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National | Health

LilyBee Wraps: An eco-friendly alternative

Hawke’s Bay couple Stacia Jensen and Miko Hayashi have developed eco-friendly reusable beeswax wraps called LilyBee Wraps. This keeps food fresh in your child’s lunch box and is an alternative solution to reducing plastic packaging.

Lily Wraps can be used to pack cut fruit, vegetables and sandwiches, create snack bags and cover bowls and is made with 100% cotton wrap and a mixture of locally sauced beeswax, tree resin, and coconut oil.

Hayashi says, “The beeswax blend has natural anti-bacterial properties and the cotton cloth allows the food to breathe, rather than sweat.”

Jensen says these reusable wraps can save parents money in the long run, “Being a single-use item, the costs of plastic packaging can be quite high especially when you’re using them daily in school lunches. Once you switch to our wraps it’s one less thing on the shopping list, and not to mention in the landfill as the wraps are reusable for up to a year and can then be thrown into the compost.”

The first made the wraps at home in an attempt to reduce plastic in their lives.

Hayashi says, “We initially gave them away to friends and family to help contribute to their plastic-saving efforts and they suggested we start a market stall. From day one news about our wraps spread through word of mouth and we had people coming from all over town to buy them."

In 2017 the couple launched an online store as they couldn’t keep up with the market demand. Since it's inception, they have sold to over 10,000 people nationally and internationally and have a following of 15,000 on Facebook.

“We get letters and emails from parents saying how their children love finding their lunches wrapped in our pretty designs. One of my favorite videos is of a toddler wrapping half an avocado in our wrap which a parent sent us to show how easy they were to use”, says Jensen.

Hayashi says they are grateful to be able to do what they love, as well as helping others find an eco-friendly solution.

“It’s the small, achievable changes in our everyday habits that change the world.”

LilyBee Wraps are available for purchase online at lilybeewrap.com

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