Just Eat trials seaweed-based sauce sachets as part of sustainability plan

Just Eat, a marketplace for UK takeaways, has launched a trail of seaweed-based packaging for sachets of sauce as part of its sustainability strategy.

The six-week trial, in partnership with London-based packaging start-up, Skipping Rocks Lab, will see an alginate-based material, known as ‘Ooho!’ used for sachets of ketchup and garlic sauce.

They are said to open just like normal sachets and can be thrown into either home composting, or domestic waste bins, to fully decompose in “a matter of weeks”.

The sachets are being trialled in The Fat Pizza, a Just Eat partner restaurant in Southend, with a view to them being rolled out more broadly across the country.

The introduction of the sachets is part of Just Eat’s package of measures to reduce the impact of takeaways on UK plastic waste levels and the amount of flexible plastic packaging that is thrown away.

“At Just Eat, we’re committed to helping reduce the impact of the takeaway industry on plastic waste levels and we’ve already taken measures to drive more environmentally-friendly behaviour among our restaurant partners and customers,” said Graham Corfield, UK Managing Director of Just Eat.

“The Ooho Sauce Sachets trial and the results from it, will form an important part of our ongoing work to develop innovative and credible alternatives to traditional single-use plastic packaging currently in use across the takeaway sector.”

Just Eat stopped selling ‘single-use’ plastics in its shop in March this year. It is also trialling a pre-ticked box on its food ordering app and website to allow customers to opt out of receiving plastics they do not need.