Bioluminescent Future
It has been nearly six years since the iconic images of marine plastic pollution in Blue Planet II made headlines across the world. Much water flowed under the bridge since then.
There have always been those pioneers who have acknowledged the dire crisis of the use of unsustainable materials. Stella McCartney who has put animal rights & sustainability in fashion in the spotlight in the 90s. Ellen MacArthur who in 2009 established her namesake foundation after encountering the Pacific Garbage Patch and realising the fragility of nature.
Teemill’s founders Robert and Martin Drake-Knight, who saw the impact of plastic pollution on the beaches of their beloved Isle of Wight and in 2009 founded a fashion company based on circular economy, where every organic cotton t-shirt is designed to be sent back to be remade. 4Ocean’s Alex Schulze and Andrew Cooper the two surfers from Boca Raton, Florida, who in 2017 established one of the early enterprises to eliminate plastic from the oceans and as of today have removed more than 30 million pounds of waste from various oceans and coastal communities globally.
Sulapac - a Finnish company co-founded in 2016 by Suvi Haimi and Laura Tirkkonen-Rajasalo, who are taking sustainability one step further - sourcing raw materials to design packaging that biodegrade fully without leaving permanent microplastics behind, even in marine environments.
By now, it would be unfathomable to ignore the devastation plastic pollution is causing to our ecosystems: oceans, rivers, earth and biodiversity. And yet it fills me with hope to know, that there are those wonderfully passionate people that are using their innovative thinking and ingenuity to find ways to alleviate the crisis and build a better, more sustainable and more conscientious world.
In order to sustain our fragile natural ecosystems, a whole new design and manufacturing eco-system has to be built. Firstly, we have to relinquish our dependancy on petroleum-based, synthetic and non-recyclable materials.
Governments need to step up plastic pollution legislation - how easy would it be to follow in the footsteps of the French government (kudos!) - and ban the sale of fruit & vegetables in the supermarkets wrapped in plastic?! It could be taken way beyond fruit and veg as well as beyond French borders. Governments can also boost innovation with tax breaks, lab facilities and other incentives for bio-design materials entrepreneurs.
In the private sector, the developments are way ahead. Angel investors & venture funds are actively engaged in building an infrastructure of impact investing. Funds such as Blue Horizon, Agronomics, Collab SoS and other funds, are investing in a portfolio of start-ups that are determined to leave the planet in a better shape than they have found it.
Bananatex®️ is manufacturing the world’s first durable, technical fabric made purely from the naturally grown Abacá banana plants - 100% natural, plastic free and compostable.
Keel Labs is producing Kelsun™ - a seaweed-based yarn with a significantly lower environmental footprint than legacy fibres, as well as looking to create a bio-design lab for other materials.
Galy.co is harnessing the power of cellular agriculture to make cotton and other crops from plant cells. Galy believes making those crops in the lab - can be done better, faster, more efficiently, and with much less environmental and social impact.
CoffeeB - a company that produces Coffee Balls, which are not only sustainably sourced and transported, but also comprise neither aluminium nor plastic. It is a capsule system - completely without capsules. Once you've enjoyed your coffee, the Coffee Ball can easily be composted in full in your own garden.
Unless Collective - believes that fast fashion will continue to cover the world in plastic…unless. Unless Collective makes plant based streetwear designed to leave zero plastic waste. Unless in collaboration with Natural Fiber Wielding developed real-world applications that turn sneakers and other apparel into valuable inputs for new soil products, allowing Unless to use the decomposition process to grow something entirely new.
Natural Fiber Wielding - the NFW materials platform empowers brands to meet their sustainability goals, employing materials that come from nature and can return to the earth as nutrients for future growth. The NFW platform unlocks plastic-free production across apparel, footwear, accessories, automotive, and home goods. NFW develops innovative materials such as CLARUS® recycled wool, hemp & cotton - precision engineered to improve performance ; MIRUM® high-performance plastic-free alternative to leather; PLIANT™ footwear outsoles and TUNERA™ plastic-free foam.
Academia is also catching up with the trend. Central Saint Martins school has just launched the first intake in September 2023 for a Master’s degree in Biodesign, and schools such as Royal College of Art , Rhodes School of Design, Parsons School of Design, Politecnico di Milano as well as other schools, opening design labs and conducting ground breaking research in bio-materials, and interdisciplinary studies on the intersection of nature and human centred design.
Hence it is even more disheartening to find out that some individuals and corporates, do not take advantage of the available technological advances while having the means, resources and opportunities to do so.
Primark, Boohoo and other fast fashion companies continue to rely on overproducing mass quantities of cheap garments (using unsustainable dyes and manufacturing methods), which then end up in landfills and cause environmental problems around the world.
Pringles and Walkers continue to produce non-recyclable foil packaging. In the case of Pringles the non-recyclable foil lining poses a challenge for recycling systems worldwide as it is notoriously difficult to separate from the paperboard exterior, making it nearly impossible to recycle using conventional methods. Meanwhile, Walkers produces 11m crisp packets a day at its Leicester factory, one of the world's largest crisp production plants. That means 4 billion non-recyclable crisp packets are being produced every year!
Some companies such as Mars, Nestlé and Cadbury although taking some steps towards sustainability, are either not going ‘all in’ or not doing it fast enough. Mars has started a pilot in May 2023, trialling more environmentally friendly materials for Mars Food's chocolate bars. But if Nestlé and others are only aiming to “switch” to recyclable materials by 2025 - of which not all end up at a recycling facility, but rather in a landfill or in the ocean or get incinerated, releasing toxic gases into atmosphere - by then the harm to the ocean marine life and soil might be irreversible.
It is also transparent that despite the wide outcry from the public after the release of Blue Planet II and many of the individuals opting for a more conscientious and sustainable lifestyle - recycling, consuming less, purchasing more environmentally friendly products even if the cost is higher; there are those that are not on the same page (or planet) and simply don’t care.
Here is a picture of an entrance to a public garden in London, strewn with plastic cups and straws, microplastics seeping into the soil beneath it, right into the roots of an ancient tree, destroying the soil and ground water underneath it. The fact that the nearest bin with recycling options is less than a few yards away, makes it even more incomprehensible.
Plastic pollution at a public garden in London
The question is: why are we choosing to drown ourselves in plastic? To which I cannot find a logical explanation.
But we cannot give in to pessimism and we cannot give up. We should double down on making this planet even greener and bluer despite the challenges. We should support those passionate entrepreneurs, think different and find innovative solutions to solve the marine and soil plastic pollution as fast as possible.
