Latest news with #Notpla
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
‘We don't want to be a niche brand': Seaweed is taking plastic out of stadiums and sandwich boxes
If you're lucky enough to be seeing Beyoncé at Tottenham Hotspur stadium in London this month, chances are your concert snacks will come in a container made out of seaweed. Notpla, the company which makes seaweed-based packaging to replace single-use plastics, has gone from strength to strength since winning the Earthshot Prize in 2022, bagging a prize of €1 million in the global environmental award created by the UK's Prince William. The venture started with its two French and Spanish founders, Pierre Paslier and Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez, experimenting in their student kitchen while at Imperial College London. Now, Notpla has replaced more than 21 million items of single-use plastic across Europe, and is aiming to displace 1 billion units by 2030. In order to make a real dent in the insidious issue of plastic pollution, the 'disappearing packaging' solution is being rolled out in new venues and fashioned into new shapes and sizes. We caught up with chief revenue officer Lise Honsinger, Notpla's first employee in 2017, to find out more. Related Nappies, smartphone glass, and cigarette butts are piling up in Europe. How can we recycle them? Notpla's prototype was an edible water capsule called Ooho. It garnered viral interest in 2017, which Honsinger partly attributes to a 'zeitgeist' of plastic pollution awareness. The start-up partnered with Lucozade to replace 36,000 plastic bottles at the London Marathon in 2019. Then COVID hit, events stopped, and the company pivoted to focus on seaweed coatings for food packaging which make takeaway boxes compostable like fruit peel. In partnership with Just Eat, Notpla's packaging was used at the UEFA Women's Final at Wembley Stadium, London in 2022. From seven types of folded carton board boxes that year, it has grown into a catalogue of over 50 different designs. Imagine pretty much any food packaging you'd pick up from a street food van - burger clam shells, chip trays and forks, churros scoops - and there's a seaweed-coated alternative. There is a purity to Notpla's vision - which clearly impressed the Earthshot Prize judges. Winning in the 'Build a Waste-free World' category further 'unlocked credibility', as Hosinger puts it. 'We're not going for the easiest win,' she says. 'We're not going to mix our product with a bit of plastic to make a semi-natural product because that's a bit easier. We're going to go for it even if it's the hardest thing, to make sure it's truly natural.' Related From Taylor Swift to Olympics host, how can Europe's largest indoor venue be sustainable? This Earthshot Prize finalist is using DNA sequencing to create sustainable clothing dyes Notpla products are now used at major stadiums and venues in the UK, including the Kia Oval, The Principality, Tottenham Hotspurs, Aston Villa, The Aviva, Twickenham and the ExCel Centre. The Johan Cruijff Arena in the Netherlands is on board too, and Levy - part of the Compass Group catering company which Notpla works with - has just won a contract with stadiums in Germany. That's all part of a 'step change' to spread across Europe and the US, Honsinger says. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Notpla (@notpla) The aim is to make the switch as friction-free as possible, and Notpla products can fit into whatever waste stream the stadium already uses, from composting to recycling or general waste. Meanwhile, IKEA has just rolled out Notpla's seaweed-based packaging in its new Oxford Street London restaurant. And the company is launching a new deli range, featuring plastic-free windows so people can see their sandwiches before buying. Honsinger hopes this will help Notpla branch out into office catering and museums, where that sneak peek is important. 'We absolutely want this solution to be everywhere. We don't want to be a niche packaging brand,' she says. The plan is to go upstream over the next few years - providing coatings to board manufacturers, for example, rather than selling boxes to box buyers. Ultimately, Honsinger wants Notpla to become a household name, in the realm of Tetra Pak or Gore-Tex. 'Everyone will know, if I've got a packaging that's Notpla, it's not got plastic in it, it's not got forever chemicals, it's not going to give me cancer - because I think the world's woken up to the health consequences of plastics as well.' Related Coca-Cola and Unilever among dozens of plastic brands tied to Texas fracking, investigation reveals With seaweed extracts from France, Spain (ROKO) and South America, Notpla is fashioning its wonder ingredient into various new shapes and sizes. The scientists are working on creating cold and hot cups, for example, while Notpla continues to develop its existing solutions - like speeding up the manufacture of Oohos. But there are limits to this R&D. 'The reason plastic is everywhere is because it's not natural,' Honsinger explains; it forms a complete barrier to oxygen, water, and grease. Seaweed is never going to be the same as plastics, she says, and that's a good thing. 'You've got to remember the reason why it hasn't got as extreme properties as plastic is the reason it will break down in nature.' Related Deep discoveries, landmark lawsuits and rising renewables : Positive environmental stories from 2025 Notpla created the Natural Polymers Groups with some of its competitors last year. It bears the distinction of being the only plastic-free alternative to meet the EU Single Use Plastics Directive (SUPD), according to the Dutch government, which carried out extensive testing in 2023. With regulations on single-use plastics and forever chemicals (PFAS) tightening up, the future is bright for alternatives like Notpla. Are plastics companies aware of their seaweed competitor yet? 'I think mostly at the moment we're not big enough to scare them,' says Hosinger. 'But I think they know it's coming.'
