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

目前的项目旨在建立在重大技术发展和研究的基础上，在之前的青年创新者奖期间，开发一种可持续的和可生物降解的个人护理产品包装材料。该项目将通过专利保护这一创新，调查和优化产品及其大规模生产，并进行必要的测试，所有这些都将促进PlantSea-Pack的商业化和开发。PlantSea-Pack是一种无塑料可溶胶囊，可溶于水，设计用于封装洗发水和个人护理产品。PlantSea-Pack通过采用终身可重复使用的瓶子的概念，促进包装的再利用，并促进个人护理用品（洗发水、护发素、洗涤剂）和其他液体（清洁液体）的使用，支持实现《塑料公约》的目标。该产品将实现塑料公约的多个目标：a)提供一种新的非塑料产品设计，并研究提供个人护理成分的相关商业模式的可行性和可扩展性。这将使数以百万计的不可回收塑料部件得以消除，例如喷雾泵和瓶盖，通常在瓶子中发现。这将减少在环境中发现的塑料废物成分的数量。为英国塑料协议的目标1做出贡献，该目标旨在使塑料包装100%可重复使用、可回收或可堆肥。b)通过消除复杂的包装形式和帮助实现剩余塑料包装的可回收性，有助于减轻回收基础设施的压力。c)提高对减少塑料使用和再利用的可能方法的认识，并提供教育材料，以实现消费者行为的预期变化。d)使用完整的生命周期和整体系统的观点，建立一个稳健的模型，以评估可持续性和防止塑料被较不可持续的材料替代。

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.