We all know plastic is convenient durable and everywhere.
And at the same time, plastic kills marine life, contributes to global warming and poses health risks.
But what if we could use all-natural materials like mushrooms, seaweed or wood
to cure ourselves of our addiction to plastic?
What are the alternatives out there?
And why aren't they everywhere?
"We started working with seaweed as an alternative material
to try to basically develop a range of new solutions that are
completely biodegradable, natural and sometimes even edible."
Pierre Paslier is the co-founder of Notpla,
a startup that uses seaweed to replace plastic packaging.
"Seaweed was always a good candidate
for us because it grows very fast.
Some of the seaweed that we use
can grow up to one meter per day.
And in terms of end of life,
it's been around for 100 million years,
so nature has no problem dealing with it
anywhere it ends up in the environment."
And that happens a lot with plastic.
Forty percent of plastic produced is for packaging.
In 2018, just 13.6% of plastic containers and packaging were recycled.
To counter this, Notpla have developed little sachets
for sauces or drinks made from algae.
So you can eat them along with their contents.
Even if they're not consumed and are thrown away,
Notpla claims they will biodegrade in 4-6 weeks.
To make these vanishing sachets Notpla dries and grinds up brown seaweed.
A special machine then turns the powder into a membrane
that can be filled and finally sealed.
"And typically, with Notpla, we really target
places of instant consumption, out of home
or things that are used very quickly,
where typically seaweed is going to be able to have
the functional properties to deliver the packaging,
kind of like performance that is required.
But that has also the best chance of being reintegrated
in nature if we fail to collect it or put it in the right bin."
The firm also makes a special coating
for take-away containers.
Usually, they're coated with plastic to greaseproof them.
But that makes them hard to recycle
and also makes them non-biodegradable.
Notpla's solution however, is made from you guessed it...
seaweed!
Which means the boxes should compost in 29 days.
A solution to a growing problem, seeing that a recent study
found food containers to be among the 10
most common items polluting the sea.
Sounds huge!
"We can make plastic sauce sachet waste simply and sustainably disappear."
But to be precise, the trial is only running
in 11 restaurants for now.
And speaking of production, the custom-made machine
that makes the seaweed sachets is still being trialled,
so it's not turning out big volumes just yet.
But seaweed is not the only promising material out there.
Another rapidly growing substance
and a favorite of a little Italian plumber:
the mushroom; or to be exact, mycelium.
Mycelium are the roots of mushrooms
that form an underground network called hyphae.
If treated right, they can be turned into a foam
that is a sustainable alternative to polystyrene,
all-natural and completely biodegradable.
How on earth do you turn mushrooms
into packaging material, you ask?
Well, you put organic waste products like straw
into a mould and mix them with mushroom spores.
In the space of a week, the mycelium will feed on the waste
and grow into the empty space.
The resulting mycelium foam is then removed and dried
to prevent the spores from growing further.
It's water and flame-resistant, lightweight
and actually stronger than traditional polystyrene.
"There's things going to happen
that we can't even dream of today."
Jan Berbee is the CEO of Grown.bio,
a Dutch company that produces mycelium packaging.
"I started five years ago, roughly, to
help other small and medium companies reduce
the environmental footprint of their packaging.
And somewhere I found the term 'mushroom packaging'
which brought me to Ecovative."
Jan's company is a licensee of Ecovative Design,
the inventor of the material.
One of the first companies to adopt mycelium packaging was
hardware manufacturer Dell, for selected shipments.
Others looking to foster a green image, like Lush, have since
jumped on the bandwagon, using it for a limited edition gift pack.
The first drawback, though, is that it's way more expensive than polystyrene.
Grown.bio didn't disclose any prices.
But one study estimated the cost of mycelium could be around
three dollars per pound, compared to 4c for styrofoam.
The second problem: it's hard to scale up production.
The packaging grows in these containers for five days
and takes up a lot of space while doing so.
IKEA announced its use of mycelium packaging in 2020, only to abandon it a year later
because of the lack of scalability on an industrial level.
"It's certainly not yet at the level of styrofoam.
And even if it would be possible to make it at the same cost,
then you still need to scale up enormously,
which just takes time to build all those factories.
But also because even though we say this is our
alternative, it's not a one-on-one alternative.
Even though our product is extremely light,
styrofoam still is a factor or two lighter than ours.
There really are quite some brands who say:
'I don't mind paying more, this is just what we should use.'"
Ecovative recently received a 60 million dollar investment,
so they can scale up their production
and potentially lower costs.
The big question is whether it'll become cheap enough
to truly compete with polystyrene on a large scale.
After packaging and construction,
it's the third biggest plastic polluter:
fashion: Today, most clothes are made from synthetic fibres.
Enter algae again or a whole range of other materials,
like orange peels or wood.
Finnish company Spinnova takes wood pulp from sustainable forestry
refines it and then pushes it through nozzles to create hair-like filaments.
These can then be used to make clothes.
The entire process produces no waste apart from evaporated water.
The fibre itself is biodegradable.
Big names from the fashion industry,
such as H&M and North Face,
have announced partnerships with the startup.
Sports brand adidas has even invested
three million euros into Spinnova.
But neither North Face, nor H&M could tell us more details
about the cooperation.
And you can't buy any of their products made with Spinnova yet
because the startup is only looking to start commercial production in 2023.
Spinnova claims that 65% less CO2 goes into making their material than cotton.
And, as it's completely natural, it doesn't shed any microplastics.
Microfibers are tiny plastic particles, which leach out into the environment with every wash
and have now been found in places as remote as the Arctic.
So what about the price?
We asked Spinnova, they didn't give us a concrete number.
But their product will be more expensive than other fabrics,
like cotton, nylon or polyester.
Another problem is that manufacturers might blend
Spinnova's organic fibers with other materials made of plastic.
The big challenge in textile recycling is actually
separating the different materials.
So if this happens, the material's benefits might be mitigated.
So yes, there are alternatives to plastic out there.
And yes, big brands are dipping their toe into the market.
But prices are still high.
And despite all the big brands cooperating,
the scale is extremely small,
raising the question whether they're going into the market
for the right reasons.
Because if big brands don't adopt
more sustainable alternatives,
this will continue to be a niche market only.
To reduce our plastic use as much as possible
we need to create all-natural, scalable alternatives
for specific use cases.
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