Under the sea sustainability: Just Eat-Hellmann’s collaboration brings Notpla’s seaweed sachets to takeout sector

13 Nov 2019 --- Unilever brand Hellmann’s is teaming up with food delivery service Just Eat to trial a range of condiments in Notpla’s seaweed-based biodegradable sauce sachets. This attempt to tackle plastic pollution across the takeout sector is supported by the Innovate UK fund. It means that customers of 65 Just Eat restaurant partners across London, UK, will receive Hellmann’s ketchup, BBQ, tartare and garlic sauces in the eco-friendly sachets instead of plastic.

“There is a huge amount to learn from this trial from machine functionality through to delivery and customer feedback. The sachet doesn’t leak and is heat resistant to well over 140 °C. It can be put into a box of freshly fried chips and transported perfectly. In a survey, 91 percent of customers found it to be as easy or easier to use than standard sachets, and 92 percent asked for more of these,” Robin Clark, Director of Commercial Business Partnerships and Restaurant Services at Just Eat, tells PackagingInsights.

The sachets naturally biodegrade in approximately six weeks.The sachets naturally biodegrade in approximately six weeks. The sustainable sachets are opened just like normal sachets and can be thrown into the home compost or even a normal waste bin to decompose fully. They are also flavorless and colorless, meaning the taste of the sauce is unchanged. Clark also notes that the sachets are technically edible, although the companies are not advertising this.

Just Eat first teamed up with sustainable packaging start-up Notpla to test the sachets with ten restaurant partners last year. As a result, more than 46,000 plastic ketchup sachets were prevented from entering the landfill.

A variety of approaches
Just Eat has been taking other measures to reduce excess plastics in the UK takeout sector, including:

• Halting the sale of single-use plastics in its partner shop in March 2018.
• Trialing a pre-ticked box on its app and website to encourage customers to opt-out of receiving single-use plastic items such as cutlery that they do not need.
• Working with the Sustainable Restaurant Association to create and distribute a series of resources for restaurants to help them and their customers reduce plastic usage over time.

These moves come as consumers are increasingly looking to companies to take the initiative on environmental issues. A 2018 Innova Market Insights survey found that 64 percent of US and UK consumers expect companies to invest in sustainability. The survey found that consumers’ environmental concerns outweigh social and ethical ones when considering the brands that they buy.

“The devastating impact of plastic pollution on our natural land and marine environments is all too clear to us, and even something small like a sauce sachet can contribute to this blight,” says UK Environment Minister Rebecca Pow. In a survey, 91 percent of customers found it to be as easy or easier to use than standard sachets.

Pierre Paslier, Co-CEO of Notpla, adds: “Takeaway sauce sachets are one of the hardest single-use plastics to deal with. They’re easy to litter and have a low residual value, which limits the recycling potential.”

In similar developments, Unilever UK & Ireland launched its “#GetPlasticWise” campaign, a holistic approach to rethinking plastic. This launch reflects Unilever’s global commitment to halving its use of virgin plastic, including eliminating 100,000 metric tons of plastic packaging, collecting and processing more plastic packaging than it sells and ensuring all of its plastic packaging is fully reusable, recyclable or compostable, all by 2025.

Last year, Lucozade Sport announced plans to trial plastic-free sports drinks and gels encased in an edible seaweed outer layer. Brand owner Lucozade Ribena Suntory teamed up with materials engineering startup Skipping Rocks Lab to trial its revolutionary Ooho product at selected running events.

By Katherine Durrell

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