From Banana Farm Waste to Award-Winning Paper with Bethelhem Dejene

In this episode, Cory Connors welcomes Bethelhem Dejene to discuss her journey from observing waste at an Ethiopian fruit and vegetable market to founding Zafree Papers, an award-winning startup manufacturing tree-free virgin pulp from banana farm waste. Bethelhem shares how she iterated through multiple business models before discovering the potential of banana fiber, how Zafree partners with converters to supply sustainable packaging materials, and what it meant to become the first African company to win the Sustainable Packaging Summit Innovation Challenge. Resources Mentioned: Zafree Papers   / zafree-papers   Bethelhem Dejene   / bethelhem-dejene-betty-4306a8177   Sustainable Packaging Summit https://www.packagingsummit.earth/eve... AB InBev Sustainability https://www.ab-inbev.com/sustainability Sway https://swaythefuture.com/compostable... Contact: Listeners interested in working with Zafree Papers or learning more about their Series A fundraising round can reach out to Bethelhem Dejene via LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/company/zafr...   / bethelhem-dejene-betty-4306a8177