Euronews
3 days ago
- Business
- Euronews
Seaweed packaging is shifting single-use plastic out of stadiums
If you're lucky enough to be seeing Beyoncé at Tottenham Hotspur stadium in London this month, chances are your concert snacks will come in a container made out of seaweed. Notpla, the company which makes seaweed-based packaging to replace single-use plastics, has gone from strength to strength since winning the Earthshot Prize in 2022, bagging a prize of €1 million in the global environmental award created by the UK's Prince William. The venture started with its two French and Spanish founders, Pierre Paslier and Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez, experimenting in their student kitchen while at Imperial College London. Now, Notpla has replaced more than 21 million items of single-use plastic across Europe, and is aiming to displace 1 billion units by 2030. In order to make a real dent in the insidious issue of plastic pollution, the 'disappearing packaging' solution is being rolled out in new venues and fashioned into new shapes and sizes. We caught up with chief revenue officer Lise Honsinger, Notpla's first employee in 2017, to find out more. Notpla's prototype was an edible water capsule called Ooho. It garnered viral interest in 2017, which Honsinger partly attributes to a 'zeitgeist' of plastic pollution awareness. The start-up partnered with Lucozade to replace 36,000 plastic bottles at the London Marathon in 2019. Then COVID hit, events stopped, and the company pivoted to focus on seaweed coatings for food packaging which make takeaway boxes compostable like fruit peel. In partnership with Just Eat, Notpla's packaging was used at the UEFA Women's Final at Wembley Stadium, London in 2022. From seven types of folded carton board boxes that year, it has grown into a catalogue of over 50 different designs. Imagine pretty much any food packaging you'd pick up from a street food van - burger clam shells, chip trays and forks, churros scoops - and there's a seaweed-coated alternative. There is a purity to Notpla's vision - which clearly impressed the Earthshot Prize judges. Winning in the 'Build a Waste-free World' category further 'unlocked credibility', as Hosinger puts it. 'We're not going for the easiest win,' she says. 'We're not going to mix our product with a bit of plastic to make a semi-natural product because that's a bit easier. We're going to go for it even if it's the hardest thing, to make sure it's truly natural.' Notpla products are now used at major stadiums and venues in the UK, including the Kia Oval, The Principality, Tottenham Hotspurs, Aston Villa, The Aviva, Twickenham and the ExCel Centre. The Johan Cruijff Arena in the Netherlands is on board too, and Levy - part of the Compass Group catering company which Notpla works with - has just won a contract with stadiums in Germany. That's all part of a 'step change' to spread across Europe and the US, Honsinger says. A post shared by Notpla (@notpla) The aim is to make the switch as friction-free as possible, and Notpla products can fit into whatever waste stream the stadium already uses, from composting to recycling or general waste. Meanwhile, IKEA has just rolled out Notpla's seaweed-based packaging in its new Oxford Street London restaurant. And the company is launching a new deli range, featuring plastic-free windows so people can see their sandwiches before buying. Honsinger hopes this will help Notpla branch out into office catering and museums, where that sneak peek is important. 'We absolutely want this solution to be everywhere. We don't want to be a niche packaging brand,' she says. The plan is to go upstream over the next few years - providing coatings to board manufacturers, for example, rather than selling boxes to box buyers. Ultimately, Honsinger wants Notpla to become a household name, in the realm of Tetra Pak or Gore-Tex. 'Everyone will know, if I've got a packaging that's Notpla, it's not got plastic in it, it's not got forever chemicals, it's not going to give me cancer - because I think the world's woken up to the health consequences of plastics as well.' With seaweed extracts from France, Spain (ROKO) and South America, Notpla is fashioning its wonder ingredient into various new shapes and sizes. The scientists are working on creating cold and hot cups, for example, while Notpla continues to develop its existing solutions - like speeding up the manufacture of Oohos. But there are limits to this R&D. 'The reason plastic is everywhere is because it's not natural,' Honsinger explains; it forms a complete barrier to oxygen, water, and grease. Seaweed is never going to be the same as plastics, she says, and that's a good thing. 'You've got to remember the reason why it hasn't got as extreme properties as plastic is the reason it will break down in nature.' Notpla created the Natural Polymers Groups with some of its competitors last year. It bears the distinction of being the only plastic-free alternative to meet the EU Single Use Plastics Directive (SUPD), according to the Dutch government, which carried out extensive testing in 2023. With regulations on single-use plastics and forever chemicals (PFAS) tightening up, the future is bright for alternatives like Notpla. Are plastics companies aware of their seaweed competitor yet? 