ABOUT NOTPLA

• Sustainable packaging startup Notpla is a developer of plastic-free packaging solutions made from Seaweed. Founded in 2014, by Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez and Pierre Paslier, the company raised GBP 10 million (USD 12.5 million) in 2021 from a Series A financing round.
• The company offers seven narrative-changing packaging solutions: Ooho, an edible sachet for liquids; Notpla Sachets for ketchup and other condiments; Notpla Coating; Notpla Takeaway Boxes; Notpla Paper; Notpla Pipettes and Notpla Films, which can package dry and oily substances, such as pasta, olive oil and seasonings.
• Notpla products are defined as ‘not plastic’ under the EU definition, as they are non-chemically modified natural polymers. The products are made from polysaccharides from seaweed and other plant sources and they break down in the natural environment.
• The seaweed currently used in Notpla products is sourced from its local partner, Car-Y-Mor seaweed farm. Seaweed is an abundant biomass source, growing at a rate of up to one metre per day. Able to sequester CO2 from the atmosphere, its production does not compete with land for food crops and requires no fertiliser or freshwater to grow. The company is a member of The Safe Seaweed Coalition and Seaweed for Europe to ensure a sustainable seaweed industry as scale grows.
• All Notpla products are biodegradable, compostable and home-compostable in four to six weeks. Cartonboard products are recyclable, as well as home compostable.
• Many of Notpla’s products are edible and are able to have flavours and textures added to them so they become part of the product, not secondary to it. Ooho and Notpla Films can be eaten, added to food when cooking or disposed of in the environment, where they break down like a piece of fruit peel.
• Notpla has worked and Heinz and Just Eat to develop a takeaway ketchup sachet without plastic. They are currently available directly from the company for GBP 50 (USD 60) for 200 sachets. For every plastic sachet replaced with Notpla, a 68% CO2 and 100% plastic reduction is shown. For 1.5 billion sachets this would equate to 15 kilotons of plastic reduction. According to Design Week, 400,000 sachets had been created by mid 2021. 855 billion plastic sachets are thrown away every year.
• The company’s Ooho packaging has been featured in collaborations with The London Marathon, Lucozade and The Glenlivet Whisky. To produce the Ooho capsules, Notpla has developed a bespoke manufacturing solution, which it intends to scale up and lease for future expansion.
• The proprietary coating (Notpla Coating) is currently available as pre-formed takeaway cartons from the company, priced at GBP 46 (USD 55) for 200. The company’s 2025 production projection is 25 million boxes, removing 465 tonnes of plastic. Notpla plans to make the coating available in powdered form to mills and as coated board stock to convertors to scale use.
• In February 2022, Notpla launched Notpla Seaweed Paper in collaboration with Canopy - a not-for-profit environmental organisation. The synthetic-free paper is made with 30% seaweed by-product content - leftover from the seaweed extraction process and normally sent to landfill - and has many applications, including being used for cosmetics packaging.
• Just one tonne of seaweed by-product for paper could save four tonnes of trees being felled. The company aims to produce a wood-free paper coated with the Notpla Coating by 2024. A sample book of the paper is available for GBP 17.99 (USD 22.21), directly from the company.
• Notpla was among five organisations selected to join the Morgan Stanley Sustainable Solutions Collaborative for its 2022 cohort. The startup will be supported with a USD 250,000 award to scale its solutions, and joins a growing network to facilitate cross-sector collaboration.
• Notpla has been the recipient of multiple awards, including the Startup of the Year award from Greentech in 2019, and a finalist of the Terra Carta Design Lab 2022 awards. Most recently, it was awarded The Earthshot Price 2022, under the Build a Waste-Free World category, and third place in the Tom Ford Plastic Innovation Prize in 2023.