Plantsea has revealed that it has raised around €400,000 to help advance production of its natural polymer film from lab scale to industrial manufacturing trials.
Made from seaweed, Plantsea says its natural polymer film will dissolve in water or biodegrade in compost. Designed to equal the cost of PVOH in laundry and cleaning capsules, it can be heat-sealed, vacuum-formed and manufactured in conventional processes with no adaptations.
Plantsea aims to replace petroleum-derived plastics with ‘scalable, marine-safe’ alternatives. The company is already running paid pilots with global brands and plans to build a biorefining plant in Wales.
The crowdfunding brings the seed round to a total of over £1.85 million from grants and investors, and will apparently allow Plantsea to scale biopolymer production ‘by 100 times’ and run demonstration-scale manufacturing trials across the UK, Europe, and Asia.
Investors included Angels Invest Wales, Sustainable Ventures, Syndicate Room and Innovate UK. Plantsea states it is one of nine projects across Mid and North Wales to secure a share of £2.95 million in Collaborative Research & Development (CR&D) funding from Innovate UK, designed to strengthen the region’s agri-tech and food-tech innovation ecosystems.
In similar news, 2M Sustainable Packaging Technologies was awarded an Innovate UK SMART Grant to develop FlexSea’s biomaterial derived from red seaweed, aiming to introduce a circular packaging solution for the personal care industry. The company plans to commercialize the home compostable material, partnering with the University of Warwick (WMG) to utilize its engineering and plastic processing.
More recently, Notpla joined forces with Imperial College London to roll out seaweed-based packaging across the university’s catering operations. Notpla’s home-compostable foodservice packaging is now in use at Imperial’s campus food and drink outlets, the same university where its co-founders Pierre Paslier and Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez developed their first product concept.
If you liked this story, you might also enjoy:
The ‘complex reality’ of reusable packaging in Europe
Single-use packaging versus reusable packaging: Which is more sustainable?
The ultimate guide to global packaging sustainability regulation
No comments yet