John Brown and his company StenCo are using their scientific background to help rid the food and beverage industry of plastic.

John Brown and his team at Birmingham-based startup StenCo are on a mission: Rid the food and beverage industry of plastic, starting with coffee pods and straws.

Every single year, humans use 300 million tons of plastic. Half of that is from a single use and is completely non-biodegradable. Within the food and beverage industry specifically, humans use 13 billion coffee pods, 150 billion straws, 500 billion cups and 150 billion food containers annually – what Brown calls an environmental crisis.

So Brown is developing patented technology called StenFilm, which is biodegradable and fully food-contact safe in his lab, tucked into Innovation Depot in downtown Birmingham. Brown said the company is looking to license its technology and has several potential clients interested in the food and beverage packaging space; from there it will go to market.

“This is my passion,” Brown said. “There are some really, truly staggering numbers of products that are used for a matter of seconds that last forever because they have no degradation timeline. It’s mindboggling, truly.”

From this passion, StenCo, which stands for “Save the Earth Now Company,” was born. Brown spent 20 years working with biodegradable polymers in the pharmaceutical industry. He thought biodegradable polymers might be the answer to the plastic problem, but they are terrible oxygen barriers – excluding oxygen is the No. 1 criteria to keep food fresh and ensure shelf life.

So, Brown went to the lab. Calling himself “the mad scientist,” in April 2019 Brown got to work in a makeshift lab in his garage, and by that June had acquired his first patent on the technology. The product, called StenFilm, is a laminate that can be applied to any pre-formed material like paper and keeps contents fresh through a gas and water vapor barrier. It is convenient, provides shelf life and is sustainable, Brown said.

“Humans have created this massive problem,” he said. “StenCo is trying to help fix it. This is truly game-changing.”

By the end of 2019 Brown had formed StenCo, moved from his garage into Innovation Depot and started a fundraising round that, thanks to a pool of 100 percent Birmingham-based investors, allowed Brown to protect his intellectual property and leave his job to work full-time for his startup in January 2020. The fundraising round also allowed him to hire two employees to help with operations.

“In Birmingham I’ve found people that are extraordinarily helpful and a very supportive, reliable community that has a lot of willingness to share,” Brown said.

Coffee pods will be StenCo’s first target, which fuel over 30 percent of the coffee market. From there it’s on to straws and other corners of the food and beverage industry, including pizza boxes, potato chip bags and more.

“Everything I’ve done professionally has led me to this,” Brown said. “The potential for an oxygen-excluding, biodegradable barrier film is immense. We’ve only begun to explore the possibilities.”