How Drumstick came about?
Drumstick Designs began with designing eco friendly products and making home solutions like socket covers and tile stickers and some furniture items. Drumstick Designs founder Sherine Abdel Rassoul gives us an update on how Drumstick packaging is changing our habits and saving mother nature.
In September 2018 with the inescapable plastic waste problem and the growing crisis of climate change, “We really felt a little bit… silly…. working in just home product design”, says Sherine. The company took a firm step in shifting the line of work from decor and home solutions to environmental and eco friendly solutions. The first product was the Seoudi Supermarket reusable shopping bag. Prior to this project, Sherine did not really know the people behind the supermarket chain Seoudi, “It was just a supermarket that we liked”, she says.
Eventually, Sherine and her team were able to contact the decision maker there and were positively surprised at his eagerness to help and to go green. “They were incredibly supportive and generous”, recalls Sherine. Worthy of note, neither Drumstick nor Seoudi made any profit from the sale of this bag; it was all done in an effort to encourage shoppers to avoid using plastic bags to save mother nature and go green.
Current and upcoming productions
Drumstick Design is currently making bags for Seoudi, Metro Supermarket, Tupperware, ESMA, and a number of other clients in and out of the FMCG industry. Its next project following the eco friendly Seoudi reusable shopping bags was the Plastic Free Freska campaign.
Drumstick Designs has also developed a beeswax wrap in collaboration with Marwa El Ansary (Eco-warrior) who conceptualized the idea, and Nathalie Farag (Egypsy) who produced it. Geared more towards the consumer, the eco friendly beeswax wrap is a cotton cloth treated with high grade beeswax, organic jojoba oil, and mastic. This concoction makes the fabric act like a stiff and sticky plastic cover that you use instead of disposable shrink wrap. “This invention was actually used by the ancient Egyptians thousands of years ago! We just brought it back home”, says Sherine.
It is naturally anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, and much healthier as it doesn’t leak any toxic chemicals into your food like plastic does. It can be used to wrap any food except raw meat, so can be used it to wrap a sandwich, or anything you would wrap with. Caring for the beeswax wrap is also quite simple, just rinse, hang, and repeat. However, Sherine reminds us, “You need to be cautious not to put it in the microwave or cover very hot food with it because it’s wax, and wax melts”.
The latest project by Drumstick Designs is the paper pulp plate. “Since July of last year we have been trying to put together a sustainable and affordable alternative to Styrofoam plates, which are non-recyclable, non bio-degradable, very toxic, and very flimsy”, says Sherine.
The Drumstick team has finally succeeded in creating a local, affordable, and 100% biodegradable alternative to Styrofoam plates! The plates come in three sizes, half kilo and full kilo carriers, and a clam shell box for takeaway food. They look good, and actually increase the shelf-life of the fruit, and they’re much healthier to the fruit and our bodies.
Drumstick is always striving to go green and to introduce workable, sustainable alternatives on the B2B and B2C level. “Affordable, scalable, and local eco-solutions that can shift the status-quo”, concludes Sherine. .
Also check out Shaghra: An Idea Bearing Fruit