'I think mostly at the moment we're not big enough to scare them,' says Hosinger. 'But I think they know it's coming.' Cutting off the horns of sedated rhinos with a chainsaw has been viewed by wildlife conservationists in Africa for more than 30 years as a necessary evil to save the iconic endangered species from poaching. They hoped the drastic action was working, but evidence was scarce. Now, a study published Thursday in the academic journal Science has found that dehorning rhinos has led to a large reduction in poaching in game reserves in and around the Kruger National Park in northern South Africa. The area is home to 25 per cent of the world's rhinos and is especially vulnerable to poaching. The results of the seven-year study that ended in 2023 are seen as long-awaited evidence that removing rhinos' horns - which needs to be done every one to two years because they grow back - helps them survive, even if the animals lose part of their makeup. The conclusions seem obvious. Lucrative illegal markets in parts of southeast Asia and China crave rhino horns for use in traditional medicines, and removing the rhinos' horns takes away what poachers are after. But Tim Kuiper, a biodiversity scientist at South Africa's Nelson Mandela University and the lead author of the study, said it was new to have long-term data from multiple sites on dehorning rhinos. He said the study, conducted between January 2017 and December 2023, focused on 11 reserves in the Kruger area and compared data from eight that dehorned their rhinos against the three that didn't. It also analysed data from the reserves before and after they dehorned their rhinos. The study showed that dehorning consistently reduced poaching, Kuiper said. It found that the dehorning of more than 2,000 rhinos resulted in a 78 per cent reduction in poaching in those eight reserves, providing some confirmation that such an invasive intervention was worth it. 'It is a big part of what a rhino is, having a horn,' Kuiper said. 'So having to remove it is kind of a necessary evil, if I can put it that way. But it's very effective. There's no doubt it saved hundreds of rhinos' lives.' South Africa has the largest numbers of black and white rhinos. Namibia, Zimbabwe and Kenya also have significant populations. There are around 17,500 white rhinos and 6,500 black rhinos left in the world, with black rhino numbers reduced from 70,000 in 1970 to less than 2,500 by the time poaching reached a crisis point in the mid-1990s, according to the Save the Rhino organisation. Dehorning rhinos started in southern Africa as early as 1989. It has not been accepted without question. There has been opposition from animal rights activists but also questions from conservationists over what impact it has on a rhino's wellbeing, and what a future might look like with more hornless rhinos. Vanessa Duthe, a rhino researcher in South Africa not involved in the study, said rhinos use their horns to defend themselves against predators, to compete for territory and, in the case of black rhinos, to look for food. There is also evidence that dehorned rhinos adjust their movements to live in smaller ranges, she said. She said conservationists don't know the full impacts of dehorning, but research had found it had no adverse effect on rhinos' breeding rates or mortality rates. 'What we do know is that the benefits of dehorning by far outweigh any ecological cost that we're aware of today,' Duthe said. She said dehorning a rhino now takes around 10 minutes and the process causes minimum distress. Blindfolds and earmuffs are put on sedated rhinos during dehorning, which also provides an opportunity to microchip rhinos and collect samples that aid research. Conservationists agree that dehorning alone will not end rhino poaching and Kuiper said he saw it as a short-to-mid-term solution. Other efforts like more effective law enforcement and better support for game rangers on the frontline are key. While South Africa has helped pull rhinos back from the threat of extinction, more than 400 rhinos a year are still killed by poachers in the country. The dehorning study was a collaboration between scientists from three South African universities, Oxford University in England and game reserve managers and rangers. It also involved the South African National Parks department, the World Wildlife Fund and the Rhino Recovery Fund.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Innovative materials making packaging more eco-friendly
As environmental awareness continues to grow, the demand for sustainable packaging solutions is transforming industries across the globe. Businesses are increasingly seeking innovative materials that not only meet functional requirements but also align with environmental goals. This shift is driven by consumer preferences, regulatory pressures, and a collective commitment to reducing environmental impact. Biodegradable and compostable packaging materials have emerged as frontrunners in the quest for sustainable alternatives. Derived from natural sources, these materials break down more readily in the environment, reducing long-term pollution. Starch-based bioplastics, for instance, are produced from renewable resources like corn, potatoes, and tapioca. These materials are versatile, suitable for both rigid and flexible packaging applications, and are increasingly common in the