Sustainable Energy

Just Eat broadens trial of seaweed-based sauce sachets to fight plastic pollution

Key Points
  • Trial is expected to prevent roughly 40,000 plastic sauce sachets from being used in London.
  • Just Eat is among a number of big businesses trying to tackle the issue of plastic pollution. 
The sachets are plant based and biodegradable. 
Just Eat

Online food delivery business Just Eat said Tuesday it had expanded its trial of seaweed-based sauce sachets.

Earlier this year, Just Eat collaborated with sustainable packaging business Skipping Rocks Lab to trial the fully compostable sachets at a restaurant in Southend, Essex.  

Lasting six weeks over the summer, the pilot resulted in over 6,000 servings of ketchup using the seaweed-based sachets. The plant based sachets are biodegradable and decompose in around six weeks.

The new trial will involve 10 restaurants in London and last eight weeks. The sachets will again be filled with ketchup. Just Eat said the trial was expected to prevent roughly 40,000 plastic sauce sachets from being used in London.

Just Eat's U.K. Managing Director, Graham Corfield, said in a statement that the business was committed to tackling plastic pollution in the takeaway industry.

Corfield added that the seaweed based sachets were "fast emerging as an alternative to the traditional plastic packaging."

Just Eat is among a number of big businesses trying to tackle the issue of plastic pollution. Starbucks, for example, has laid out plans to get rid of single-use plastic straws from all its stores by 2020, while Evian has said it will produce all its plastic bottles from 100 percent recycled plastic by 2025.