WikiCells, a startup founded by Harvard professor David Edwards, has developed self-contained edible packaging in an effort to reduce plastic and paper waste. Small particles of chocolate, dried fruit, nuts and seeds are used to make a nutritional gelatinous skin or WikiCell that houses and protects food products such as yogurt, ice cream, juice or pudding. The company plans to market ice cream packaged in an edible shell this summer at the Lab Store Paris, which has introduced other concepts from Edwards including the CellBag, breathable food product Le Whif and Aeroshot, Cool Hunting reported.
Sealed Air Corp. and Ecovative Design have agreed to accelerate the production, sales and distribution of a packaging made from agricultural byproducts and mushroom roots, also known as mycelium. Sealed Air will be the exclusive licensee of Ecovative’s mushroom roots-based material technology in North America for protective packaging applications. Sealed Air recently agreed to adopt the How2Recycle Label, a voluntary recycling label developed by GreenBlue’s Sustainable Packaging Coalition.
Domatar, which designs, manufactures and distributes fiber-based products, has expanded its online calculator The Paper Trail to include more products, an additional mill and updates to help customers learn more about the environmental and social impacts of its business. The Paper Trail site develops personalized reports that measure Domatar products across water usage, the distance its fiber travels to a paper mill, greenhouse gas emissions, waste sent to landfills and renewable energy use. The Paper Trail will now include EarthChoice Tradebook, a publishing grade product, and Lynx Opaque Ultra, a commercial printing paper, as well as updated environmental impact data for all grades highlighted within the tool.
United Biscuits, the maker of McVitie’s, has partnered with TerraCycle to launch a recycling initiative that encourages individuals, schools and organizations to collect and send in biscuit wrappers, which will be converted into new products such as park benches. The so-called McVitie’s Biscuit Wrapper Brigade aims to keep wrappers from ending up in UK landfills. Collection locations will be awarded TerraCycle points for shipments of more than 100 units. The points can be redeemed for a variety of charitable gifts or a payment of €0.01 per point to the non-profit organization or school of your choice.