Alvin: How is your company leveraging innovative design and systems thinking to help global brands transition away from plastic packaging?
We work with brands to focus on their sustainability vision and match this with the necessary design. We educate brands to understand that there must be a balance between holistic solutions and corporate or stakeholder objectives. A balance between product and packaging specifications versus the overall impact on the environment. A balance between shelf life and recyclability or compostability.
Once there is consensus, we develop specific design solutions catered to driving their goals. We run their existing packaging designs through our computer models to come up with viable fibre solutions.
Alvin: What are some of the biggest challenges in scaling regenerative moulded fibre packaging, and how is your company addressing them?
In certain countries, there is a lack of availability of molded fibre manufacturers, or the equipment is outdated. There is a need for new capital investments in machines and processes. NBCo is willing to work with these manufacturers to analyse their limitations and provide the necessary technology.
Kelvin: How do you foster global collaborations to accelerate the adoption of sustainable solutions across industries?
Transparency is key. We are open with brand partners about our solutions and limitations and transparent with production suppliers about our requirements and the need for continued development.
We also try to keep things simple, breaking down barriers through multiple decision-makers within an organisation by implementing a top-down approach to real change. We work with brands that have quick market introduction processes and are willing to take accountability for the responsibilities that come with conversion to greener packaging options. Our Fast Forward 50 campaign allows for 50 bottles to be trialled by 50 brands for free, proving we’re genuine about what we’re doing.
Kelvin: Can you share an example of a successful collaboration that has led to meaningful sustainability improvements on a global scale?
A top global consumer tech brand produces approximately 250–300 million products for sale each year. They worked with us on a ten-year conversion plan to eliminate plastic packaging entirely. By 2024, they had successfully converted 99% of their target.
This was only possible because the CEO mandated the initiative from the top down, ensuring that all departments saw the conversion project through, despite the challenges.
They were clear with us about their high expectations for aesthetics and structural requirements and collaborated with us through R&D to achieve their desired standards.
We were clear with them about pricing and economies of scale, and they were willing to proceed knowing there was a clear roadmap to reducing costs over time.
More importantly, they introduced innovative packaging even though no other brand in that space had considered fibre as a material of choice for consumer electronics due to its physical properties.
Sian: Why do you believe eliminating single-use materials is essential to addressing the plastic crisis, and what alternatives do you advocate for?
We have normalised waste when waste is far from normal. We are the only species on the planet that creates waste - think about that for a moment. How has this happened?
Fifty years ago, the use of plastic dramatically accelerated. It was a material so light, adaptable and cheap that we could use it once and throw it away. Plastic turbocharged the shift from our old habits of repairing, reusing, renting, and sharing to a lifestyle of single-use.
The plastic crisis presents an opportunity for a fundamental shift – not just a material swap but a systemic change in how we live, how we produce, and how we use natural resources. Moving towards fully circular systems with dramatically less waste will have wide-ranging benefits beyond just plastic pollution. It will positively impact biodiversity loss, mass chemical pollution, carbon emissions, overuse of natural resources, hyper consumption, human health and human rights. We need to transition from this toxic indestructible material to materials and systems that work in harmony with nature, not against it.
Sian: How can packaging be designed to align with nature’s principles, and what are some examples of successful implementations?
Everything is designed - the buildings we live and work in, the clothes we way, the cars and roads that connect us and of course every single product and its packaging. But we have lost sight of how to work in harmony with nature and have instead created billions of tonnes of harmful waste that will pollute the planet for centuries.
We talk about ‘circular economies and materials’ as if this is something new, but the reality is that the only circle we need to learn from is nature itself. There is no waste in nature; everything becomes a nutrient for the next stage of growth. Imagine if we could manufacture all the materials we need in the same way - borrowing from nature while ensuring they remain as clean as possible, so they return to the earth as nutrients, rather than pollutants and toxins.
At PlasticFree, the global solutions platform, we attract the incredible innovations that will bring us back into harmony with nature. Plant proteins creating flexible films, algae and seaweed used as coatings, agri-waste transformed into molded fibre packaging that can safely return to the earth. Companies like Notpla, ShellWorlks, Sway, Sparxell and NBCo are pioneering the materials of the future, providing industry the solutions we need.
In the near future, material innovation using biotechnology and AI, will create materials with properties we have only dreamed of. For the past fifty years, we have been complacent about material innovation because relied on plastic. Now is the time to double down on innovation - there is no time to waste.
Sian: What systemic changes are needed at the policy and industry levels to drive a meaningful shift away from plastic reliance?
2025 is a milestone for many major consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies, as they strive to meet the plastic commitments they made five years ago when the world truly woke up to the plastic crisis. Not a single company is on track to hit their targets.
This makes it clear that voluntary action from industry, while commendable, is not enough. We need to provide companies with clarity and certainty - and the only way to do that is through stringent policies and laws.
Try finding a plastic fork in UK today. You won’t - because they were banned. And because they were banned, industry innovated.
Governments must establish a clear roadmap of plastic action, with immovable deadlines for bans on single-use plastics and fiscal policies that drive innovation. With the UN Global Plastics Treaty nearing its conclusion later this year, now is the time for governments to step up and show leadership rather than once again bowing to the fossil fuel lobbyists once again.
For more information, please visit www.nbco.world/ and www.aplasticplanet.com/