Wait ... I should eat the label?

In the latest Crbnly Conversations, Shane and Chad explore Ryp Labs groundbreaking technology to curb food waste. Fun fact: The technology involves a unique, plant-based sticker that fights fungal infections, significantly prolonging the shelf life of fruits.Tune in to discover how this simple sticker could revolutionize our approach to food preservation and sustainability.

Useful Resources
Q&A with the CEO of Ryp Labs
Ryp Labs
Tiny Sticker is a Big Food Waste Reducer
Food wastage footprint: Impacts on natural resources
Solving food waste one StixFresh sticker at a time - BioVox
Ryp Labs (Formerly Known As StixFresh) Technology

Find and join the Conversation!
@crbnly on the IG
Crbnly Conversations on YouTube
Tik Tok
Buzzsprout for all the Casts
and X marks the spot

Music and beats mixed by A. Sarr.
Reach out to learn about the skills and beats you need in your life

Transcript

Shane (00:04.048)
All right, welcome back. Welcome to another episode of Carvenly Conversations. Got your two usual characters here. I'm Shane, got my friend Chad here with me.

Chadwick (00:14.39)
Woo-ee!

Shane (00:16.244)
We're excited to bring you a new topic today. But before we dig into that, as always, we just wanna remind everyone, Carbonly Conversations is a podcast where friends examine the intersection of community, lifestyles and consumption in our lives. And we created this in a hope to share our stories and our journeys and curiosity to help motivate actions to lessen our own personal carbon footprints, but also create a platform.

and create a space for listeners and community members to come along with the journey and share their Carbony Journeys as well. So we appreciate if you're out there listening, we appreciate the support. And you can also follow, like, comment on social media platforms, or on Instagram, TikTok, and then you can also check out videos of this episode on YouTube. So.

We always appreciate it and we've made it pretty easy for you to listen to us and keep up to date on new episodes. So literally all you need to do, scroll down to the show notes, click on find and join the conversation. And that'll give you a link to find us on any podcast platform that you may use. So let's get into today's episode. What do we got going on there, Chad?

Chadwick (01:46.334)
Well, Shane, I'm going to use the word flabbergasted because when I came across this article, and I think it like I first read in the Footprint Coalition, the newsletter I get, I was just like, wait a minute, this seems really simple and really cool. And I think part of the reason why it was being covered and has been covered is that this startup just received a large chunk of money in their series A funding, as well as winning like a climate tech prize and being.

getting on all the social medias and the news cycles about it. Long story short about all of that, that's how it came to my attention, our attention, is, and I'm still flabbergasted, it's like, this is really cool. I just didn't even think about this as a solution. The long story short is it's called RIP Labs. I know we were debating RIP Labs, RIP Labs, R-Y-P. I think RIP makes sense. But, I mean.

Shane (02:41.492)
Yeah, makes sense.

Chadwick (02:45.518)
especially when I explain what it's doing. But it's a US company that's collaborates with Professor Patrick Van Dyke and trying to address global food waste. And their process, their solution is developing stickers coded in plant-based antimicrobial formula and when these stickers are applied during packaging or at home.

on the fruit that you have. They'll combat the fungal infections, which more or less extends the shelf life of fruits by several weeks. So if you just stop and think about all the fruit, vegetables that you, Shane, myself, Chad, have ever had to toss, because they just got moldy, gross, fungacy. This is to help prevent that from happening longer than what already is being done.

And it's a plant-based formula, right? So from reading the website and reviews, it seems like you can actually eat the sticker if you wanted to. So, which I don't think they advise you doing, but I think it's that agreeable. So this company, Ripe Labs, aims to reduce food waste at the packaging level and plans to adapt its technology to eco-friendly stickers while exploring broader applications.

Shane (03:50.084)
Oh really? Okay. I didn't even read that part of it. Yeah.

Shane (03:57.926)
Yeah.

Chadwick (04:08.93)
beyond fruits. So I mean, again, I'm just flabbergasted, so I can just put a sticker on, potentially eat it, or help me keep my bananas extra long, or maybe in my wife's case, extra green longer, because I like the borderline brown banana. She likes the borderline green. Maybe some have stickers, some don't. But, you know, Shane, like...

Shane (04:23.334)
Yeah.

Shane (04:26.684)
Oh, do you? Okay.

