The Prince of Wales visited one of the Earthshot Prize winners on Tuesday, popping in to see how the £1 million prize has affected their company output.
William stopped by the production offices at Notpla, a UK-based company that won the ‘Build a Waste Free World’ prize in 2022. The company works to produce a plastic alternative from seaweed and has supplied their ‘not plastic’ bottles and packages to companies and events like the London Marathon and Just Eat Takeaway.com.
During his visit, William met with co-founders Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez and Pierre Paslier and took part in producing Notpla Rigid and Notpla Ooho, two products that could help eliminate single-use plastics.
Since winning the £1 million prize in December, Gonzalez and Paslier have used the money to hire ten new workers and invest in machinery that will help build the moulds for new Notpla products that Prince William helped produce during his visit.
In a statement on the Earthshot Prize website, Gonzalez said: “Winning The Earthshot Prize has been transformative for our business. We’ve established commercial relationships with some of the giants of the industry, our production has expanded, and we’ve added key hires to our team in order to help us accelerate our impact in restoring the health of our planet.
“With new investment we will continue to grow and scale, transforming the packaging and food service industry and ensuring consumers have access to the plastic-free solutions that they’re demanding.”
The Earthshot Prize money has also helped Notpla prepare for a round of funding and investing. The company is also planning to produce Earthshot Prize-branded takeaway boxes that will be available in the summer, made of the seaweed alternative materials that will help replace almost 2 billion plastic takeaway packages.
On the Kensington Palace social media accounts, the Prince shared: “Great to see how their pioneering seaweed and plant-based plastic alternative is making waves…”
Last week William announced that the third Earthshot Prize ceremony will take place in Singapore in November.
