The next steps for commercial readiness: PlantSea Pods (a novel seaweed-based biodegradable material)

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The current project aims to build on significant technical developments and research undertaken during the previous Young Innovators award to develop a sustainable and biodegradable packaging material for personal care products. This project will protect this innovation through patenting, investigate and optimise the product and it manufacturing at scale, and carry out essential testing, all to facilitate commercialisation and exploitation of PlantSea-Pack.PlantSea-Pack is a plastic-free soluble pod that dissolves in water, designed to encapsulate shampoo and personal care products. PlantSea-Pack fosters packaging re-use, by adopting the concept of a re-usable bottle-for-life and promoting the usage of refills of personal care goods (shampoo, conditioner, detergents) and other fluids (cleaning liquids), supporting the delivery of Plastic Pact targets.The product will deliver multiple objectives of the Plastic Pact:a) Provide a new non-plastic product design and investigate the feasibility and scalability of an associated business model to deliver personal care ingredients. This will enable the elimination of millions of non recyclable plastic parts, for example the spray pumps and caps, commonly found in bottles. This will decrease the volume of plastic waste components found in the environment. Contributing to target 1 of the UK plastic pact, which aims for 100% of plastic packaging to be re-usable, recyclable or compostable.b) Contribute to reducing the strain on recycling infrastructures, by eliminating complex packaging formats and helping to fulfil the recyclability of the remaining plastic packaging.c) Raise awareness and provide educational materials on possible approaches for plastic use reduction and re-use to achieve desired changes in consumer behaviour.d) Build a robust model for assessing sustainability and preventing substitution of plastics by less sustainable materials, using a complete life cycle and overall systems perspective.