Marine Innovation, a social venture that has been recognized for its eco-friendly technology in South Korea, is expanding its overseas business in full swing. The company announced to have signed a three-year contract with French brand ARGO for the export of eco-friendly plates and cups using seaweed materials. The value of this contract is said to be worth 3 million Euros in total.

The brand name of Marine Innovation’s products that are made from seaweed by-products is Janoodam, shortened form of the Korean sentence that translates to “Sharing and keeping the nature.” In May this year, Janoodam was recognized by DIN CERTCO, the certification body of TÜV Rheinland Group, and is the certification body for the issuance of the DIN-Marks and others. It is well-known for nearly 50 years of experience especially in the field of Compostable, Biobased and Recycled Materials certification services.

▲ The posters promoting Marine Innovation’s Janoodam products

Marine Innovation has been supported SK Innovation for a few years. Founded in 2019, Marine Innovation’s mission is to “think and act right for the next generation.” After a long, strenuous process of contemplation regarding the environmental issues and climate crisis, the company found the fundamental resolution to produce green packaging materials from seaweed materials.

▲ The eco-friendly Janoodam cups and plates made from seaweed by-products

Conventional paper cups use of polyethylene (PE) coatings, which are plastic chemicals. Therefore, drinking from those paper cups is the same as drink a large quantity of micro and nano plastics. Unlike them, the seaweed paper cups of Janoodam are made with Marine Innovation’s safe technology that does not produce any microplastics at all. Furthermore, Janoodam cups do not contaminate the environment because they are completely biodegradable in 56 days after being disposed.

With advanced eco-friendly and safe technology, Marine Innovation’s seaweed paper cups received a non-detection certification in the microplastic analysis test of the Korea Research Institute for Analysis (KATR). In addition, the products showed excellent performance in water and oil resistance test conducted with Applied Paper Technology, an authorized US testing institute, thereby proving the superiority of Marine Innovation’s self-developed eco-friendly chitosan coating.