sustainable packaging landscape. Polylactic Acid (PLA) is another biodegradable option, derived from fermented plant starch. While PLA offers a similar appearance and functionality to traditional plastics, it requires specific industrial composting conditions to break down effectively. Mushroom mycelium packaging utilizes the root structure of fungi to create compostable packaging forms. This material is not only biodegradable but also requires minimal energy to produce, making it an eco-friendly choice for protective packaging. Recyclable materials continue to play a crucial role in sustainable packaging strategies. Innovations in this area focus on improving the recyclability of packaging and reducing reliance on virgin materials. Recycled paperboard has seen significant advancements, with modern recycling processes producing high-quality folding cartons that rival virgin materials in performance. These boards offer enhanced printability and are suitable for various packaging needs. Companies like Amazon are leading the way by phasing out plastic-containing padded bags in favor of recyclable paper alternatives. By partnering with industry peers and expert organizations, they aim to improve recycling infrastructure and promote the use of easily recyclable packaging materials. Sugarcane bagasse, a byproduct of sugar production, is being utilized to create biodegradable and recyclable packaging. This material not only reduces waste but also offers a sustainable alternative to traditional paper products. The packaging industry is witnessing a surge in innovative materials that offer sustainable alternatives to conventional options. These emerging solutions are gaining attention for their potential to revolutionize packaging practices. Seaweed-based packaging is an exciting development, offering a biodegradable and edible alternative to plastic. Companies like Notpla are pioneering this space, creating packaging solutions that dissolve in water and leave no harmful residues. Milk protein films, derived from casein, are being explored for their potential in creating biodegradable packaging that offers excellent oxygen barriers, making them suitable for food packaging applications. Hemp-based packaging is another promising area, with hemp's strong fibers providing durability and biodegradability. While still in the early stages of commercialization, hemp packaging holds potential for various applications. As the push for sustainable packaging continues, these innovative materials represent the forefront of eco-friendly solutions, offering businesses new avenues to reduce their environmental footprint. Ultimately, sourcing innovative materials for packaging solutions is essential in the transition towards sustainability. By embracing biodegradable, recyclable, and emerging materials, businesses can meet environmental goals, satisfy consumer demands, and contribute to a more sustainable future. "Innovative materials making packaging more eco-friendly" was originally created and published by Packaging Gateway, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Telegraph
15-03-2025
- Sport
- Telegraph
William and Kate renew Wales-England rivalry at Six Nations
The Prince and Princess of Wales have gone head to head to cheer on opposing sides in the Wales v England Six Nations match, as they relaunch their public sporting rivalries. The Princess, who is in remission from cancer, continued her gradual return to work on Saturday afternoon to support England in her role as patron of the Rugby Football Union. The Prince is patron of Welsh Rugby Union, and the married couple were keen to show off their competitive sides at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff. It is the first time the couple have attended the stadium together since 2023. On that occasion, England won and the Prince joked that it would be a 'tense journey home' with his wife. The couple have enjoyed a rivalry in a variety of sports including sailing, athletics, netball, abseiling, archery, spin cycling, table tennis, canoeing, ice hockey and land yachting. Before the match on Saturday, the Prince and Princess met players who have been supported by the Welsh Rugby Charitable Trust. The meeting took place inside the Sir Tasker Watkins Suite – a space dedicated for use by the players and their families before matches. The Prince is patron of the trust, which was set up to help players who have been severely injured while playing rugby in Wales, and their loved ones. It invites them to every Wales home game, and hosts an annual family day. Apart from the rugby, Saturday's match holds additional interest for the Prince because of its takeaway food packaging. The Principality Stadium is now one of the sports arenas signed up to swap single-use plastics for Notpla seaweed packaging. Notpla was one of the 2022 winners of the Earthshot Prize, which the Prince launched with the Royal Foundation in 2021. The company now works in partnership with caterers Levy UK & Ireland to replace more than 750,000 single-use plastic food containers with ones made of biodegradable seaweed. The Prince and Princess will both be seen on public engagements in the coming week. The Prince will visit Estonia for a two-day trip with the Mercian Regiment, and the Princess will visit the Irish Guards in London on Monday to mark St Patrick's Day.
