Our innovators

So far, we are supporting 21 high-potential ideas. We are searching for more. We’re funding everything from a disposable bottle made of paper to sachets made of seaweed, to packaging made of wood chips. We hope some of these products will change the way we live, for the better.

The Paper Bottle by Choose Water

20,000 plastic bottles are sold globally every second. Choose Water sells natural spring water from Edinburgh. Run by James Longcroft, it’s a company with a bold, global vision: to replace plastic disposable bottles with environmentally-friendly ones. Choose Water have developed a revolutionary new bottle that biodegrades naturally and quickly. It’s made from sustainable non-toxic materials that don’t harm the environment. Choose Water also supports water projects in Africa.

How it works

Each Choose Water bottle has a natural hydrophobic lining that holds the water, inside a 3D, vacuum-formed paper casing.

Choose Water

Seaweed Sachets by Notpla

Most plastic packaging is used once before it is thrown away. It provides a few minutes of convenience, but can take hundreds of years to degrade, destroying our ocean ecosystem. Notpla have developed a material made from seaweed and other plants that’s 100% biodegradable. So it breaks down naturally, even in the ocean. The first Notpla product, the Ooho, is made from a seaweed extract and can be used to hold drinks like water and juice. They have developed a machine for on-site manufacture of the Ooho to create packaging on-demand.

How it works

Notpla are pioneering the use of natural materials extracted from plants and seaweed to replace plastic packaging.

Since our investment, over 250,000 plastic water bottles have been replaced with Ooho, preventing these from entering the environment.

Making recycling easy with the Eugène app

Do you find it a bit baffling to work out what you can recycle? You’re not alone. One wrong thing in your recycling bag can contaminate the whole lot. The Eugène app is here to help. Scan the bar code of your product and Eugène will tell you if and how you can recycle it. When you scan, you earn rewards. So it’s good for the world and good for you too. Eugène launched in France and Sky is piloting the app with customers in the UK in 2019.

How it works

Uzer created a suite of tools to promote and reward recycling, using a proprietary data platform and the Eugène scanner and app. It’s a system combining SaaS, mobile and IoT to allow brands and customers to connect. Users can get insights on their behaviour and brands can learn more about their customers.

Antibacterial, plastic-free film by CuanTec

So much of our plastic waste comes from food packaging. Finally, there’s an alternative to the plastic film we use to protect fresh food. And it’s antimicrobial, so it keeps food fresher for longer. CuanTec has invented a low-energy way to convert marine waste into high quality materials that make this revolutionary plastic-free film. It biodegrades beautifully, so not only does it convert a waste product into something valuable and useful, it also doesn’t harm the planet when you’re finished with it.

How it works

CuanTec developed a biological process to convert marine and aquaculture waste into high quality chitin and chitosan, which can be made into this environmentally-friendly and sustainable protective film for fresh produce. Turning a waste product into something of value. When the film breaks down, it is non-toxic.

Filtering plastic out of the wash with Inheriting Earth

We can’t see it, but from every wash, 700,000 plastic microfibres pour down the drain and ultimately out into the sea. Design engineer Adam Root is developing a filter to capture them at source. This exciting new product has the potential to catch tons of microfibres and stop them leaking into the ocean, damaging marine life and contaminating the food chain.

How it works

This ground-breaking filter system captures microplastics at source.

Natural microbeads by Naturbeads

You may not know about microbeads. But you probably use them every day. Microbeads are tiny plastic particles that come in all sorts of things like toothpaste, shampoo and facial scrubs. They flow into the sea as we shower or clean our teeth. It doesn’t have to be that way. Now we have microbeads made from plants, which are 100% biodegradable and cause no harm. Naturbeads is the company behind these plant-powered microbeads.

How it works

Naturbeads are biodegradable cellulose microparticles, produced from renewable and sustainable sources. Once commercially viable, they will enable companies to phase out plastic microbeads.

Biodegradable packaging by Sulapac

There’s a brilliant new alternative to plastic packaging. It’s biodegradable so it won’t create toxic waste in our oceans or rubbish dumps. And it’s made from renewable sources and certified wood, so it doesn’t cost the Earth to make. It can be used to make everything from gift boxes and straws to packaging for delicate goods like electronics.

How it works

Sulapac®is a fully biodegradable and microplastic-free material, made from wood and natural binders, from sustainable sources.

Plastic product manufacturers can replace traditional plastic with Sulapac® and start mass-producing sustainable products with minimal investment. Sulapac® material is recyclable via industrial composting, and most of the recipes are 100% bio-based.

Dumping unnecessary rubbish collections with Nordsense

Up to 90% of the world’s waste is collected at the wrong time, with near-empty or overflowing containers being emptied. With a small sensor in your dustbin, its contents can be monitored. Then the optimal route for rubbish trucks is planned, with stops for bins that need to be emptied only. This way, waste collections can be reduced by 50%, meaning less traffic congestion, less noise pollution and an overall reduction in CO2 emissions.

How it works
Nordsense are redefining waste management with a new end-to-end IoT solution for cities, waste operators and rubbish haulers that’s scalable, easy to use and cost effective.

Plastic-free bubble wrap by Flexi-Hex

When surfers Sam and Will Boex were shocked by the amount of plastic packaging wrapped around their new surfboards, they decided to develop an environmentally-friendly alternative. They came up with Flexi-Hex, a totally biodegradable protective wrapping. Not just for surfboards and sports equipment, Flexi-Hex provides protection to all sorts of high-value goods.

