Notpla Rigid

Notpla Rigid in different shapes and sizes / Source: Notpla

BeautyCompostableEuropeFood & BeverageLightweightNotpla RigidPackagingRigidSeaweedWater Soluble

WHAT WE SAY:

Hard, rigid plastics dominate the packaging industry and given that only 9% of plastic is ever recycled, most of it is currently sent to landfill, polluting our oceans or incinerated, releasing harmful toxins into the atmosphere. Notpla is changing the game. The renowned seaweed-packaging innovator has added Notpla Rigid to its roster, a primary and secondary packaging material that competes with plastic on strength, variability and mouldability.

But the similarities stop there. Made from seaweed waste and plants, Rigid comes from nature, and is able to go back to it at the end of its life toxin-free. What's more, it can quickly and easily be dissolved in water, then added as a fertiliser to soil. We have a few questions, mainly around its exposure to water and resulting long-term use, but given Notpla's recent Earthshot Prize finalist status, we're sure Rigid is a material to watch.

Notpla Rigid

WHAT IS RIGID?

Notpla Rigid is a material designed to replace hard plastic packaging. Made from the “fibrous by-product of industrially processed seaweed,” the material shares many properties with fossil fuel-based plastic and can be used for both primary and secondary packaging solutions.
Notpla uses brown Seaweed as the main input for its materials. Brown seaweed grows off rocky shores along coastlines, and is prevalent in polar and temperate oceans (Europe, North America, northern Asia). Because it grows naturally in the ocean, it doesn’t fight for space with food crops, nor require fresh water or fertilisers. It's also renewable, growing up to 60 cm per day.
The seaweed for Notpla Rigid is sourced from the coastal waters of Europe and the UK, using both farmed and wild supplies.
The company says that Rigid is a “non-chemically modified, polysaccharide-based material” and is not governed by the EU’s Single Use Plastic Directive. The fibrous waste material is injection or compression moulded into sturdy shapes and is also available as pellets for injection moulding by companies themselves.
Notpla Rigid can be used for packaging across myriad industries, including luxury goods, consumer electronics, cosmetics and beauty, and can be made into eating utensils too. The company can customise the thickness of Rigid for differing uses.
One of the first brands to use Notpla Rigid is watchmaker ID Genève, who has used it for its Circular S watch box.
Notpla states that Rigid can break down in a few hours if submerged in water and what remains can be added to soil as nutrients for plants. The material is also home compostable. If it ends up in the environment, it will break down on its own in four to six weeks, leaving no toxic traces behind.

KEY PROPERTIES:

Compostable
Lightweight
Rigid
Water Soluble

INDUSTRY:

Beauty
Food & Beverage
Packaging

AVAILABILITY:

Partner Trials

DIVE DEEPER:

141 million tonnes of plastic packaging is produced every year worldwide. A large proportion of that is rigid plastic, such as bottles, boxes, punnets, trays and so on. While a lot of rigid packaging is made from PET - the purportedly most recyclable plastic - the fact that only 9% of all global plastic waste is successfully recycled every year means most of this is going to landfill or being incinerated. In the US, this number is now as low as 5%.
Seaweed is emerging as a possible alternative to this issue. Growing and harvesting seaweed is far less impactful than extracting fossil fuels and seaweed farming is seen by many as the best example of aquafarming. It's a highly renewable plant that doesn’t need fresh water or fertilisers to grow and can be harvested without needing to kill it. Seaweed farms also play a huge role in capturing and sequestering carbon.
Seaweed is also becoming more readily available, as it emerges as an alternative food and material source. In 2019, 35.8 million tonnes of seaweed was cultivated around the world, and that number is only set to increase as farms open up across continents. Additionally, one million tonnes of wild seaweed is harvested each year.
To put that into context, it's estimated that 58.6 million tonnes of rigid plastic was produced in 2019 alone, a figure set to increase by 3.5% year on year. Seaweed isn't yet at the stage where it can replace this use of plastic entirely, but its scalability is promising, especially given the large amount of seaweed farms in the Northern hemisphere.
At present, Notpla works with European seaweed suppliers and is focusing its efforts on local, UK-based seaweed farms, such as Car-Y-Mor in Wales. The company’s choice of localised production is enabled by the region’s growing seaweed farming industry, as well as the abundance of 600 different species of seaweed present on its coastlines, a win for future scalability.
Seaweed is harvested using three main methods: hand gathering, hand cutting and mechanical cutting, and it's not without its issues. Scotland’s Nature Agency lists 35 marine pressures, 24 of which seaweed cultivation and harvesting are associated with. Some of these include increases in on-shore wave height and the introduction of pollutants from boats during harvesting. In Indonesia some farmers dig up seagrasses and coral reefs to make room for seaweed farms or cut down mangroves (one of the most efficient carbon capture ecosystems in the world) for wooden stakes. But education can help reverse these practices.
As a social force for good, seaweed farming is encouraged by the Indonesian Navy because it decreases piracy. The navy trains ex-pirates to farm seaweed, giving them an alternative source of income to leave crime.
Notpla is headquartered in London and closed a GBP 10 million (USD 12,111,950 million) Series A round in December 2021. In November 2022, Notpla was named a finalist for the Earthshot Prize.

Notpla Rigid x ID Genève collaboration / Source: Notpla

Rigid is made from the fibrous by-product of industrially processed seaweed / Source: Notpla

KEY FACTS:

35.8 million tn

In 2019, 35.8 million tonnes of seaweed was cultivated around the world.

4-6 wks

Notpla Rigid can break down, in the environment, in four to six weeks.

58.6 million tn

It's estimated that 58.6 million tonnes of rigid plastic packaging was produced in 2019.

Key Questions to Ask:

Could you use Rigid as a monomaterial packaging solution?

Monomaterial packaging - where all components of a pack are made from the same material - is not only easier to dispose of for the consumer, but also reduces energy and resource costs during both manufacturing and recycling. The tricky elements of monomateriality are often closures and mechanisms, such as hinges. Consider how you can design these elements out of your pack, opting instead for an overlayed box or click-closure, and adopt Notpla Rigid from top to bottom.

What other materials are you using with Rigid?

If a monomaterial packaging solution isn’t possible for your product, could you combine Rigid with other compostable materials, such as paper or cork, so that consumers aren’t mistakenly putting fossil fuel plastics in the compost with biomaterials? If not, communication is key and design for disassembly is a must. Don't fuse Rigid with plastic, as neither will be properly disposed of as a result.

Are you prioritising transparency?

Understandably, Notpla isn't fully transparent about the recipe of Rigid, in a bid to remain competitive. If your consumer is invested in full transparency then Rigid might not be the answer, but if you are honest and transparent in your communication around this - and clearly demonstrate your own belief in its claims - then consumers way be swayed.