Lucozade Sport today (30 August) announces plans to trial plastic-free sports drinks and gels encased in an edible seaweed outer layer.
Brand owner Lucozade Ribena Suntory has teamed up with materials engineering start-up Skipping Rocks Lab to trial their revolutionary Ooho product at selected running events beginning in September 2018.
The Oohos are made entirely from seaweed extract; edible and compostable, they naturally biodegrade in four to six weeks – just as quickly as a piece of fruit. Ooho can be treated exactly like any other natural food and can be eaten or disposed of in food waste bins.
Oohos filled with Lucozade Sport drinks and gels will be trialled at Richmond Marathon on 16 September and Tough Mudder in West Sussex on 29 September. At each trial, hundreds of Oohos will be handed out to participants to gauge their responses to plastic-free hydration.
“As a sustainable packaging start-up, we are pioneering the use of natural seaweed extracts to create packaging with low environmental impact. We’re thrilled to be working with Lucozade Ribena Suntory to trial the use of our edible containers for sports events.”
Alongside this, Lucozade Ribena Suntorywill be carrying out research to better understand the long-term opportunity for plastic alternatives at mass-participation sporting events.
The Ooho partnership sits alongside a number of other innovative moves that see the company reinvent its relationship with single-use plastics. Most recently, Lucozade Ribena Suntory became a founding signatory of the UK Plastics Pact. As a signatory, the company has agreed to eliminate problematic or unnecessary single-use plastic packaging and ensure 100% of its plastic packaging is reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.
Additionally, Lucozade Ribena Suntory is rolling out its Global Innovation Challenge, a call to all innovators and entrepreneurs around the world to find practical solutions to help the company move beyond plastic. More information on the Global Innovation Challenge can be found here.
Lucy Grogut, Head of Marketing – Lucozade Sport at Lucozade Ribena Suntory, comments: “Lucozade Sport-filled Oohos are a completely new and exciting way to deliver the UK’s favourite sports drink to our consumers. They offer us a hugely exciting opportunity to reduce plastic use in the long-term, especially at mass-participation sporting events. As a company, we are always striving to do the right thing and this partnership is a positive step in becoming more sustainable.”
Pierre Paslier, Co-Founder, Skipping Rocks Lab, adds: “As a sustainable packaging start-up, we are pioneering the use of natural seaweed extracts to create packaging with low environmental impact. We’re thrilled to be working with Lucozade Ribena Suntory to trial the use of our edible containers for sports events.”
