If you need more proof that companies and consumers are concerned about the environment, consider the push for seaweed packing. Making plastic waste disappear is a great goal; of the billions of metric tons of plastic produced each year, National Geographic says 91% isn’t recycled. Finding an alternative to all this waste is desirable for a variety of reasons. Companies are now considering seaweed packaging to cut down on plastic pollution.
The benefits of seaweed packaging extend beyond keeping plastic out of the ocean. It takes a hectare of ocean to create 40 tons of dry seaweed. During processing, that same volume can absorb 20.7 tons of CO2 emissions. The only drawbacks at the moment seem to be the price; because seaweed packaging currently requires manual processing, it is more expensive than plastic. The second difficulty is figuring out how to scale production.
Seaweed has been in our kitchen for decades. But it seems that the plant also has applications beyond sushi or other recipes. While seaweed packaging has some kinks to work out, it seems clear that it holds the potential to help eliminate some of the plastic clogging our planet.
Notpla
Imagine packaging that not only avoids harming the planet but actually nourishes it. This vision is now a reality with revolutionary seaweed-based solutions, urgently needed to replace single-use plastics. Dr. Erinc Bahcegul of Notpla, a trailblazing London startup, reveals seaweed as a perfect, endlessly renewable resource for sustainable packaging. Using cutting-edge technology, Notpla transforms seaweed into an array of home-compostable products: takeaway boxes, food containers, packaging films, sachets, edible liquid containers, cutlery, caps, and more.
“These groundbreaking innovations propel us toward a greener future, proving we can solve the plastic crisis with nature’s incredible materials Dr. Erinc Bahcegul is the research team lead at Notpla, the London-based startup that won the 2022 Earthshot Prize for its revolutionary seaweed-based packaging solutions.
His work focuses on extracting, processing, and testing natural polymers from renewable resources like agricultural waste. By adopting a biorefinery approach, Erinc converts renewable materials into diverse, eco-friendly products – driving Notpla’s mission to replace single-use plastics and promote a sustainable future.
Kelpi
Kelpi, a firm that uses seaweed to create sustainable packaging, has taken a step closer to market after securing major new funding. Co-founded by Professor Chris Chuck from the University of Bath’s Department of Chemical Engineering, the firm recently secured £4.35 million in investment to launching its pioneering biomaterial technology in the food and drink and cosmetics and personal care sectors.
The funding round will allow Kelpi to expand its operations, grow its team and run scale-up pilots to plot a pathway to launch. The equity funding round attracted investment from Blackfinch Ventures, Green Angel Ventures, Kadmos Capital, QantX, Evenlode Foundation and the South West Investment Fund, as well as follow-on investment from Bristol Private Equity Club (BPEC), One Planet Capital and private angel investors.
The funds will be used to advance manufacturing pilots and gain regulatory approval for proprietary coatings for paper and card and continue a commercial roll-out which has seen the firm win R&D contracts with global leaders including L’Oréal, Diageo, Waitrose and its tropical fresh fruit supplier Blue Skies.
Prof Chris Chuck said: “It has been fantastic to be able to leverage the University’s capability in sustainable technology research, and with support in those early months, develop an idea all the way through to creating genuinely novel materials on scale. The materials themselves not only have advanced functionality but will readily biodegrade if released into the environment.”
Kelpi’s bio-material is unique in matching or even exceeding the performance of plastic, in particular with a strong water barrier and resistance to greasy contents or acidic foods. Kelpi uses only renewable feedstocks, sourcing seaweed farmed sustainably, ensuring a positive impact on the environment as seaweed sequesters huge amounts of carbon dioxide as it grows, deacidifying the ocean and providing a rich environment for fish.
Kelpi CEO Neil Morris said: “This landmark investment enables Kelpi to scale up our pioneering work and take to market our world-leading packaging material that is already being chosen by clients. Kelpi can now play a key role in ending our dependence on fossil fuels to create single-use packaging and so eliminating a major source of plastic pollution. We’re delighted to receive this backing from investors like Blackfinch and Green Angel Ventures to allow us to accelerate our pioneering work.”
PlantSea
PlantSea is a St Asaph-based start-up which has worked on a seaweed-based flexible film that holds liquids and dry products – and is “100% biodegradable” and can be used as a replacement for plastic laundry pods. The company was represented at Wales’ first Festival of Seaweed, in St Davids, which featured industry experts, conservationists, politicians, investors, educators, fishers, and farmers.
Wild seaweed harvesting is strictly controlled under quota, while aquaculture seaweed is grown from spores provided by native hatcheries within a specified range of where the seaweed will be grown. Seaweed cultivation results in carbon sequestration during growth, as well as providing habitats for native marine life.
Alex Newnes, co-founder and chief operating officer, said: “Some estimates suggest there could be one billion* water-soluble laundry and dishwasher pods used in the UK each year. These break down into tiny particles, resulting in around 1,000 tonnes of plastic dissolved into our water systems. Microplastics are making their way into our food and even into breast milk. Instead, we want healthy oceans and clean, plastic-free water and food chains – by thinking differently, we can have a big impact. Seaweed offers a biodegradable, compostable alternative.”
He added: “Despite an ideal climate and extensive coastline, demand in the UK is low compared with other parts of the world. Many suppliers here lack high-volume customers to support growth, which is key to fostering job creation.” As well as manufacturing its plastic-replacement film, PlantSea produces paper and card packaging that incorporates waste seaweed.