Shane (04:35.296)
Do you do the, do you do the, where you wrap the, what is it, like foil or something on the stem? Do you do that?

Chadwick (04:42.066)
Yeah, you can do that. Because that's where all the, I forget what that compound comes out and leaches out, and then that helps ripen the fruit. So you'll see, actually at the farmers market on that note, the last three squash we bought all had their stems wrapped with masking tape. And that's why sometimes you put your fruit in brown paper bags, because it kind of keeps that sealed in there.

So many fun facts of this. So no, I don't do that, because I actually like them to get more ripe sooner and then start to get speckled brown freckles. But the ripe labs here, they got a sticker just for that. So, I mean, Shane, like what's the buzz about this? Like, what's this making you feel? What have you been seeing since we've been talking about it?

Shane (05:32.988)
Yeah, I mean it brings to mind like for me, it makes me think of when I go grocery shopping, I hate the little stickers with like the product number on them. Like I usually will take those off right away and then if I go to like self checkout, I'll just search for the fruit, like by the name or whatnot. For whatever reason, I just hate seeing the stickers on there. But this actually has like a...

Chadwick (05:45.39)
Mm-hmm.

Shane (06:02.752)
This is a meaningful sticker, you know what I mean? And now that you're saying it's edible, it reminds me of this candy that we used to eat when I lived in Hawaii. It came wrapped in rice paper and it always blew my mind that I could just eat the packaging that it was in. It's not like it added any extra good flavor or anything like that, but it was just kind of cool to say.

Like, yeah, you can eat it. You can eat the wrapping. But I mean, yeah. And it just makes me think. So like, from what we've read, the sticker, the way it works is it releases a natural compound which slows down the aging process of the fruit. So I guess you could still even with your, well, with what your wife Lauren does, she can still.

Chadwick (06:32.255)
Uh-huh.

Shane (06:58.56)
cover the stem because she likes it to ripen slower. And then this'll just help keep it fresher, longer once it is fully ripened, I guess.

Chadwick (07:02.39)
Mm-hmm.

Chadwick (07:08.134)
Yeah. And I'll update, I think, what you're saying, because the way I understand it is like it doesn't necessarily slow down the ripening process, but it prevents fungus and microbial action happening. So I guess maybe that is the ripening process, like that stuff is making the fruit ripen, but it prevents food from going bad longer.

Shane (07:28.115)
Yeah.

Shane (07:31.624)
which is, which that's a game changer. Cause I would say, I would say, I'd say a hundred percent of the fruit and vegetables I throw away is because it was just there too long and it went bad. So I mean, this is definitely a game changer when it comes to eliminating food waste.

Chadwick (07:42.766)
Mm-hmm.

Chadwick (07:53.166)
I will share this like nothing infuriates me more grocery shopping when I like inspect something Think it's good come home open the carton of strawberries and there's like three moldy ones in there that I just Didn't see like drives me nuts Avocados like I can see mangoes. It's just like And it also I think in some ways like if you're like me I like sometimes like to not buy a lot of groceries But just kind of buy

Shane (08:06.748)
Yep.

Chadwick (08:20.278)
not quite weekly, maybe a little bit more frequently. So, but there's always that hesitation. It's like, do I buy this thing this ripe or not? You know, do I pick through things? And this would kind of give you that grace. So interesting.

Shane (08:22.707)
Yep.

Shane (08:27.698)
Mm-hmm.

Shane (08:35.132)
Yeah, yeah, this is huge.

Shane (08:40.788)
So yeah, I mean, let's see. I know you have more information about the product and may even have like a video for us.

Chadwick (08:50.622)
Yeah, I think let's pivot to the video because I think they do a pretty fun job of explaining how this works. And I gotta share screens. So those of our fam.

watching us on YouTube, for the Carbon Light Conversations, can watch it with us. And those that are just listening to us on your favorite podcast provider, I will read out. Every minute we waste enough food to feed over one million people. If food waste were a country, it would be the third largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world. At Ripe Labs, we're developing solutions to combat global food waste naturally and safely.

We're developing formulations that can be applied to a variety of surfaces, including stickers, to increase the shelf life of fresh produce. So their stickers can keep fruit fresh up to 14 days longer.

Chadwick (09:50.87)
And it's right now showing mangoes last longer with and without the stickers. Works best on berries, avocados, citrus, music that makes me wanna dance. Ooh, proprietary formulations include the same bioactive compounds that plants make to protect themselves. Using nature to help us out. So they've done some pilot studies.

