A company that tries to buy germs is more than likely to raise a couple of red flags. That is what Teri Teo, co-founder and operations director of Winrigo Pte Ltd, found out when he tried to procure a strain of germs in order to test the biodegradability of his company’s product.
Winrigo, one of Singapore’s pioneering companies in green-tech plastics recycling, prides itself on products that are eco-friendly, recycled, and locally produced. Its business model is recycling-centric. Noticing that good, usable plastic was being thrown away while he was working for plastic resin suppliers 15 years ago, Mr Teo stumbled upon the idea that these plastics could potentially be a business opportunity if they were recycled and resold. Thus, Winrigo – a play on the company’s vision of ‘We win your trust and grow together’ – was founded in 2001, with its co-founder, Lily Toh, taking up financial and management responsibilities.
To date, Winrigo has expanded from recycling plastics to creating and manufacturing eco-products, which companies such as Prima and NParks have contracted them to do, as well as branding their own line of eco-cutlery.
But success did not happen overnight. Winrigo launched its R3plas Oxo-biodegradable plastic only in 2007, six years after it was first set up. Winrigo’s core focus in its fledgling years, from 2001 to 2007, was on ‘research’, Mr Teo said.
It took time and money – lots of it – to perfect the recycled plastic into a usable, marketable product. During this time, Mr Teo and Ms Toh both worked from home, and ran the company using their savings.
Winrigo’s green focus runs the gamut from biodegradable disposable cutlery, to reusable lunch boxes, tumblers and plates, to roof gardens.
To drive home its environmental bent, Winrigo has incorporated the three Rs of environmentalism that everyone is so familiar with – reduce, reuse, recycle – into their branding. The result is the R3plas line of recycled plastic products, which Winrigo has trade-marked and registered.
‘We believe we can divert plastic waste in Singapore to more useful means,’ Mr Teo said. Recycling is not just a side concern for Winrigo; rather, it is a valid and profitable business plan.
Because of the initial lack of financial support, Mr Teo and Ms Toh had to rely on their savings. Their first breakthrough came only in 2007, when they were recognised by NParks. Since then, Winrigo has provided the biodegradable plastic dog poo bags that is distributed in the Botanic Gardens.
In 2008, they were also contracted by Nanyang Opticals to use recycled plastics make spectacle frames and casings. These are currently being retailed at all Nanyang Optical outlets. Any actual commercial activity came only in 2007, and sales of its own R3Plas products started only in 2009, said Mr Teo.
This endorsement only served to spur the company. The profits of ‘about $50,000 to $60,000’, according to Mr Teo, was channelled into further research, such as the biodegradable composites used by Prima.
Despite 2007 being a recession year, and 2009 a year that was coping with the backlash of the 2008 financial crisis, Winrigo actually managed to attain growth in the 2007-09 period.
Research breakthrough
‘That was when our research hit a breakthrough, and when our technology was shown to the public as being very workable. The increase in publicity actually allowed us to expand. So instead of being in a crisis, we started to invest in factories,’ Mr Teo said with a laugh.
Winrigo’s creative new technology also caught the eye of various environmental initiatives, and it bagged a number of awards in the process, such as the President’s Design Award in 2009 and the Singapore Environmental Achievement Award in 2010.
‘We are a small company and we had to prove that our technology works,’ Mr Teo said. ‘These awards helped to show our credibility.’
Winrigo is still growing, with a staff of 14 and turnover of about $1 million.
And research is what Mr Teo firmly believes will ultimately drive the company to succeed. ‘We believe in R&D to make ourselves more internationally recognised,’ Mr Teo said. ‘Our customers also have greater trust in us because we spend a lot in researching for their product.’
Which was why it was necessary to obtain germs, said Mr Teo. The company needed to do a germ test on its recycled material to demonstrate its durability and hardiness. It ultimately managed to do so with repeated approaches to Nanyang Technological University (NTU), which helped it to procure the germs as well as provide the relevant laboratory equipment.
Besides recycling plastic, Winrigo saw potential in recycling the by-products of natural food products, such as wheat or coconuts.
‘We believed that an alternative technology can put these waste products to good use. That’s when we decided to do collaborative research in 2009 with SimTech, Singapore Polytechnic and NTU to develop ‘husk technology’, said Mr Teo.
Prima’s wheat husks, for instance, used to be milled for animal feed. With Winrigo’s technology, however, these husks are now recycled in a factory in Malaysia, and incorporated into the cutlery that Prima Deli offers, such as the knives that come with cakes. The recycled husks are mixed with polymer resins, and the end-result is biodegradable plastic cutlery that is said to be stronger and more eco-friendly.
Winrigo has also incorporated recycled husks into its own lines of eco-cutlery, such as tumblers. Open one up and take a sniff – the recycled wheat husk which is used to form the container gives it a very organic smell that reminds one of cornflakes.
This blend of outsourcing its research to clients, along with expanding its own line of products, puts Winrigo in a comfortable position in the future. The company intends to put its experience to good use, by reaching out at a regional, even international, level.
‘We can help a lot of Singaporean companies go green, as well as expand their products overseas,’ said Mr Teo.
