Startup to replace plastic with seaweed wins Prince William’s £1m climate prize

One of the winners of Friday’s second annual Earthshot Awards was a London-based startup that makes packaging disappear. Princess of Wales.

Notpla was started in a student cooking area by Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez Gonzalez and Pierre Basler eight years ago. It is now an environmentally-friendly alternative. plasticPackaging from seaweed. Notpla has sold more than 1,000,000 takeout food boxes in this year. It has the potential to replace over 100 million plastic-coated containers.

William and Kate are now in England BostonOn Wednesday, Prince launched Earthshot, his signature environmental project that celebrates innovative solutions to climate change.

Actors Rami Malek and Kathryn O’Hara attended the Fenway Park party, as well as singers Billie Eilish, Ellie Goulding and former football player David Beckham, and politicians such as Republican Senator Mitt Romney, and Anne, his wife.

The princess attended an early childhood development workshop at Harvard University, while the prince met President Joe Biden as well as the Kennedy family.

Winners in five categories received a £1 million ($1.2 million) prize after being selected by a jury that included Prince WilliamQueen Rania Al Abdullah Al Jordan, Sir David Attenborough (ex-UN climate coordinator Christiana Figueres), Jack Ma (businessman) and Louisa Neubauer (climate activist).

The awards are broken down into five categories: Nature conservation and restoration, clean our air, revive our oceans, Building a waste-free planet. Repair our climate.

Mukuru Clean Stoves in Kenya, a Kenyan startup providing cleaner stoves to women to help reduce indoor pollution, is another winner. From Kheyti in India, it also won a pioneering “greenhouse in a box” that helps smallholder farmers adapt to climate change.

Other prizes of £1 million have been awarded to a women-led Indigenous program in Australia that uses traditional knowledge and digital technology to protect the Great Barrier Reef, and an Oman-based company that is turning carbon from heating the planet into rock and storing it permanently underground.

Pierre Paslier, co-founder of Notpla, said: “When Rodrigo and I started Notpla eight years ago in our students’ kitchen, we never imagined we would be here today. It’s not possible to live in a world of plastic waste. However, it’s never too late. There has never been more time. It is important to find natural solutions to the plastic problem.

Prince William was inspired to create the awards by the late President John F. Kennedy’s Moonshot Challenge in 1960s, which drove innovation in space and saw America put a man on Mars.

“I believe the Earthshot solutions I saw this evening prove that we can overcome our planet’s biggest challenges. By supporting and scaling them, we can change our future,” Prince William said at the event.

“Together with tonight’s winners and finalists, and those who will be discovered over the coming years, I hope Earthshot’s legacy continues to grow, helping our communities and planet thrive.”

during an interview with The Independent in 2021 Mr Basler recalled how he and fellow inventor Rodrigo García González met while studying for an MA in Innovative Design Engineering at Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art, London.

Notpla, also known by “not pla-stic”, is now available for a variety of packaging products such as bubble wrap to transport liquids, food containers coating, and paper for cosmetic and fashion industries.

Notpla products are used at the London Marathon to replace thousands single-use paper cups, ketchup packets and provide lively shots at music festivals.

Mr. Basler stated previously The Independent how his student apartment became a test kitchen for techniques, some of which he uses in molecular gastronomy—a ’90s cooking fad made famous by chefs like Heston Blumenthal.

He explained that he didn’t have the lab access so he was in his kitchen cooking all sorts of strange and wonderful dishes.

Flexible packaging is the hallmark of company “Ooho”. It can be used for sauces and drinks, as well as for food. It biodegrades in four to six weeks. Or you can just eat it.

Basiler said, “It’s not as tough as plastic, but it’s definitely strong enough for the purpose.” “It’s like resisting fruit. You’ll mix it up if you crush it. But if you’re trying to hold it down, like drinking on a run, it works well.”

Mr. Basler loves seaweed and it’s easy to see how. The marine plant is not only biodegradable but it’s also beginning to be recognized for its ability to store carbon dioxide in a natural way. The founder of the startup said that he expected its apps would grow, but for now, they should be used only in times of “rapid use and high risk of garbage disposal.”

“I can’t imagine what we will be able to accomplish with seaweed,” he stated, “when we have invested as much time and resources as we have in plastics.”

Plastic was always free [research and development]It was home to some of the brightest minds in the world for 70 years. It’s possible to do incredible things with seaweed if you apply the same principle to seaweed.