Following the popular edible water Ooho!, several innovative projects adopted new technology into plastic packaging, to solve the problem of plastic pollution. The research team Skipping Rocks Lab has created a new product called Delta after Ooho!. Another Indonesian company Evoware is also developing disposable pouches to replace disposable plastics.
Evoware and Skipping Rocks Lab won the New Plastic Economy Challenge last year. The main packaging materials for both companies are from seaweed. Seaweed captures carbon dioxide during growth, if the package is left in the environment during transportation, seaweed will decompose and return back to the nature.
Evoware provides a revolutionary solution for disposable plastics, such as sachet for coffee powder which could be dissolved together with coffee powder in hot water for drink and water-soluble shampoo packs. On the other hand, seaweed farmers face difficulties of their business. Most Indonesian seaweed farmers are poor, they face the problem of oversupply of seaweed, and suffer from long marketing chain and loan sharks. Furthermore, five out of of six poorest provinces in Indonesia are actually seaweed producers. Evoware hopes to solve the problem of plastic waste and to improve the livelihood of Indonesian seaweed farmers.
Skipping Rocks Lab has got an innovative business model of which vending machines of products with their biodegradable packages are placed inside restaurant or hotel to serve the needs of different customers, for instance, they have packages with different thicknesses and layers for ketchup used in fast food restaurant or for hotel shampoo. On the other hand, Skipping Rocks lab also investigated food technologies for applying into their packaging products and implemented project with Imperial College London, such as application of the technology used to make fake caviar.
The only benefit of using plastic packaging is the convenience it provides. With the use of these innovative degradable seaweed packaging items, not only it does not require drastic change in people’s lifestyle, but also it could substitute the use of disposable plastics and lead a new trend of environmental protection.
Source:
https://challenges.openideo.com/challenge/circular-design/ideas/delta/comments
https://newplasticseconomy.org/innovation-prize/winners/evoware
https://newplasticseconomy.org/innovation-prize/winners/delta