🍃 Heard about the packaging you can eat?

Most packaging is designed with one moment in mind.

The moment it gets thrown away.

- We produce it.
- We use it.
- We manage the waste afterwards.

Entire industries exist just to deal with that final step.

But a British company called Notpla decided to start somewhere else.

Instead of asking how to manage packaging waste, they asked how to remove the waste entirely.

Their answer came from an unlikely place.

Seaweed.

Notpla uses seaweed to create natural packaging that can replace single-use plastic for things like sauces, drinks, takeaway food containers and delivery packaging.

The material works because seaweed already has the properties designers need.

• It forms flexible membranes.

• It holds liquids.

• It breaks down naturally.

Nothing synthetic needs to be added.

And when you’re done with it?

You can compost it.

Or yes… you can actually eat it.

That’s what makes this idea powerful.

It doesn’t rely on consumers recycling perfectly or remembering which bin to use.

The material simply returns to nature by default.

Today, this approach is already being used at large events, stadiums, campuses and food delivery services.

So far, more than 10 million single-use plastic items have been replaced.

But the bigger lesson here isn’t just about packaging.

It’s about where innovation happens.

Many organisations focus on solving problems at the end of a system.

- Waste management.
- Offsets.
- Clean-up campaigns.

Those things matter.

But the biggest breakthroughs usually happen earlier, when someone asks a stronger question:

What if the problem shouldn’t exist in the first place?

That’s upstream thinking.

And it’s often where the most valuable opportunities are hiding.

For leaders and innovators, this raises an interesting challenge.

Look at your own operations, products, or services.

Where are you spending time fixing downstream consequences… when a smarter design upstream could remove the problem entirely?

That shift in perspective is where a lot of innovation begins.

And occasionally it leads to packaging you can snack on.

👉 Curious to hear your take: Would you feel comfortable eating packaging like this or would you still toss it away? Reply and let me know. 

I shared a video about this on my LinkedIn page. Click here if you’d like to see the video. 

Best,

Jasper