Sway
California-based start-up Sway has officially debuted its breakthrough technology for biopolymer resins to replace flexible plastics. The patent-pending thermoplastic seaweed resin, named TPSea, is microplastic-free, home compostable, and 100% biobased. After closing a $5 million seed round in February 2024 led by Third Nature Investments and backers including BAM Ventures, and winning the Tom Ford Plastic Innovation Prize in 2023, an exciting new chapter lies ahead this year, with the brand finally able to apply its technology at scale.
“Clean oceans, abundant biodiversity, and thriving coastal economies all intertwine with Sway’s success as we accelerate production in 2024,” says Julia Marsh, CEO and co-founder of Sway. “We believe everyday materials should help to replenish the planet from sea to soil. The launch of our thermoplastic seaweed materials, along with an influx of new capital targeted at scaling production, signifies tangible progress toward a more circular future.”
Due to its ability to mesh seamlessly with the current plastic manufacturing systems on offer, TPSea is easily scalable. The material also serves as the basis for TPSea Flex, a film solution to replace plastic bags, wrappers, and pouches across industries. The packaging applications, which can be made using TPSea, represent 30% of single-use plastic packaging. With 400 million tons of new plastic created annually, replacing them with TPSea would have immense economic impact. The seaweed its made of is a zero-input crop that can sequester 20 times more carbon per acre than trees. With the global seaweed market expected to grow by $11.8 billion by 2030, it also shows huge economic potential.
While the company has tested the material with fashion brands like J.Crew and Burton, it has yet to apply its offerings to beauty, although the possibility is certainly on the horizon. “We’re thrilled to see Sway’s steady progression toward market-scale production that will empower brands like ours to transition into next-generation materials,” comments Doug Forster, Chief Sourcing Officer at J.Crew.
Fashion brands aren’t the only brands Sway is partnering with: sustainable packaging supplier EcoEnclose helped co-launch the first seaweed-windowed retail box in January 2024. “Our expansive network of eco-conscious brands are always looking for restorative alternatives to today’s mainstream packaging materials. We see this demand across all industries, from food to fashion to cosmetics,” says Saloni Doshi, CEO of EcoEnclose. “With tangible shifts in customer values, brand sustainability commitments, and packaging legislation, it’s clear that innovation leaders like Sway have a keen market ready to adopt their truly unique, thoughtfully produced, biobased materials.”
Winning first place in the Tom Ford Plastic Innovation Prize wasn’t just a victory for Sway; it was validation that the biggest brands in the world want to see seaweed succeed. The prize was organised by leaders in fashion and beauty, including Tom Ford, Stella McCartney, J.Crew, and Nike. These partners gave Sway real-world context for how our seaweed materials could replace plastic at scale. More than that, the Prize facilitated material testing to answer complex questions, including “How does the material decompose in nature? What if a marine mammal ingests this packaging?” Of course we would never wish to see our materials end up in nature, but this type of testing (while time-consuming and costly) is critical in helping the Sway team to understand how our materials could behave in the real world.
FlexSea
FlexSea, a startup with its roots at Imperial, has announced the completion of a seed round worth £3 million in equity and grants. The investment will help the company commercialise a range of sustainable packaging solutions it has developed, based on plastics derived from seaweed.
The aim is to address the catastrophic impact of conventional plastics on the environment, in particular the single-use plastic products that persist in the ocean for many hundreds of years after they are discarded. In contrast, the biodegradable plastics devised by FlexSea will break down in the sea or the soil within a matter of weeks.
“FlexSea has the potential to change the pattern of human consumption of plastic and therefore change the sustainability path of our planet,” says Stephan Morais, Managing General Partner of lead investor Indico Capital. “We are proud to have led this investment and will back the founders in the next steps of product development, global partnerships, and commercialisation.”
Other participants in the funding round included RedRice Ventures, Btomorrow Ventures, Food Foundry, Vala Capital, ICON Capital, and Pente Capital. FlexSea has also won £1 million in grants from Innovate UK and other institutions. “This investment will allow us to make significant progress and penetrate the market effectively,” says Carlo Fedeli, the co-founder and Chief Executive of FlexSea. “Indico has a significant track record of closely backing founders, and we are very happy to work together, and with our other investors, to take FlexSea to the next level.”
Mr Fedeli first started to think about biodegradable plastics during the COVID pandemic, while he was at home finishing an MSc in Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Management at Imperial College Business School. “I noticed the amount of plastic packaging that was piling up at home, because of the online groceries and other deliveries we relied on at the time, and I just had enough,” he says.
He started looking into the biodegradable plastics that were already available, and found that they often had shortcomings. Some didn’t actually break down very rapidly under day-to-day environmental conditions, while others involved unsustainable production methods. For example, plastics derived from seaweed are often made from brown seaweed, which is usually harvested from nature, rather than the commonly cultivated red seaweed.
“If you want to make a sustainable material, why not use the most sustainable source for it, which is also the most abundant right now?” he asks. So he set out to develop a thin-film plastic from red seaweed. “By the end of lockdown I had the first prototype, a transparent flexi-film, and that is still the backbone technology of our solvent-cast thin films,” he says.
Seaweed has tremendous advantages, particularly in producing and extracting raw inputs, especially when compared to other common packaging inputs, such as non-renewable resources, as well as intensive crops such as corn, sugarcane, and potatoes.