Shane (10:05.55)
Hehehehe

Chadwick (10:18.222)
Look at that, we reduced their losses by 15 to 30%. I think that was like with grocery stores having to toss food before consumers bought it.

Chadwick (10:31.502)
I mean, Ripe Labs will help farmers, distributors, and wholesalers and retailers. Boost revenue and save money. Love it. Join us in the fight against food waste.

Shane (10:47.204)
And to kind of give an explanation of the way it looks, it's literally a sticker, looks like about the same size of this, what I was talking about earlier, the stickers that are already on fruits and vegetables that have the little four digit number for the cashier to type in. So they're about that same size, so.

Chadwick (10:48.086)
this up cool.

Chadwick (10:58.382)
Mm-hmm.

Chadwick (11:04.392)
Yep.

Shane (11:08.788)
And I mean, money talks. So it's going to definitely encourage grocery stores, farmers, you name it, to like invest in this product, to keep their product fresher, less, you know, less turnover on things that they have to throw out. So.

Chadwick (11:27.882)
Yeah, I'll save them money. I keep swirling my head around that thought process of, so if I'm, I'll just say Kroger's, right? And let's pretend 20% of my strawberries I buy I eventually throw out because they go bad before consumers will buy, right? And if I can extend that window that they'll go bad, that means I'll have more strawberries to sell. May not need as many as often.

And it'll be throwing less out. So I think they save some money by possibly not having to buy as many because they're not like planning for all that waste. And they're selling more of the stuff that they have. So, and I mean, like with those stickers, like how often do you have to rotate those things through? Like, I don't know how they, I haven't actually worked at a grocery store, but I imagine like stocking those crates and crates of strawberries.

Shane (12:08.873)
Yeah.

Chadwick (12:28.718)
You kind of like pick through them as you go and see it and try to pick out the bad stuff so it may save a little time there. Anyways that's just Chad musings about the power of stickers.

Shane (12:39.568)
Yeah, I mean, I'm interested to see, we did a quick search and really couldn't find anything to like purchase them right now as a consumer, but hopefully that'll be an option soon to have handy at home to where if the store happens to not get them or your local farmer's market doesn't have them, you can bring them home, stick the sticker on there and.

Chadwick (12:48.158)
Mm-hmm.

Shane (13:08.064)
keep your food fresher for a little bit longer. So.

Chadwick (13:12.034)
Yeah, definitely. Like I just, that other fact, like food waste produces enough greenhouse gases that it's like, I think somewhere between US and China.

Shane (13:20.22)
Yep, that's crazy.

Crazy.

Chadwick (13:26.038)
Yep, compost your food, reuse those containers. I know we've had multiple carbon lay hits, carbon lay facts, carbon lay ideas around those, but that all goes with these stickers.

Shane (13:30.493)
Yep.

Shane (13:37.876)
Yeah, or share it. Anyone listening, you know, hop on our Instagram, share your ideas. How do you keep your fruits and vegetables longer? I know every everyone has their own different methods. You know what I mean? So like, let's share those ideas because not everyone will have access to these stickers, but there are other things that we can do in our household to make things last a little bit longer. So.

Chadwick (13:51.988)
Mm-hmm.

Chadwick (14:05.326)
Definitely. Well, I'm still flabbergasted that this technology exists or, and now that we've learned more, like why did it take this?

Shane (14:17.289)
That too. But thanks to Ripe Labs. It's coming folks.

Chadwick (14:22.454)
coming. They got some funding, they're around, they're winning awards and it's just so simple. It was so easy to explain.

Shane (14:30.82)
Yeah, yeah, and it's a simple product to use so Keep an eye out for it. Do your Google searches? Ask your local grocery store. Are they getting this these stickers? Maybe that'll even help, you know so Yeah, pull the if you see the guy stocking Apples, you know pulling to the side ask him. Hey, have you heard about these tell your boss about these?

Chadwick (14:44.538)
Yeah, let's get Krueger's on the case.

be everywhere.

Chadwick (14:54.637)
Yeah

Shane (14:59.616)
Thanks for sharing that one.

Chadwick (14:59.842)
Well, Shane, yeah, I mean, we're here to bring that power of carbon-li-fax, so have a great night. Talk to you soon.

Shane (15:09.445)
Adios.