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ALTERNATIVE
PACKAGING
SOME ALTERNATIVES
Plant Based Plastics
Bioplastics are made from a variety of sources such as corn, which is broken down into PLA, or polylactic acid. This is incredibly sustainable to produce, as it’s made from the waste products from the production of corn – which is also easy to grow. PLA can be used to make drinks bottles, various food grade containers, as well as films. Eco-heroes Innocent are now making their bottles from 15% PLA.
Mushroom Roots
With Mycelium (mushroom roots, funnily enough, the same stuff that Quorn is made from), packaging is literally grown. Ecovative Design gather agricultural waste, mix it with the mycelium in moulds and then the packaging quite literally grows. You can see how it works here, though I’m not 100% sure it isn’t magic.
Bagasse
Bagasse is a by-product of sugarcane processing. Due to its malleability and stickiness, it can be easily moulded into packaging suitable for food delivery and food service – similar to polystyrene. Unlike polystyrene, it’s certified biodegradable and compostable, and being a by-product, much more sustainable to produce.
Seaweed Water Bubbles
UK startup Ooho have created an edible (and by default, biodegradable) water bubble made of seaweed. Their aim is “to provide the convenience of plastic bottles while limiting the environmental impact”. They have developed manufacturing processes that make this both more efficient and cheaper than producing plastic bottles. The process produces 5x less COâ‚‚ and uses 9x less Energy vs PET production.
Stone Paper & Plastics
This incredible innovation has several possible packaging applications. It can be used as a paper or plastic alternative, being printable, recyclable, water-proof… and its eco-credentials look pretty good too. It is made from calcium carbonate, which is one of the Earth’s most abundant resources and its production process uses less water, has a lower carbon footprint, and is more energy efficient than regular paper production.Stone paper can also be used to make FDA certified food grade packaging.
Palm Leaves
Holy Lama use palm leaves from the areca palm to create the oyster-like cases for their handmade soaps. The leaves fall naturally from the areca palm, then they are collected and moulded into the desired shape. Brilliantly environmentally friendly as they use a natural waste product of the areca palm and the final packaging product is biodegradable.
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