L’attrait des petites choses

This makes it an exciting resource for the packaging industry, which is currently one of the largest drivers of plastic pollution. Single-use containers and bags make up a large part of the problem: around the world, we buy a million plastic bottles a minute and recycle less than 10% of what we throw away. This means the vast majority ends up in landfill, or leaking into nature, where it can take up to 1,000 years to decompose.  

By bringing together design and science, mujō has found a way to deliver a beautiful, functional alternative to plastic that is as harmless to the environment as a fruit peel. To learn more about their story, we talked to mujō’s co-founders Juni Neyenhuys and Annekathrin Grüneberg. Here, we ask them 7 questions about the industry they’re trying to change, their choices and dilemmas as creative entrepreneurs and where they’re headed to next. 

Tell us the story behind mujō! How did the idea first come about?

Juni: So, Anne and I actually met in 2018, during a university project. Anne was studying polymer physics at the technical university in Berlin and I was studying textile design together with our former co-founder Malu. At first, we were working on making a new type of yarn out of seaweed. And then in 2020, we realised there was a huge potential for these kinds of materials in the packaging market, which has a big problem with plastic pollution. That's why we said, okay, let's use this ability of seaweed—a material which can biodegrade really quickly—for the use case of packaging. This is how everything started.

Can you tell us a little bit about the industry you’re trying to change?

Anne: When it comes to packaging, the dominant materials on the market are glass, paper, plastic, metal. From these, the one that is causing the most severe pollution is plastic, because it does not biodegrade in nature. The other materials are less problematic, because they can erode with time. And even when they turn into smaller pieces they don't cause as much harm to the environment as plastic.

Unfortunately plastic has all these great properties: it’s super flexible, durable, you can form it in any way you want, and it’s cheaper than many other materials we have. Right now, we’re dealing with a kind of addiction to plastic, simply because it's so comfortable to use and it’s so hard to develop alternatives that perform in the same way.

Juni: To give you an idea of the numbers: the world currently produces 133 million tonnes of new plastic packaging every year. What’s also shocking is that studies have found that we as humans eat five grams of microplastic every week—the same amount as what’s in a credit card. So it's really everywhere.

This is also why recycling is not a great solution, because this technological cycle still exists in a biosphere. The problem with plastic is that it isn't food for any organism. And often, when things get recycled, the materials lose quality or are contaminated, so you can't use them again for food or cosmetic packaging. It also costs more to recycle than to buy virgin plastic.

How is mujō doing things differently in packaging?

Juni: Our bioplastic is made using polymers extracted from seaweed. Seaweed is a resource which can grow in salty waters all over the world. It naturally binds nutrients, it cleans the water, and it can even capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But what makes it so interesting for material design is that it can be cultivated without the need for any additional water or agricultural land, unlike most bio-based materials.

At mujō we make materials using biopolymers extracted directly from seaweed. We don't modify it chemically, which means that it still is in a structure that nature knows how to process. This is an advantage because other bioplastics can only degrade in very specific, industrial settings.