Plastic Soup Foundation
  • The issue
      • Plastic Soup
      • What is plastic?
      • Plastic in the environment
      • Harm to animals
      • Health effects
      • Regulations
      • Bogus solutions
      • Responsibilities
      • Sustainable development
      • Facts & Figures
  • What we do
      • Health
      • Microplastics
      • Education
      • Plastic Waste
      • Other Projects
  • What you can do
      • As a consumer
      • As an organization
      • As a school
  • Solutions
  • News
  • Donate
  • NL
  • EN
  • Search
  • Menu Menu
You are here: News Packaging made of seaweed: finally a real solution for the plastic soup!

Packaging made of seaweed: finally a real solution for the plastic soup!

25 February 2021

Good news! The winner of the Green Challenge of the broadcaster Omroep Max’s new TV programme Iedereen Kan Het! (anyone can do it!) has thought up a clever solution for single-use food packaging – seaweed packaging.

Ayça Dündar of SoluBlue, a British start-up, could hardly believe it when she heard that she would get half a million euros to develop her seaweed packaging. The second prize (two hundred thousand euros) went to Jiva Materials Limited that has developed a fibrous material for printing plates that dissolves in water. This makes them easier to recycle.

The prize money comes from the Dutch National Postal Code Lottery. The other finalists also did not go home empty handed. Watch the programme here (partly in Dutch, partly in English).

TWO BIRDS WITH ONE STONE

By developing packaging made of seaweed, SoluBlue killed two birds with one stone. The packaging is completely biodegradable and the food that it contains stays fresh longer.

Single-use plastic food packaging has two major disadvantages. The first is that it becomes part of the plastic pollution problem as it does not break down in the environment. The second is that it often condenses on the inside. While food in plastic stays fresher for longer than unpackaged food, the contents start getting mouldy after a while.

NO FOOD WASTE

The food packed in the seaweed packaging stays fresh longer than it does in plastic packaging. Instead of forming mould, the food starts drying out and stays usable even when dried. So food does not need to be thrown away anymore while about one third of all the food currently produced around the world is wasted.

The company claims that tomatoes, for example, will stay fresh for three months. Unfortunately, the seaweed packaging is not suitable for packaging liquids.

SEAWEED PACKAGING IS EDIBLE

There is even a third advantage. The seaweed packaging is edible so it can be used for cattle feed, for example. You can also throw it on the compost and, should it end up in the environment or the sea, it will biodegrade within a few weeks. Given that the material is digestible, any animal that eats it will not suffer any negative side effects. In addition, the fact that the packaging can be thrown away with leftover food makes cooking and cleaning the kitchen a lot easier.

OIL-BASED PLASTIC IS TOO CHEAP

SoluBlue will undoubtedly use the prize money to scale up its production process. However, the production costs will remain higher than those of traditional plastic that is produced from cheap fossil fuels.

Multinationals such as Unilever and Nestlé are likely to assess the costs of the packaging and will not embrace this option quickly for this reason.

We need to move to the closed circular economy and this packaging material will be absorbed in the natural circular system. It could not be better. It is thus up to governments to push industry. Without financial measures that discourage the use of plastic and that incentivise real alternatives, we will not see seaweed packaging on the shelves for a while.

You may be interested in:

  • Food waste and plastic waste go hand in hand
  • Banks and insurance companies in the Netherlands invest billions in shale gas and plastic production

 

Search

Categories

  • News (499)
  • Health Files (38)
  • Plastic soupermarket (2)
  • What is plastic soup? (12)
  • Types of plastic (3)
  • Beat the microbead (16)
  • Don't use balloons (3)
  • Animal cruelty (13)
  • Microbeads (26)
  • Ocean Clean Wash (12)
  • Plastic Urban Mining (4)
  • My little plastic footprint (4)
  • Synthetic fibers (19)
  • actions frontpage (1)
  • Pressreleases (2)
  • Junior (1)
  • What can you do? (13)
  • Clean rivers (24)
  • Trash hunters (48)
  • What to do with plastic waste? (11)
  • Press releases (16)
  • Solutions (10)
  • Gezondheidseffecten (56)
  • Job openings (1)
  • sponsoring campaign (1)
  • Sponsor actions (3)
  • About us (1)
  • Blogs (16)
  • Plastic Soup Awards (3)
  • Political plume (3)
  • nurdles (5)
  • Microplastics in cosmetics (1)
  • No category (1)

Subscribe to our newsletter

and stay informed about our activities!
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Donate now and contribute

I'll donate € 5I'll donate € 10I'll donate € 15Other amount

More news

The Sustainable Development Goals seem to be out of reach because of the continued use of fossil fuels.

The world has lulled itself to sleep in terms of the SDGs framework. The well-known Sustainable Development Goals seem unattainable. This is primarily because ‘fossil’ has been given free rein.

Read more

EXPERTS APPLAUD EU FOR UPCOMING LEGISLATION, BUT INSIST ALL MICROPLASTICS SHOULD BE INCLUDED

Experts have come together from across Europe to explore how the EU can ensure upcoming microplastics restriction can protect both the environment and humans.

Read more

ING major financier of new plastic production in Belgium

ING Bank claims that it is concerned about the problem of the plastic soup, yet it is putting hundreds of millions into new plastic production in Antwerp. It is stepping all over its own sustainability policy.

Read more

PUR: an invisible and hazardous litter

Pieces of PUR – insulation foam – in the environment remains a hidden and little known form of hazardous litter

Read more

About us

  • Frontrunners
  • Mission & Vision
  • Our People
  • Working with Us
  • Annual Reports
  • Inquiries Press
  • Newsletter

Our approach

  • Plastic Soup Angels
  • Funds & Partners
  • Ambassadors
  • Plastic Soup Awards
  • Plastic Soup Atlas
  • Facts & Figures
DONATE
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • LinkedIn

  • YouTube

  • Contact

 

© Copyright - Plastic Soup Foundation
  • Contact
  • Privacy policy
  • GDPR Consent Settings
New Research in the Netherlands: synthetic clothing fibers inhibit the production...The invisible threat: microplastics from your clothes
Scroll to top

GDPR settings

This website uses some cookies which are placed on your device. Your web browser stores these cookies when you visit our Website: www.plasticsoupfoundation.org. These cookies will be retrieved when you visit or use our Website again. This allows us to recognise you as a previous visitor/user.

Privacy policy
Close

Your privacy and this website...

This website uses some cookies which are placed on your device. Your web browser stores these cookies when you visit our Website: www.plasticsoupfoundation.org. These cookies will be retrieved when you visit or use our Website again. This allows us to recognise you as a previous visitor/user.

Functional technology enables a website to remember information that changes the way the website behaves or looks, like your preferred language or the region that you are in. No personalised information is collected.

See details

This consent is used to track visitors across websites. The intention is to display ads that are relevant and engaging for the individual user and thereby more valuable for publishers and third party advertisers.

See details

This consent helps website owners to understand how visitors interact with websites by collecting and reporting.

See details
Forget my settings Settings have been forgotten