The Future of Packaging
We launched the first carbon-negative (knit) wear brand in November 2019. Before and since, we have learnt a lot about how (not) to set up a sustainable fashion business. Our most notable learning is that sustainability has a lot of grey areas. And often the best decisions are far from being the most intuitive ones.
We have recently been hosting conversations with other exciting startups who are pushing for a paradigm shift in the industry. One of our most recent conversations was on the future of packaging. We were joined on Clubhouse by Pierre Paslier, Co-Founder of NOTPLA, a sustainable packaging startup based in London, whose main and most well-known invention is Ooho, an edible water packet made of seaweed. And Evelio Mattos, a sustainable packaging design expert & host of the Package Design Unboxd podcast.
During the conversation both guests shared incredibly valuable insights and information on responsible packaging and innovations happening within the industry. We personally learned so much in the hour we spent together that we decided to share some key insights with the whole Sheep Inc. community.
On seaweed.
One of the things that Pierre pointed out during our conversation is that seaweed doesn’t compete with food crops. Why is this important? In the responsible packaging industry we hear a lot about PLA, which is a bioplastic that is made from corn starch. The issue with this material is that if we were to start farming corn intensively to make PLA and satisfy the market demand we would be diverting food away from Southern geographies.
Seaweed, on the other hand, is not grown using land-based agriculture and can grow up to 1 meter per day. It does not rely on fresh water or fertiliser and actively contributes to de-acidifying the oceans by naturally capturing CO2, which is incredibly interesting when we start thinking about operations at scale.
On the issues with bioplastics.
A big misconception that both Pierre and Evelio de-bunked is that of bioplastics being the ultimate solution to packaging pollution. The reason is that this material still requires to be composted industrially for it to biodegrade and this is causing a whole lot of issues in the waste management industry. The most popular bioplastic, PLA, which, as previously mentioned, is made from corn starch, requires a very hot, very humid environment to start biodegrading. If you don’t put it in such an environment, it will not decompose, maintaining its original form for hundreds of years just like regular plastic.
This insight shows how important it is to have an equal amount of the right kinds of facilities as the amount of bioplastic we are putting into the market. As always, when we speak about sustainability, there has to be a balance, and currently we’re very far from that. The other issue is that bioplastics contaminate existing recycling streams.
One of the big problems with PLA, as well as some other bioplastics, is that they look so similar to conventional plastics that when they get mixed in the recycling, a very small percentage of them can contaminate an entire batch of plastic. So they may do more damage than they’re able to solve the problem.
On the hidden issue of poly-bags in fashion supply chains.
Poly-bags are fashion’s dirty little secret, with half a billion of them produced and thrown away each year. They are used both to protect clothing during shipping and storage and also to make stock control easier, both in store and during ‘pick-and-pack’ for e-commerce, as they are cheap and plentiful. For us at Sheep Inc. this has been incredibly frustrating.
We have adopted alternative protective bags within our supply chain which use BioPBS, making them compostable into biomass, carbon dioxide and water. This means they can be disposed of along with organic waste. According to the certification BioPBS™, these bags have no adverse effects on the environment and are naturally compostable, without requiring a specialised composting facility.
As we had two incredible industry leaders as guests, we asked them for feedback on our material choice. Pierre kindly forwarded the question to the material expert team over at NOTPLA and got back to us with some positive news:
“As promised I asked our team what they thought about bioPBS. It’s made of 2 different chemicals, one of which can currently be sourced from plants, the other can’t, so currently 50% bio-based. It would be possible to make it 100% from plant sources, but at the moment there isn’t enough market interest. In terms of biodegradability, it is very good, resulting as one of the best options out there when we did our analysis”.
As we keep learning from these Clubhouse conversations with incredible industry experts we will continue to share key insight with the Sheep Inc. community. We envision this to be a space for sustainability-minded (individuals) entrepreneurs. A space where we can connect and help each other, by sharing knowledge and experiences. A space where we can explore synergic partnerships with the power to accelerate the transition to more responsible business.
Because never doubt that a small group of people can change the world.
Check out Pierre Paslier company NOTPLA at: https://www.notpla.com/
And subscribe to Evelio Mattos’s Package Design Unboxd podcast at: https://getunboxd.com/
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