Seaweed packaging pioneer Notpla piloted a rugby-ball-inspired sustainable drinks carrier at last month’s match between England XIV and France XIV.
While England and France’s rugby players battled it out at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium in June, visiting fans enjoyed their drinks in plastic-free carriers in a UK first.
British sustainable packaging startup Notpla debuted its seaweed-based beverage carriers at the rugby match, extending its collaboration with the stadium and Levy, the sports hospitality arm of catering giant Compass Group.
The home-compostable, biodegradable packaging solutions will help replace the 400,000-plus beer carriers utilised at the stadium annually.
“We’re proud to work with innovators like Notpla to deliver practical, visible steps towards a more sustainable matchday and event experience,” said Gary Cargill, catering services director at Twickenham Experience, which manages the Allianz Stadium. “This new drinks carrier is just one more example of how these changes, delivered at scale, can make a big difference for our fans and the planet.”
Allianz Stadium has replaced over 100,000 single-use items with Notpla
The new carriers were inspired by the shape of a rugby ball, and co-designed with the specific challenges of matchday service in mind, from speed and stackability to how easy they are to dispose of.
They build on Allianz Stadium’s broader sustainability push – it has no plastic straws, stirrers or sauce sachets, and 25% of its food offerings are plant-based. The pilot follows the venue’s trial of Notpla’s seaweed-based chip forks during the 2024 Six Nations Championship.
“Working directly with the team at Allianz Stadium has allowed us to design and deliver true packaging innovation at speed,” said Pierre Paslier, co-founder and co-CEO of Notpla.
“This kind of collaboration – with a venue willing to lead and a caterer committed to action – is how we make plastic-free stadiums a reality and really tackle the problem of single-use plastics head on,” he added.
The stadium’s partnership with Notpla has already helped replace more than 100,000 single-use food packaging and cutlery items, half of which were in the past year alone. It has also cut more than 86kg of plastic from source, and helped the venue avoid nearly a million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
This impact is only set to grow with the new drinks carriers now going live, which will be complemented by further packaging innovations by Notpla.
Notpla’s seaweed-based plastic alternative approved by chefs
Founded in 2014 by Paslier and fellow CEO Rodrigo García González, Notpla has raised £35M in funding to date, which includes a £20M Series A extension it secured last year.
The firm is tackling one of the packaging industry’s biggest pain points: plastic. Derived from petroleum, these materials take between 20 and 500 years to break down, and are responsible for 3.4% of global emissions. Meanwhile, over 90% of plastic pollution comes from single-use products, prompting policymakers the UK and US states like California to ban certain plastics.
The EU is set to outlaw all single-use plastics by the end of the decade. And just as well, considering a fifth of its packaging waste comes from plastic. Globally, we create 141 million tonnes of plastic packaging every year.
Notpla has replaced over 21.5 million pieces of plastic, and over half of this impact came through in 2024. Last year, the firm’s sustainable solutions – which have a 70% lower climate footprint than conventional packaging – helped avoid 600 tonnes of CO2e.
This is thanks to its expansive sports partnerships. Working with Levy, Notpla has rolled out its seaweed-lined packaging across venues like Villa Park, the Kia Oval, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the Principality Stadium and more. Its eco solutions have appeared at UEFA Champions League matches, as well as events at The O2 (which has been in the news thanks to its all-vegan menu during Billie Eilish’s six-night run).
The seaweed packaging has a seal of approval from chefs too. “We were initially sceptical about using a product made from seaweed to replace plastic, but we found after numerous tests that there was no leaking,” said Shawn Lawson, executive chef at the Allianz Stadium. “So we’ve found that it’s just as good as using any form of plastic product that we’ve used in the past.”
Other firms innovating with sustainable food and drink packaging include Xampla, Vytal, Saveggy, Sway, B’Zeos, and Loliware, among others.
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