Monday 5 December 2022

Plastic from seaweed backed by Prince William

Prince William’s Earthshot climate prize has awarded £1 million to a British business making packaging from seaweed instead of plastic.

Notpla is a London start-up formed by two students from Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art.

It has developed a coating for takeaways, a clingfilm, paper and a rigid plastic alternative all made from seaweed or seaweed pulp.

In 2022, the start-up provide more than one million takeaway food boxes for JustEat to deliver its food.

[caption id="attachment_243045" align="alignnone" width="720"] Winners of the Prize, Notpla - Image: Earthshot Prize[/caption]

The Earthshot Prize provides businesses and innovators with grants to scale-up their ambitions to protect the environment and curb carbon emissions.

On receiving the prize, Notpla’s Co-Founder, Pierre Paslier, said: “When Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez and I started Notpla eight years ago in our student kitchen, we would have never imagined we would be here today.

“No one wants to live in a world full of plastic waste but it’s not too late to act. There’s never been a greater time to use natural solutions to solve the plastic challenge.”

The Prince of Wales added: “Alongside tonight’s winners and finalists and those to be discovered over the years to come, it’s my hope the Earthshot legacy will continue to grow, helping our communities and our planet to thrive.”