Imperial Graduates Win £1M Earthshot Prize for Seaweed Packaging Invention
12/3/22 • Imperial College London
A startup founded by Imperial graduates has won £1 million in the Prince of Wales’ Earthshot Prize.
Notpla, founded by Pierre Paslier and Rodrigo Garcia while they were students at Imperial, has developed a seaweed-based biodegradable alternative to plastic. They are the first UK team to win a prize in the competition.
The team won in the Earthshot category ‘Build a Waste-Free World’, awarded to efforts to eliminate food waste, single-use packaging and inspire a new generation of people, companies and industries to reuse, repurpose and recycle.
Founded in 2014, the Notpla team met while studying Innovation Design Engineering, offered jointly by Imperial and the Royal College of Art. During their time at Imperial, they received support from Imperial’s well-established entrepreneurial ecosystem, including Imperial Enterprise Lab, the Centre for Climate Change Innovation and the Imperial White City Incubator.