Living peacefully in the Byron Bay Hinterland with her husband and five children, Sherri Adams started on a mission to discover an environmentally friendly alternative to plastic cling wrap that could be used in the kitchen and keep her children’s school lunches fresh and free from waste.
Her ingenious solution was Honeybee Wraps: an organic, reusable and sustainable wrap made from 100% organic cotton, local beeswax, jojoba oil and tree resin.
Sherrie makes each wrap by hand in her small studio that sits quaintly amidst her family’s homegrown vegetable garden and overlooks her neighbouring grazing horses and the picturesque countryside.
Originally setting up a stall at the local markets, her children keen sales clerks or enthusiastic buskers, Sherri now distributes her wraps to over 65 stockists around Australia and also juggles an online store, keeping the Sunday markets a place for her to still connect with customers and tourists who take great interest in her brightly coloured eco-wares.
Although the small business, her five energetic children and her husband’s Italian baking business keeps Sherri on her toes, her goal is to spread Honeybee Wraps far and wide, meaning a move to a new, larger studio is the next necessary step. With this goal in mind, Sherri has started a crowd-funding campaign, hoping that with the support of her local community and beyond, she can take her business to the next level, allowing her to manufacture larger quantities of wraps and also use her own organically certified fabric rather than outsourcing from North America.
Since the very beginning of Honeybee Wraps, Sherri has been met with enthusiastic and positive feedback from customers who not only love the durability and versatility of the wraps, but are also pleased and proud to support the movement towards waste-free living and lessening their environmental footprint. Australians alone deposit one million tones of plastic waste into land fill every single year. Plastic can take over a thousand years to begin to break down and it is estimated that at least 10% of our plastic waste ends up in our oceans. Even in landfill, the chemicals from the plastic can leach into the soil and water systems, wreaking havoc on our natural ecosystems.
Not only is plastic cling wrap poisonous for our environment, it has also been proven to be detrimental to our health. Plastic wrap is mostly made from polyvinylidene chloride (PVDC) or polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Both PVDC and PVC plastics are fairly rigid, so manufacturers need to add softening chemicals called phthalates, which are known to cause hormonal disruption and developmental issues.
By comparison, Honeybee Wraps are made from 100% organic cotton, natural local beeswax, jojoba oil and natural tree resin. Beeswax has been used for thousands of years and has a diverse array of practical and medicinal uses. Beeswax by its very nature is antifungal and antibacterial. It can be heated and re-used a number of times and will never spoil nor grow mouldy. Both the Jojoba oil and the natural tree resin are non-toxic and also contain antifungal properties. These three ingredients combine to create the perfect blend to stiffen and seal the cotton wraps, resulting in a flexible, malleable product that can be used to wrap food and keep it fresher and safer for longer.
Honeybee Wraps are ideal for storing fresh fruit and vegetables, herbs, bread, cheese, for wrapping leftover meals and for covering soaking seeds, rising bread or fermented foods. The wraps are designed to fit over crockery and food items perfectly and will retain their shape as the beeswax naturally hardens, soften again for reuse simply from the heat of your hands. With the right care, the wraps will keep for up to a year and can then go straight back to the earth and be easily composted, meaning no waste, no landfill, no chemical leakage and no negative environmental impact!
At this period of time in human existence, now more than ever before, we need to support projects, businesses and campaigns that are offering an alterative to waste and pollution. Through every step of production, Honeybee Wraps work to support organic farming, nurture local beekeeping, reduce landfill, combat waste, lessen pollution and offer a way to keep food safe, fresh and healthy.
To support Sherri and her campaign to take Honeybee Wraps to the next level, visit her IndieGogo Campaign Page.
To buy the wraps online or enquire about wholesale opportunities, go to: www.honeybeewrap.com.au