Pioneers of plant-based packaging

Notpla

Innovation is at the heart of everything that Notpla designs. With a team of designers, chemists, engineers and entrepreneurs, they have developed a sustainable alternative to single-use plastic. Introducing a revolutionary material made from seaweed and plants that is not only biodegradable, but also edible. 

Seaweed is one of nature’s most renewable resources, growing up to 1m per day without the need of fresh water or fertiliser. Notpla products offer a plastic-free experience that biodegrades naturally in 4-6 weeks. 

Notpla’s first product was ‘Ooho’, a round, spherical sachet made from brown seaweed that can hold food or drink. Acting as a flexible, biodegradable container, they have been used at running races, helping to make marathons plastic free and providing runners with easy-to-use packets of water. They’ve also been filled with cold pressed ginger juice and sold at Selfridges, London and by Just Eat to replace ketchup sachets and pizza dipping sauce.

“Unlike plastic, Notpla is home compostable and also doesn’t contaminate PET recycling, plus it enables event organisers to produce and sell fresh Oohos containing drinks or sauces as desired.”

Notpla packaging even extends to takeaway boxes. Made from specially sourced paperboard, with a coating made from seaweed and plants, their boxes are greaseproof, water-resistant and naturally biodegradable in weeks.

With future products in the works, their goal is to reduce single-use plastic packaging. By developing sachets for non-food products such as screws as well as packets for powders and dried goods, their technology enables either water soluble or insoluble design depending on the application.
Designed to disappear, Notpla’s products leave no trace.