Sustainable shrink wrap innovator challenges Minnesota law forcing him to fund competitors

Saint Paul, Minnesota; September 29, 2026: Minnesota says it wants less plastic waste. But when Simon Milne developed a boat wrap designed to biodegrade in landfills, state law put his competitors in charge of whether and how he can sell it. A lawsuit filed today by Milne’s company, bioaqualife, challenges Minnesota’s boat wrap law, which forces the company to join and fund a private regulatory organization controlled by manufacturers of the conventional plastic wrap bioaqualife is trying to replace.

“Government cannot let dominant companies regulate the innovators trying to compete with them,” said Brandon Beyer, an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation. “Minnesota’s law punishes bioaqualife for offering a better environmental solution simply because it does not fit the State’s one-size-fits-all recycling mandate. Entrepreneurs deserve the freedom to solve problems creatively without being forced to answer to their rivals.”

Simon Milne founded bioaqualife after seeing conventional plastic boat wrap pile up in landfills season after season. His company developed bioWrap, a durable shrink wrap that matches traditional plastic performance but naturally biodegrades within a few years.

Minnesota’s 2024 law requires boat wrap producers to join and finance the Commercial and Industrial Flexible Film Recycling Organization (CIFFRO). CIFFRO is governed by bioaqualife’s largest commercial competitors, yet the statute grants the private entity sweeping power to write statewide rules, set collection quotas, and levy producer fees. It measures sustainability through only one metric: mechanical recycling.

The lawsuit challenges Minnesota’s delegation of regulatory power to a private competitor cartel, its protectionist trade barriers, and its compelled association and speech requirements. A victory will protect bioaqualife and other innovators from being forced to subsidize and answer to the very businesses they compete against.

Pacific Legal Foundation represents bioaqualife free of charge. The case is Groundtoair Aviation Services Inc., d/b/a bioaqualife v. Katrina Kessler, et al.