The End of Plastic: Flexible Bio-based Home-compostable Packaging

Plastic production continues to grow exponentially from 1.5 million tonnes annually in 1950 to 359 million tonnes a year in 2018\. If current production and waste management trends continue, roughly 12 billion Mt of plastic waste will be in landfills or in the natural environment by 2050\. Plastic waste has a devastating impact on marine and terrestrial life and emerging research suggests micro-plastics may also have an adverse impact on human health.

The Shellworks is an award-winning startup founded by three Imperial College graduates to disrupt this polluting industry and put an end to plastic packaging waste once and for all.

The cosmetics and personal care industries are some of the biggest polluters. According to a study commissioned by Zero Waste Europe, our use of beauty and personal care products produced 142 billion units of packaging in 2018 alone. While alternatives to conventional petrol-based plastics exist, they are still largely absent from store shelves.

The reason is that they often do not adequately respond to industry needs, are too costly and in some instances, just as environmentally harmful. The Shellworks set out to tackle these issues. After securing commercial partnerships for our home-compostable bio-based rigid packaging, our specific goal with this project is to develop novel flexible packaging suitable for tubes and squeezable bottles to address the requirements of the cosmetic and personal care industries.

This will involve developing new formulations based on the company's innovative biocomposite material, which is based on agricultural waste. Our product is truly biodegradable without the need for industrial composting facilities, unlike many biopolymer-based plastics that exist today. Our costs are already lower than our competitors' and we have a great potential for further cost reductions, which would allow us to outcompete conventional plastic in the long-run.

Our packaging is highly performant and aesthetic, which makes it attractive for clients in high value-added sectors.

The grant will help us develop new formulations to expand or product range. It would also allow us to hire talent to transform our company from a startup to a global player. The ongoing covid-19 crisis marks an unfortunate comeback for plastics in all sectors, aggravating the negative impact on both marine and terrestrial life. We believe that it is time to make plastic waste a thing of the past and build a new sustainable industry in its place.