Can seaweed help solve the world's plastic crisis?

 

After you finish your fries, eat the ketchup packet. When you add your pasta to boiling water, toss the bag into the pot, too.

If these instructions sound confusing to you, it's only because you haven't yet heard of Notpla, a London-based startup company that is designing a seaweed-based replacement for single-use plastic packaging. Founded in 2014, the company closed a £10 million ($13.5 million) Series A financing round last month, led by the VC firm Horizons Ventures, to scale and further develop its product line.

Notpla's products are meant to be composted or dissolved after use -- though some are edible, too. Current offerings include sachets for condiments, water and even alcohol; a film wrap for products in your pantry or bathroom, like coffee or toilet paper; and takeaway boxes that replace plastic-based coating with seaweed lining to make them fully biodegradable.

The Ooho can replace condiment packets and other single-serve liquids, while the seaweed-lined takeaway boxes are fully biodegradable.

Notpla design director Karlijn Sibbel says they look to nature as inspiration "for the ideal packaging," like the skin on a fruit. "A peel will eventually be used (as nutrients) by nature, and disappear and become a part of the cycle," she said.

The approach feels especially relevant as the world is coming to terms with the effects of decades of unfettered plastic production. According to the UN, 300 million tonnes (331 million tons) of plastic waste are produced globally each year, and out of the estimated 8.3 billion tonnes (9.15 billion tons) of plastic produced since the early 1950s, about 60% has been landfilled or discarded outdoors. Microplastics -- tiny particles that are often the result of larger plastics breaking down -- pollute the ocean, the air and our bodies.

Rethinking plastic

Notpla's founders, Rodrigo García González and Pierre Paslie, initially looked to seaweed as the solution to the world's plastic problem because it is abundant, grows quickly, doesn't compete with land crops, and sequesters carbon from the air, Sibbel explained.

There are also many different seaweed species, and it can be harvested or farmed. (Notpla uses farmed plants.)

Since its founding, the startup has been awarded grants from the British government agency Innovate UK and the circular economy nonprofit Ellen MacArthur Foundation for its first product, the Ooho sachet, which holds single servings of liquids. The new financing round will go toward ramping up the production of the Ooho and Notpla coating, while further developing their new seaweed paper and multipurpose film wrap.

The paper is made from the fibers left over from creating other Notpla products and can be used to make items like gift wrap or clothes tags, while the film wrap can hold most dry goods or wet goods with low water content.