What is better than reducing plastic sachet waste (and plastic pollution in general)?
Eliminating it. Completely.
Enter Evoware, the Indonesia-based startup motivated by ugly realities:
- Their country is the world’s second-biggest plastic polluter—second only to China.
- 90% of all plastic waste ends up in the ocean, coating ocean floors and feeding fish.
- By 2050 there will be more plastic than fish swimming in the seas.
- 5 out of the 6 poorest provinces in Indonesia produce more seaweed than they can sell. Seaweed farmers struggle to make a living.
Evoware is on a mission to create innovative solutions from seaweed to solve plastic waste issues while improving Indonesian farmer’s livelihoods.
Continuing to grow seaweed for packaging purposes will also aid in reducing CO2 emissions. According to FastCompany, “An area of ocean roughly the size of a baseball field can grow 40 tons of seaweed in a year, absorbing 20.7 tons of greenhouse gases.” Furthermore, seaweed does not require the use of precious freshwater resources and harmful chemical fertilizers.
The startup determined to change our planet’s dismal fate made its debut with an edible seaweed cup. Now their zero waste product line has expanded to encompass both biodegradable and edible grades. The biodegradable category includes soap packaging; the edible Evoware merchandise includes burger and sandwich wraps, coffee, tea, and dry seasoning sachets (the sachets dissolve in hot water and all edible goods are odorless and tasteless). Other perks to Evoware products include:
- Health benefits — gluten free, high fiber, vitamins/minerals
- Customizable — can be created to have a specific taste, color, and brand logo
- Halal certified
One major challenge Evoware will have to face is Indonesian mentality. “Despite the abundance of plastic waste, Indonesians don’t yet recognize a need to solve the problem,” shares David Christian, cofounder of Evoware. “The awareness, understanding, and sense of urgency to minimize the use of single-use plastic is still very low. This makes our bioplastic seem irrelevant and unnecessary,” he adds.
Luckily, this innovative company’s future looks bright, as they were one of six winners in the $1 million Circular Design Challenge.
Evoware is directing their island nation toward a sustainable path that benefits the entire globe while simultaneously helping those at home who need it most.
Take some notes, US.
To read more about Evoware’s bioplastic brilliance, go to FastCompany.
Photo: Samuel Zeller via Unsplash
