We saw plastic today and it disappeared in water!

FlexSea

By Thibaut Monfort Micheo – Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of FlexSea.

For us, it is very important for us to transfer knowledge to the next generations. We believe it is part of FlexSea’s identity to raise awareness and educate the public… and the young ones too.

I started my journey in sustainability with my mom who always had me at her booth at the Monacology sustainability fair in Monaco and she would educate many classes of school kids between the ages of five and twelve on sustainability, waste reduction, plastic pollution, etc.

Back in November 2021, we were very happy to be invited by the Centre for Climate Change Innovation to participate in the COP26 Kick-Start event that the Ri organised with schools as part of the Mayor of London’s activities before the COP26. This event was attended by around 200 students from around London between the ages of twelve and fourteen.

The way we approached the Ri event was very simple. We wanted it to be fun, educational and have a visually pleasing experience. For that, we prepared many samples of sachets, bags and pouches to wrap various everyday items (food and non-food). We would then ask the kids: ‘What do all those things have in common?’

First, they would comment about food products, but we would point at cosmetics packaged in FlexSea film and say no… ‘look closer. Very few pupils noticed they were all packaged in plastic. We could take that as a win to prove how transparent our material is… but this had a sour aftertaste when realizing that overpackaging was such an acquired standard even at such a young age.

But it came with a slither of hope, because most of the students would know a lot about plastic pollution, the nefarious effects, the importance of sorting waste, etc.

So, we asked them what if we could make a plastic that disappears in water? They could not believe it. So, my co-founder Carlo had the genius idea to prepare mono doses of hot chocolate packaged in FlexSea and pour hot water on it.

How amazed were the students when seeing the packaging magically melt away and the hot water turning into a silky-smooth hot chocolate beverage!

That was our little input of hope in the future, we hope they can now go back home to their parents and say ‘We saw plastic today and it disappeared in water!’. We hope this mystical image sticks in their head and sprouts innovative mindsets in their future careers.

About FlexSea

FlexSea designs the future of single-use plastic packaging with a revolutionary home-compostable film based on a sustainable and affordable resource: seaweed.