How it works
Flexi-Hex has a unique honeycomb pattern which gives it high compression resistance and allows it to protect objects from damage. It also makes it easy to store, as it takes up very little space.

Clothes that grow with your child by Petit Pli

Around £140 million worth of clothes end up in landfill every year. It’s such a waste. Anyone with children knows how fast they grow. Some clothes only last for a few months before they’re too small. So Ryan Yasin, founder of Petit Pli and an aeronautical engineering graduate, has created a clever solution, to make clothes last longer. Petit Pli’s bold new range of rainproof clothes can last kids from the age of 9 months up to 4 years. Petit Pli suits are made of recycled fabrics and can grow up to 7 sizes as your little ones get bigger. Keeping children’s clothes for longer means less synthetic waste and CO2 emissions.

How it works

The clothes are made of engineered fabric embedded with a structure of folds that open and expand, as your child grows.

A sustainable grocery delivery service by Loop

Billions of food containers and utensils are thrown away every year in the UK. Loop has a simple mission: to eliminate waste. They have partnered with brands and retailers to rethink the way we order and consume our favourite products. They can now deliver groceries to your door, in entirely reusable packaging. All you need to do is pick what you want and return the containers afterwards. It’s like the old-fashioned milkman service, for the next century.

How it works

It’s a circular shopping platform. Customers can order hundreds of everyday items for delivery to their door. Afterwards, the reusable containers are collected, cleaned, refilled and reused or recycled.

The paper bag advertisings network by Bagboard

We need to stop using plastic bags. Bagboard’s ambition is to remove a billion plastic bags from circulation. Bagboard’s paper bags are an alternative to plastic bags. Every Bagboard bag is free, paid for by the advertising printed on it. Bagboard have also built digital tools to allow consumers to connect with brands and to earn income from carrying their Bagboard bags.

How it works

Bagboard has created a new advertising space for brands. Bagboard paper bags are free, making it easy for retailers and customers to adopt them.

The new fleece by H Dawson

H Dawson is a wool business with 130 years of heritage. They know the wool industry inside out. They have come up with a new alternative to the polyester fleece. This could change the way we create all-weather clothing and reduce the leakage of microplastics into the ocean, from clothing fibres.

How it works

HD wool is a structurally-improved version of the natural fibre. It is a biopolymer blend, manufactured with maximum waste recovery and without the use of plastics or harmful chemicals.

Better recycling by Blue Green Vision
There are so many different types of recyclable and non-recyclable plastic. And there are so many different rules for what can be recycled, depending on where you live. It’s no wonder that the wrong kind of plastic often ends up in the recycling bin, or in the dustbin. Blue Green Vision want to be able to perfectly identify and sort 100% of the plastic going through the recycling system and they’ve developed an innovative new camera system that can do it. This innovative new technology can dramatically reduce the plastics that slip through the net into landfill or incineration.

How it works

Blue Green Vision have developed a high-speed hyperspectral camera system with the ambition to be able to identify 100% of plastic types going through the recycling network. This has not been done previously at a commercially viable price.

The world’s first plant protein material

Xampla has created the world’s first plant protein material for commercial use. Their next generation material performs like synthetic polymers, but decomposes naturally and fully, without harming the environment.

Their mission is to replace everyday single-use plastics, like bags, sachets and flexible packing films, and the less obvious, such as microplastics within liquids and lotions. In 2020, they are launching microcapsules for fragrance in personal and homecare products to help manufacturers make the transition from traditional microplastics – a usage the EU is considering banning – to a high performance, non-synthetic alternative.

How it works

Existing natural materials, while great in some use cases, typically cannot match the performance of plastic without chemical additions. Our material represents a significant breakthrough because it:

is made from plant proteins, not polysaccharides
does not require chemical cross-linking to make it a viable alternative to synthetic polymers
decomposes naturally and fully in the environment, with its amino acids digested by micro-organisms.

Learn about their science, which leverages protein’s ability to self-assemble into strong and flexible structures below:

Biodegradable circuit boards by Jiva
Standard printed circuit boards are made of plastic and they’re unrecyclable. Jiva have come up with an ingenious environmentally-friendly alternative. Soluboard is made of a revolutionary new material that biodegrades in warm water. This enables 90% of its components to be reclaimed and either repurposed or recycled. Instead of the whole lot going to waste.

How it works
Soluboard is made of flax fibres, combined with other biodegradable ingredients. In warm water, the composite material delaminates.

Material from waste
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Cellugy have developed EcoFLEXY, a 100% bio-based alternative to conventional plastic packaging. They use feedstock that is 100% renewable and non-edible (fruit waste), to create biomaterial that can be used to sustainably replace plastic in packaging applications. The company have also set themselves the ambitious target of being carbon negative by 2021.

How it works

Made from agricultural waste, the cellulose foil can be recycled in the existing system and broken down into fertile compost, whilst being resistant to water and temperature changes. The translucent and flexible bio-sheets are eco-friendly and suitable for the food industry.

Pay for the product, not the packaging

Algramo, based in Chile, creates smart dispensing systems for CPG products, incentivizing the reuse of packaging, creating an environment where packaging can retain value, and even increase in value the more it is reused.

How it works

Algramo has built a system enabling CPG products to be sold through a re-fill system that has smart vending machines, on-demand electric tricycles and connected reusable ‘packaging as a wallet’.