A former investor and adviser who swapped his high-flying business life to launch a firm specialising in bamboo products has unveiled new sustainable packaging for its goods.
Paris Michailidis founded My Little Panda in 2018, following the passing of both his father and brother to cancer. “I’m not rich,” Paris told Packaging Scotland. “But I’m trying to be rich in the heart, not in the pocket – I think that’s where you become rich.”
The adversity faced by the Greek led to him ploughing his emotion into the plastic pollution problem. “I’m not against plastic; that would make me a hypocrite as I need to use it,” he said, before pointing to his plastic phone. “Not every plastic is bad; we cannot live without it. It’s about how we adapt, manage it, and create products we can reduce plastic in – that’s where we need to concentrate.”
The firm, which has a popular online presence and a store in London’s Trinity Buoy Wharf, offers products such as on-the-go cutlery sets, cooking utensils and health and beauty products – all of which are made entirely of bamboo and contain no added chemicals.
Key to Paris’ continued evolution of the brand has been its switch to packaging made from bamboo, which he describes as a ‘quietly elegant’ solution to the growing problem of excessive amounts of materials being used to pack items. The new packaging, which took eight months to develop, uses bamboo kraft wrapping paper to either tightly wrap products using hemp string or, for larger items, act as an envelope.
The new packs also feature a tag which details the item’s properties and leaves space for a gift note.
“Our new packaging is useful, as it is wrapped in a sustainable and appealing way – so you can hand it over already gift wrapped.”
Further to this is Paris’ understanding of living in a big city such as London – whereby it isn’t always a case of just popping out into the garden to put waste in a recycling box, so keeping the packaging limited and compact means fewer trips down tall residential blocks to bin stores.
“The customers love the new packaging,” he said. “You get the ones who are hardcore sustainability (fans) and they can see the point in it, then you get the ones who just appreciate the packaging for what it is – there’s not tonnes of boxing and there’s also no need for digging your nails in to rip off tape.”
Paris intends to add further bamboo products to his offering. However, he admits this could be tricky. “You have to be careful,” he explained. “Bamboo is round, so how do you make a bamboo plate? You can’t. You’d have to use bamboo skin and then glue it. The potential is there, but it’s limited if you want to stay completely natural – and I do.”
Currently, he has socks made from bamboo cotton and coloured with vegetable dye in the development stage. Key to the design is that they stick together when in the wash, meaning no more lost socks! Attracting customers to sustainable products like this is what he hopes can start to turn the tide on plastic pollution, with Paris being a big believer in allowing people to naturally come round to the idea of tackling plastic waste.
“Passive knowledge is the best way to learn; kids these days are exposed to social media – it’s impossible for a father to compete. YouTube is more exciting than what a father is saying,” Paris said, before telling how his own daughter avoids overly-packaged goods and knits her own clothing. “I never taught my daughter (about plastic waste), she just heard me when I spoke to people about it and she eventually picked up on it. If more people start questioning it, then you will see the government react, as it acts on behalf of the people. Then we won’t need consultations on the banning of single-use plastic – it’ll just happen.”
