Founder Profile: Future Post
Jerome Wenzlick - New Zealand
What Does Your Company Do?
“Future Post has solved one of the hardest problems in the global plastics crisis - what to do with mixed, low-value waste plastic that no one else can economically use. We take plastic that is typically destined for landfill or export and convert it into high-performance fencing and landscaping products.
This isn’t downcycling - it’s transformation into a premium, long-life material that outperforms timber in durability, strength, and whole-of-life cost. The result is a closed-loop, fully recyclable product that doesn’t rot, leach, or fail in harsh environments.
It’s already trusted across agriculture, infrastructure, and landscaping and it turns an environmental liability into a profitable, scalable asset.”
What Inspired You To Start It?
“Future Post started in a paddock with a real-world problem no one had solved. While fencing on an old dump site, traditional timber posts were failing - literally breaking against buried plastic waste.
That moment exposed two broken systems at once: materials that couldn’t perform, and plastic that had no viable end use. What followed wasn’t a product tweak - it was building an entirely new solution from scratch. We developed our own processing system and machinery to take certain plastic streams and turn them into something structurally reliable.
That required many months of trial, failure, and iteration, because there was no existing blueprint to follow. The result is a proprietary manufacturing capability that converts waste no one wants into something the market actively demands.”
What Is One Win (big or small) You’re Celebrating Now?
“We’ve moved from proving a concept to proving a market, and that’s a critical shift. Future Post products are now widely accepted as a genuine alternative to timber, with growing demand across multiple sectors and geographies. What’s particularly powerful is that new applications are increasingly being driven by customers themselves.
This has extended our reach into several other markets e.g. we have current trials with customers in dunnage, cool store barriers and truck decking. We’re also demonstrating relevance beyond New Zealand, especially in environments where durability matters most, including coastal and Pacific regions. And importantly, we’ve already processed nearly 10,000 tonnes of plastic waste that would otherwise have had no viable pathway.
That’s proof of execution at scale.”
What Is One Lesson You Wish You Learned Earlier?
“That solving a problem no one else has solved means you also have to bring the market with you. When you’re creating something genuinely new (both the product and the process) adoption doesn’t happen overnight. The breakthrough isn’t just technical, it’s behavioural.
Once people see the product performing in the field, the shift happens quickly but getting to that point requires persistence, education, and resilience. The upside is that once adoption starts, it accelerates because the alternatives don’t stack up.”
How Do You Keep Your Energy Up On Tough Days?
“When you’re building something from scratch, challenges are constant - but so is the clarity of purpose. That creates a different level of motivation.
Seeing the product in use, watching customers choose it over traditional materials, and knowing that every unit represents waste diverted and value created keeps momentum strong.
And ultimately, we’re building something much bigger than a product line. We’re building a scalable solution to a global waste problem. That tends to put tough days in perspective.”
Learn More
Who: Q&A with Jerome Wenzlick of Future Post
HQ: New Zealand
Web: futurepost.co.nz
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