(Credit: @amabelleth)

In our humble view, there is only one way the Halal Snack Pack can be improved.

“Hang on … the what?”

If this was your response, you may be the only Aussie who hasn’t heard of this mouth-watering kebab shop craze!

The Halal Snack Pack is one of the country’s great viral social media successes of 2016. Five Sydney mates triggered Halal Snack Pack (HSP) fever when they started a closed Facebook group for people passionate about layers of hot chips, kebab meat, cheese and sauce served mainly in a Styrofoam container.

At last count, the group has over 165,000 members, which is like filling up Sydney’s Olympic Park – twice. Imagine two Sydney Olympic Parks full of people, brought together by a mutual love of hot chips smothered in doner kebab meat and creamy sauces!

Right now, it’s pretty much impossible to walk past a kebab shop without seeing people walking out of the door with a HSP.

At WholesalePak, we’re right behind this Aussie-Meets-Multicultural HSP craze – except for just one thing…

That Styrofoam container.

In fact, WholesalePak owner Joel Kahn has a mission.

Joel and WholesalePak are passionate about making packaging sustainable and eco-friendly, which is something Styrofoam is definitely not.

STYROFOAM – IT’S BAD

(Credit: @forksake)

The iconic HSP container is the disposable ‘clam-shell’ – made from an air-expanded, and therefore super-light, polystyrene.

If you get the feeling that Styrofoam is basically bad, you’d be right. The building block is called ‘styrene’, and exposure to this is bad for your skin, eyes, respiratory and nervous systems, kidneys – the list goes on.

Not only that, polystyrene production is heavily polluting, and is also one of the world’s biggest sources of hazardous liquid and solid waste. It’s also made with petroleum – not only heavily-polluting but also non-renewable and unsustainable. Plastics like polystyrene, which break up, find their way into the waterways, only to choke animals and kill sea-life, make up a huge percentage of all landfills, mainly because they’re hard and expensive to recycle.

In other words, Styrofoam is bad. This is where Joel’s mission comes in.

WHOLESALEPAK PUSHES FOR THE NEXT SUPER-CRAZE

WholesalePak supply containers that are made from managed plantation-sourced pulp, or INGEO plastic, which is 100% renewable, eco-friendly, compostable and sustainable.

So Joel hopes the next craze is the ‘SHSP’ – the Sustainable Halal Snack Pack. Australians are increasingly passionate about ensuring our world, and our business practices, are passed on to our children and grandchildren in better shape.

If Joel contributes to the process of creating a happy, kebab-shop customer walking out into a cleaner, better, world with a delicious SHSP in their hands, his Halal Snack Pack mission will be complete.

If you want to help spread the word about the need for new and improved super-crazes like the SHSP, don’t be shy to get on board and add a comment.