Noticing Notpla? Seaweed pack pioneer disrupts conventional plastics with product expansions

11 Feb 2022 --- Notpla is expanding its portfolio of seaweed-based, plastic-free packaging solutions, disrupting traditional plastic solutions in foodservice. This week, the company launched Notpla Paper, made with 30% seaweed by-product. 

The paper is created in collaboration with Canopy, a solutions-driven environmental NGO, dedicated to protecting forests, species, and climate.

As one of the fastest-growing organisms on the planet, seaweed does not require freshwater or fertilizer to grow nor require land, meaning it does not compete with food crop resources.

PackagingInsights sits down with Pierre Paslier, founder and co-CEO of Notpla. “Our prime focus is on applications that are consumed quickly on-the-go because that usually leads to a higher risk of packaging entering the environment.”

“There is a lot of activity in the D2C space, where supply chains are shortened and product formats can be more innovative. We’re lucky to work with both large FMCG groups and small startups.”

Next to the company’s first product, “Ohoo,” an edible and biodegradable packaging solution, there are also sauce sachets, pipettes and coating for takeaway boxes. These food containers were developed and launched in cooperation with the online food ordering company Just Eat in the UK and the Netherlands. The takeaway boxes are coated without plastic, combining seaweed and cardboard for biodegradability.

The Heinz tomato ketchup sachet looks like a little tomato and naturally composts like one too. All natural challenges 
Paslier explains the main challenges the company has been facing are rooted in the products’ purity. More specifically, Notpla’s packaging fully consists of natural materials, which are not as extensively researched as conventional plastics. 

Furthermore, due to their biodegradability, seaweed-based packaging is not as indestructible as traditional plastic products. Thus, Notpla’s industrialization procedure is complex, as many trials are needed to ensure durability, says Paslier. 

Brands and partnerships 
Currently, Notpla’s biggest partnerships are in the foodservice sector. Paslier stresses the current focus is on helping companies to reduce their single-use plastic in the food-serving industry. 

Most recently, Notpla has partnered with Heinz to package tomato ketchup with its seaweed sachet. The sachet looks like a little tomato and naturally composts like one too. 

Paslier explains the sachet itself is 100% natural, biodegradable, home-compostable and vegan. “They can be disposed of (like fruit peel) in a kitchen food waste bin or home-compost after use, disappearing in as little as four to six weeks. You could even eat it.”

Meanwhile, the ketchup sachets are easy to use since consumers just have to “nip a corner and squeeze.” The sachets are now being trialed in London restaurants as part of a joint collaboration between Heinz and Notpla to trial and scale-up an environmentally sustainable sachet solution for the foodservice industry.

Besides Heinz, Notpla also has a partnership with the home-food delivery company Just Eat. 

“Just Eat Takeaway.com (JET) has been a key partner of Notpla for the past years. After three years of R&D, we are now proud to supply JET with Notpla coated takeaway boxes, available in the UK and the Netherlands,” says Paslier.

“Without Just Eat, it would have been much harder to convince industrial partners to engage with a startup of our scale. We’re excited to show the impact that can be had in this industry and prove natural materials are more than capable of replacing plastic for these applications.”Just Eat has been a key partner of Notpla in its development stage.

Introducing Notpla Paper
Earlier this week, Notpla announced the initiation of Notpla Paper, following a £10 million (US$13.6) series A financing round. The new project plans on harnessing the power of seaweed to replace single-use plastics – one of the leading causes of environmental pollution across the globe. 

The paperweights cover a wide range of applications from invitations and envelopes to boxes and bags, initially seeing interest from the cosmetics and fashion industry highlighting the natural texture and distinctive look.

Currently, 70% of Notpla’s paper is a mix of recycled and Forest Stewardship Council certified pulp. “Our objective is to achieve 50% [seaweed] inclusion this year and a wood-free paper using other alternatives,” explains Paslier.

When asked about food-grade packaging potential, Paslier says Notpla has done migration tests that came back positive for wrapping dry food goods. “It is not currently food-grade certified but we expect to achieve it in the following year to be able to merge this innovation with our coating technology.”

Through this project, Notpla is committed to forest protection globally through Canopy’s Pack4Good initiative by pioneering seaweed as a next-generation solution for paper production. Notpla pledges to play a leadership role in scaling alternative pulp inputs. 

In other developments, Paslier explains the search for partnerships is now expanding to the cosmetics and sports industries. However, the co-CEO did not want to give further insights just yet. 

Industrialization challenges
Paslier explains that Notpla is currently still working on ironing out industrialization challenges. “We still face issues matching performances at pilot scale versus producing continuously on larger industrial lines. There is no shortage of companies convinced of the urgency to act,” he says.

Notpla Paper is made with 30% seaweed by-product.“Until we are at scale, we aren’t as cost-competitive but packaging is typically a small portion of the cost structure of products. Consumers are very conscious about differentiated packaging offering so the return on investment is easy to track, especially considering typical spend on brand and marketing.”

Consumer communication
Meanwhile, Paslier stresses it is important to communicate Notpla’s plastic-free status to consumers. No chemical and human invention is needed to create seaweed-based packaging material. Here, Paslier says seaweed-based packaging is more linked to fruit and vegetables than chemical products.

The company uses what is naturally present in the ocean and what will at the end-of-life again be consumed by sea life.

Paslier concludes by sharing that Notpla has big future plans, including doubling its team, launching more products, increasing the impact of commercialized products and, ultimately, becoming a bio-based packaging leader.

By Natalie Schwertheim