Marine Innovation, a social venture supported by SK Innovation, has announced that its eco-friendly egg tray made of seaweed by-products won a special award at WorldStar Global Packaging Awards 2021.

The WorldStar Global Packaging Awards is an annual world competition held by the World Packaging Organization (WPO) to promote the technological development of innovative and eco-friendly packaging materials, and is the world’s most prestigious event in the field of packaging materials.

Due to the COVID-19, the judging process for 2021 awards was done online but despite some limitations, the number of submissions this year has hit the highest in the history of the WorldStar Global Packaging Awards. WPO received 345 submissions from 34 countries, and among them 194 winners of WorldStar Packaging Awards 2021 were selected.

 ▲ Marine Innovation’s eco-friendly egg tray won special award at WorldStar Global Packaging Awards 2021 (photo from https://www.worldstar.org/winners_detail/363/)

The awarded egg tray of Marine Innovation can be fully biodegradable within 90 days. Moreover, the production cost of this egg tray is considerably low. The processing time of seaweed by-product is only one-third of wood material. Using seaweed by-product pulp reduces not only raw material cost by 30% and energy use by 80%, but also CO₂ emissions. In addition, since it does not use any chemicals during the production process, it is harmless to the human body and the environment. It also has excellent durability, so it has the potential to expand to other packaging products such as food containers, plates, cardboards, diapers, and eco-friendly filters.

 ▲ The cost reduction effect of Marine Innovation’s packaging products made of seaweed by-product

Marine Innovation’s eco-friendly technology is indeed being recognized beyond Korea. Last November, the company became one of only three Asian companies that won the 100,000 USD grant of Innovation Impact Grant Programme at Expo 2020 Dubai. In addition, Marine Innovation is preparing to officially launch new products such as eco-friendly plates and paper cups soon.