Cool Wool ehf was established in 2017 by Anna María Pétursdóttir to created sustainable, cost-efficient packaging solutions for the fish industry.  Its initial focus lies on the development of eco-friendly thermal boxes with a low carbon footprint.

To create our first sustainable packaging and understand market needs, Cool Wool has worked closely with the largest salmon plants in Iceland to understand their packaging needs in the export of fresh fish.  We have also partnered with Icelandic Textile Industry, which buys the wool directly from the farmers in Iceland and processes it to yarn, and also with transporters i.e. Eimskip and Iceland Cargo, to assess their cooling packaging needs during transport, as ambient temperature along the journey can have a direct impact on temperature stability within the box.

Cool Wool box will be produced following a zero-waste circular economy production model, as the cardboard is recyclable, and the wool layers are reusable and sourced from either discarded wool form the farm sector or regenerated wool from the textile industry.

This project has received a grant from Technology Research Institute of Iceland and European Commisson H2020  for continuing research and development.

Today we face great environmental pollution challenges.  Of the most devastating elements of this pollution is that plastics takes thousands of years to decay. Consequently the toxins from plastics have entered the food chain, threatening human health.   Replacing natural resources for plastic is important because environmental pollution due to plastic use is a pressing problem today.  Cool Wool believes that sustainable economic growth is an important factor for the prosperity of the world’s population. There is a need to build future for next generations and rethink how we can do better and use natural resources instead of plastic. Private companies play an important role in transforming choice of those who rely on thermal packaging by challenging the traditional technology that relies on Styrofoam.  Cool Wool wants to lead the way towards a more sustainable future by their new product ,,a sustainable thermal packaging”.

Around 350 millions tones of plastic material are produced each year.  The United Environment Programme (UNEP) is urging everyone to eliminate the use of microplastics and stop excessive, wasteful use of singel-use palstic.  But despite our best efforts, globally only 18 precent of plastic is recycled.   Different types of plastic require different recycling processing and some plastic material is very hard to recyle.  Styrofoam is hard to recycle as it picks up a lot of dirt and other contaminants during the handling process, and often just ends up as landfill.    Continued growth of product that rely on cold chain packaging is forth seen.  That is why there is a need to educate the market on sustainable thermal packaging.

Development