Sustainable packaging startup Notpla has created an eco-friendly sachet, which is both compostable and edible, to hold condiments and sauces, providing a plastic-free solution to wasteful pots and sachets.

Developed with the take-away industry in mind, Notpla’s sachets, which range in sizes from 10-60ml, can be can dispose of in home compost with the rest of food-waste.

Notpla’s sachets are made from one of nature’s most renewable resources, brown seaweed and plants. The heat-resistant sachet biodegrades in 4-6 weeks, or it can be eaten.

The London-based startup, Notpla teamed up with UK food order and delivery service, Just Eat, in 2019 to pilot the use of seaweed-based sauce sachets with various restaurants. According to Notpla, the trials have to date more than 46,000 plastic sachets entering customer homes.

Just Eat is also expanding its trial of seaweed-coated delivery boxes, also developed by Notpla. The boxes are fully recyclable and can decompose in 4 weeks in a home compost.

Notpla’s launch product Ooho was handed out to participants of the Virgin Money London Marathon in 2017, in a bid to remove all single-use plastic. Each individual edible Ooho globule holds two to five centilitres of water — the average sip.

Rosa Medea is Life & Soul Magazine’s Chief. She writes about lifestyle including sustainable and green living