Notpla reaches Earthshot Prize final with dissolvable seaweed-based packaging

30 Nov 2022 --- Home-compostable packaging innovator Notpla has been selected as one of three finalists for the “Building a waste-free world” Earthshot award. This “Nobel-like prize for the environment” – led by the UK’s Prince William – is designed to incentivize, change and help repair the planet over ten years.

The award recognizes the “outstanding contribution” of Notpla to “build a world where nothing goes to waste, where the leftovers of one process become the raw materials of the next, just like they do in nature.” 

Pierre-Yves Paslier, co-founder and co-CEO at Notpla, says: “Fourteen million metric tons of plastic enter our oceans yearly. We founded Notpla when we discovered the solution lies in our oceans too. We are already replacing plastic that plagues our seas and working with seaweed farms that give back to the environment and the local economy.” 

Notpla uses seaweed to develop its portfolio of biodegradable packaging.Planetary goals 
Two strategic imperatives are needed for planet restoration, asserts Notpla. The first is to support environmental innovators and scale the impact of their solutions. The second is to spark urgent optimism and action through culture-shaping storytelling. 

The prize focuses on five planet goals branded “Earthshots:”

• Protect and restore nature
• Clean the air
• Revive the oceans
• Build a waste-free world
• Fix the climate

The Earthshot Prize “looks for the most inspiring solutions to the world’s most significant challenges.” Prizes are awarded to a wide range of individuals, teams or collaborations, including scientists, activists, economists, community projects, leaders, governments, banks, businesses, cities and countries.. 

This year, the Earthshot Prize is prioritizing three ways to build a waste-free world: 

• Preventing the excessive use of resources: The priority is to reduce the use of resources – especially for food – to decrease the pressure on natural resources and raw materials. 
• Extending the use of goods: The priority is to extend the use of goods – such as clothes, food, and plastics and packaging – that have been produced already through circular economy principles like reuse, repair and remanufacture.
• Better waste management. We must improve at managing our waste once generated, particularly food waste and plastics pollution. 

Seaweed advantages 
Notpla supports the concept that the first way to build a waste-free world is to prevent the extensive use of resources. By using seaweed to develop its biodegradable packaging portfolio, the company is helping to reduce society’s reliance on unnecessary single-use packaging.

Seaweed is one of the planet’s most abundant sources of biomass. Furthermore, seaweed farmed for its production captures carbon 20 times faster than trees, addressing one of the critical causes of the climate crisis. “If 9% of the ocean had seaweed farms, we could draw down all the CO2 we produce,” highlights Notpla.Notpla founders and CEOs Pierre-Yves Paslier and Rodrigo Garcia Gonzales.

Earlier this year, Notpla expanded 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. 

PackagingInsights sat down with Paslier who said that Notpla’s “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.”

Fixing imbalances
Notpla’s packaging is designed to perform, not to last. In line with the new EU Single-Use Plastic Directive, which aims to ban synthetic materials such as polylactic acid and other bioplastics, Notpla materials biodegrade in nature in 4-6 weeks without industrial composting or special conditions.

Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez, co-founder and co-CEO, explains: “There is currently a huge imbalance between how long single-use plastic packaging is used and how long it will last in our environment.” 

In the first week of December, the 2022 Awards Ceremony will take place in Boston, US, and will be broadcast on the BBC (in the UK), PBS (in the US) and Youtube in other territories.

The Earthshot Prize Council, composed of a global team of influencers from a broad range of sectors, including Prince William, Sir David Attenborough, Cate Blanchett, Shakira and Jack Ma, will select and announce the five winners in an Awards Ceremony.

On top of the promotion of their work, the five winners will receive £1 million (US$1.2 million) to scale their solutions. 

Edited by Natalie Schwertheim