classification. comparing to all of the fossil-based materials that are there and consider it to be safe. It is frustrating, isn't it? That, that, you know, you've got this great solution here. We're ready to offer it to the world. And then there's all these blockades that saying, well, wait, you need our permission. It almost feels like, like you're, you're, you're running up against a wall and saying, Hey, but this is an awesome alternative. Why don't, why don't you adopt this? well, we need you to go through all these hoops. Is that kind of how it feels? exactly. Exactly. Right. Yeah, we are ready. We are here. But then, yeah, we just, and I also understand our customers who cannot 100 % commit to our solution. mean, if I'm talking about food industry or pharmaceutics, they do need to comply with whatever the regulations are. So yeah, even if they are willing to go and if they want to be the sort of early adopters, they still cannot proceed much further. Right. With PPWR and EPR laws coming out, it's, there's a lot of uncertainty. And, uh, I think you're, you're right. It's, it's, it's kind of holding back some innovations that I think, uh, are obviously great. I mean, if, if you're home compostable approved, that's, that seems like a slam dunk. Like we should move forward with that. you know, that's, that's my thought at least. we'll have to talk to the politicians about that. yeah. Thank you. So what do people in the industry need to know about SLAP so that they can come and partner with you? Well, taking aside that we have a great product that we already discussed, that it is a full replacement of polystyrene and it is protective packaging that can be used in several industries. We also have our own technology and I think that's one of our main assets that actually sets us really aside that in order to supply the proper amount of the packaging that customers need, we needed to come up with a technology that would allow us to produce those industrial scale amounts of the material. So we did come up with our own solution or our own technology that we already have three patents for it and we are going to file two more. So it's all in-house development, all technological breakthroughs. And this technology also not just allows us to produce the packaging and sell it to our customers, but we also want to create a decentralized network of the mini factories that would produce this packaging around the world. Because in the packaging industry, especially in the materials like ours, logistics costs and CO2 emissions caused by logistics are actually really high. So that's our also option or our solution how to solve the logistics uh expenses and CO2 emissions. So we are going to have like a mini factory that has the whole production cycle inside of it. This mini factory will be deployed at the customer's premises and that's where the packaging will be produced. So they have supply to their own sustainable packaging at their own facility. Wow, that's brilliant. That makes a lot of sense because I think a lot of the issue with some of these old alternatives is they just take up so much space and then you have to ship them. So it sounds like you're eliminating freight from your packaging. Wow, that's an incredible idea. So you've patented that concept. wow. Geez, that's incredible. I didn't know about that. I think that's a game changer. Well done. we think so as well. Well, taking this chance or this opportunity, I would say that we are open for the early adopters for the mini factories. So if you happen to be a company who is producing products and wants to use sustainable packaging, let's pilot, let's work on the mini factories. We would be happy to introduce this solution. Now that is something I've never heard of before. I think this is, this is a real big deal because this is often been the resistance to something like this is, well it takes up too much space or we have to ship it from Sweden or whatever the case may be. uh Where are you based again? I forgot. um that's our production and most of the team is originally I'm from Ukraine and I think at the moment all of our team members are actually Ukrainians. It's just by coincidence. It was not intentional, but it just happens that we are working in a fully Ukrainian team at the moment. uh I think that's awesome. And that's great to see you thriving and succeeding. Congratulations on that. And what an innovative idea to have the production facility right there. That's just awesome. So anything else you want to tell us before we finish up the show? Well, yeah, would say just that circularity is so important and I know that there are so many challenges in the world at the moment. mean, coming from Ukraine, I did experience them myself, but I actually do think that sustainability, circularity and all of these causes are still important and we still need to be looking for a better world, for a better future, and we should take those things into the consideration. I mean, it starts with just even small steps from your own behavior. And then when you come to your work where you can make a change, and if you are able to contribute in any way to add a circular approach, please do that. Yeah, that's it. And how do people get in touch with you and your team? yeah, I mean, we have all of the social media. So just look for our name as lab in LinkedIn, in Instagram, you can follow me or you can connect with me LinkedIn, just find it by my name, Julia Bialytska. I'm always open to talk and yeah, if you go to our page on LinkedIn, you will be able to see all the team members also don't hesitate to reach out to them. And we also have a website as dash lab.bio. So we'll be happy to hear. I'll put all those links in the show notes so that people can connect with you easily. Thank you so much, Julia. I appreciate you sharing your wisdom. Thank you, Cory, I was happy to be here.