For this sprint, our group took our idea from sprint 3, our bioplastic packaging company that produced an alternative to plastic packaging using seaweed and looked at how it could contribute to the transition from the current fossil-based industry and society to a biobased economy.
To clarify a little, our explanation of what the biobased transition is goes a little bit like this:
“Bio based transition is the movement to make non-food products out of biological resources. A few examples for biobased products are biobased bottles and biobased coffee cups. Through this biobased transition you create less plastic waste and fewer waste streams. This has a positive impact on people and the environment.”
Through this transition, we want to improve the system by reducing the need in plastic, bringing innovation to an industry that has stagnated in its ways for decades, innovation means change which means moving forward and giving potential to improvement. We also want to improve ourselves within this system, producing seaweed-based packaging means we become a frontrunner in the industry, not only is this good financially for us, but it also gives us the opportunity to educate and inform, as well as bring change to the system. We want to improve the way in which the lifecycle of packaging is seen, the end of the current packaging’ s lifecycle is to be burnt, disposed in waste piles, or worse, to end in our oceans, where it devastates marine life. We want to change this end of lifecycle, by ensuring that it is in harmony with nature’ s lifecycles and does not pollute in any way once it reaches its’ end of life. Seaweed packaging allows for this. Reducing plastic use means an improvement for people and their environment. Finally, on an economical point of view, we want to ensure that packaging does not increase in price, and affect consumer buying power. Oil becoming more and more scarce, prices are getting higher and soon will skyrocket. This will affect the price of petrol-based products, notably packaging. We want to tackle this by ending the dependency on petrol for packaging.
But why would you want this transition (and why might you not)? Here is our take on these questions:
Pros:
- Less plastic needed, so less plastic waste
- Less plastic waste = Positive impact on the environment!
- Biological resources are renewable (seaweed) so we will never run out of them
- We are creating extra revenue for seaweed farmers, and creating new jobs
Cons:
- Unfortunately, currently, making biobased products is more expensive than fossil-based ones
- There can be some food safety or regulation issues as the packaging is made of seaweed
- Seaweed is also less stable than fossil-based packaging
- Making seaweed packaging is more complex than fossil based (for now at least)
Now that this was made clear, we had to see exactly how we would contribute to this transition. First of all, we needed to see who would be involved in this, in other words who our stakeholders were. We used the levels of transition management technique to evaluate this:
The landscape level: is determined by public opinion, media, science and social debate. For us this was:
- Seaweed farmers
o China, S. Korea, Indonesia and the Philippines
o 30 million tons of seaweed produced globally
o GreenWave
- Packaging producers
The middle level regime: the dynamic balance between governments, companies, institutions, and science. For us this was:
- U.N. asking for greener rules
- EU ban on throwaway plastics by 2021
- Policies to stimulate market demand
In the bottom level nicheare: technological innovations, start-ups, and small networks of actors who share and support new ideas and methods. For us this was:
- EvoWare
- Golfkarton
- Green Serendipity
Next a critical question came to us. Are we doing things better? Or are we actually doing better things? We figured that we were doing better things. After all, isn’t that what transition is about?Slowly the way of doing things changes, so things aren’t done better but different. Things are improving, whilst they are done in a different way. So; doing better things. Here are two different scenarios for each question that we figured:
• Doing things better: Avoiding plastic waste is no better than separating, so bring your own bags and bags with you to the store.
• Better things: When purchasing a plastic packed product, a contribution is made to the Packaging Waste Fund.
So overall, how do we see our company contributing to this transition?
- Reducing the use and production of plastics
- Changing the global mindset around waste (plastics and packaging)
- Proposing a viable model for other companies to follow
- Changing the typical lifecycle of packaging to a more efficient one
- Redefining what packaging entails
- Create new market as well as a possibility for existing market to transition (seaweed producers, logistics, etc.)
So now that we have covered how the transition will occur from our point of view, what remains to be asked is what’s next? Once this transition has occurred what will the future look like? We envisioned 4 different possibilities, which we laid down for you just below:
Future scenarios of Sea-Weed based packaging:
1. A future without plastic
a. Oil based plastic is banned
b. There is a sustainable solution of getting rid of the oil-based plastic
c. All packaging/ plastic bottles etc. is replaced by biobased, plant-based materials
d. Everything is being re-used
2. A future without biobased packaging
a. Plant based packaging is still a niche
b. The oil-based packaging is still leading
c. Government isn’t doing much
d. Climate change is not a big topic
3. A future without packaging
a. All packaging is banned
b. You buy everything without packaging and you take it home in reused pots etc.
c. You almost have no trash
d. People shop way more sufficient
4. A future in which biobased plastic and oil-based plastic go hand in hand
a. It will take way too much time to change from oil-based plastic to biobased plastic
b. That is why it will go hand in hand.
c. Packaging will be a combination of both
d. Where it is possible it will be 100% plant based
So, there you are, how we envision our world to transition to a better future, and how our company and each one of us can contribute to it! Together let’s transition to a brighter future!
