Solving Plastic Pollution

Ten plastic products account for three-quarters of all ocean waste. And just four products - single-use bags, plastic bottles, food containers and food wrappers - make up 44% of marine plastic pollution. That’s what research from marinelitterlab.eu claims.

Ocean plastic pollution has been an issue of vital importance for more than 20 years. But it was 2017 and David Attenborough’s landmark documentary Blue Planet II that suddenly made everyone sit up and take notice. Since then some brilliant startups addressing this issue have come forward, from Imperial College spinout Ichthion to Dutch company The Ocean Cleanup. And we’re reading about more every day.

One of the main drivers behind the creation of Kelpi was responding to the desecration of our oceans by marine plastic pollution. Kelpi is proud to be part of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation community, supporting their mission to ‘design out plastic pollution’. Our part in that is in creating marine-safe bioplastic products, so we can continue to use safe, effective packaging products to reduce food waste and extend product life, but using bioplastics that break down into harmless, natural ingredients if they are washed out to sea, instead of the fossil fuel plastics that can take up to 1,000 years to break down.  

And that list of the worst four marine pollution culprits? Well two of those are where Kelpi is focusing its innovation – replacing plastic food containers and food wrappers with compostable alternatives from renewable biomass like seaweed that will decompose if washed out to sea.

More about the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s work to enable the transition toward a circular economy for plastic here: www.emf.org/plastics 

And more about the circular economy for plastic here: https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org

Blog index page photo by Naja Bertolt Jensen on Unsplash