Packaging

When innovation vanishes: The science behind the VeriGreen Plus Cup

Sunday 07. December 2025 - VeriGreen Plus, a world-first bio-based biotransformable cup, redefines single-use plastics with recyclability, self-destruct technology, and practical design, and is set to make its UK debut at Packaging Innovations & Empack 2026.

Every now and then, something comes into your life and leaves without a trace. A fleeting moment, a passing encounter, but in the world of single-use plastics, those traces often linger far longer than anyone intended, etched into landscapes, rivers, and oceans for decades. A coffee cup, a straw, a takeaway container: today, they serve their purpose perfectly; tomorrow, they might begin a journey that outlives their usefulness, becoming part of a growing tide of fugitive waste that escapes collection, overwhelms infrastructure, and disrupts ecosystems.
 
Yet in the midst of this challenge, a new approach is emerging, one that combines scientific rigour, innovative materials, and practical operational thinking to fundamentally rethink what happens at the end of a cup’s life. Enter VeriGreen Plus, a world-first bio-based biotransformable cup, set to make its UK debut at Packaging Innovations & Empack 2026. Engineered to be ideally recyclable but if it escapes the recycling stream it will return to nature, it was developed through a collaboration between eGreen International, a family-owned company with a 75-year legacy in sustainable catering and packaging, and Polymateria, a cutting-edge polymer science and tech company based in London.
 
For Caroline Wiggins, Chief Executive of eGreen International, VeriGreen Plus represents more than just a product. “It’s a single-use product but made from fossil-fuel-free material,” she explains. “If you follow COP28 and all the global conversations, you’ll know the world is moving towards fossil-fuel-free, carbon-free materials. At the moment, all plastics come from oil. This material doesn’t. It’s made from recycled cooking oil that’s turned into a polymer, and then a technology is included that if the product is left in the open air, it biotransforms and returns to nature.”
 
A problem that demands innovation
The scale of disposable cup usage is almost incomprehensible: approximately 500 billion cups are used globally every day, most of them ending up in landfill, incineration, or – alarmingly – the natural environment. These seemingly mundane objects are major contributors to what the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and other studies classify as fugitive plastic waste: materials that escape even the best-managed recycling systems.
 
Celine Moreira, Global Partnerships Director at Polymateria, explains the rationale behind the technology. “The company was founded in 2015, around the time of the Paris Agreements,” she says. “At the time, there was a lot of talk around the end of life with plastics and what to do with plastic solutions. There was a gap in the market: no credible solution existed to tackle fugitive waste. There wasn’t a solution that was both circular and biodegradable. Especially in markets lacking infrastructure, that waste was only going to increase. That’s where we decided to start and design this technology.”
 
The goal was audacious but clear: retain the functional benefits of plastic – strength, flexibility, durability – while removing the long-term environmental consequences. This required careful scientific design, testing, and rigorous validation.
 
Steven Altmann-Richer, Corporate Affairs Officer at Polymateria, emphasises the importance of independent verification in achieving credibility. “Standardisation is incredibly important because it provides that neutral benchmark,” he says. “It’s much better to have that independently tested and follow those independent goalposts. The creation of the BSI PAS 9017 standard by BSI was an important moment for us because it enabled us to clearly demonstrate that we can do what we say we can. The biodegradation space has been quite contested, so going above and beyond to demonstrate it was critical.”
 
Science meets practicality: The self-destruct technology
What sets VeriGreen Plus apart is the combination of scientific innovation and practical operational design. At its core is a proprietary self-destruct technology. If a cup escapes collection or recycling, it doesn’t remain as an enduring pollutant. Instead, it initiates a process Polymateria calls biotransformation, transforming the plastic into a harmless, earth-friendly wax that fully biodegrades.
 
Caroline Wiggins elaborates: “The priority is always that cups are collected and recycled. But we know 80% of plastic that ends up in rivers and oceans comes from land. If a product escapes the recycling stream, the self-destruct technology means it will biotransform when exposed to heat, air, sunlight and moisture. It transforms into an earth-friendly wax. If you touch it, it feels like a powder, or icing sugar, and eventually it returns to the earth, where bacteria consume completely. That’s particularly important in environments with large crowds and a low collection rate. It’s not an excuse for littering, but it provides a safety net. The QR code on the cup also links to information for consumers, supporting education and behaviour change.”
 
Celine Moreira adds further technical clarity: “The VeriGreen Plus cup has a dormancy phase – a shelf life of three years. Within that time, the plastic behaves exactly like conventional plastic. The technology in the material is dormant during this phase, ensuring full strength, appearance, and usability. If it ends up in the environment, biotransformation is triggered, attacking both crystalline and amorphous regions of the polymer and transforming into a wax-like substance that microbes can safely metabolise. The timing of this transformation on the climate and location. In Southeast Asia or India, it can be as quick as three months; in the UK, slightly longer. Most importantly, it leaves no microplastics and no toxins, making the process safe and environmentally meaningful.”
 
Steven expands on the rigour behind this process: “Everything we do is backed by independent testing. There’s a specification, BSI PAS 9017, with stringent pass/fail criteria to guarantee no microplastics or toxins. This standard underpins rollout in multiple markets, from stadiums in the UK to coffee chains in Malaysia, providing confidence that the product does exactly what it claims.”
 
From laboratory to stadiums: Scaling in real-world settings
Innovation is only meaningful when it can be applied at scale, and VeriGreen Plus has already been tested under some of the most demanding operational conditions imaginable. Wiggins explains: “VeriGreen Plus is one of the two key products we’ll be showcasing at Packaging Innovations & Empack. We’ve only launched it at scale recently, with Twickenham Rugby among the first major adopters. They started using it in August at the Women’s World Cup. They were impressed by the credentials and keen to adopt a more sustainable approach. At a site like Twickenham, where 80,000 people are served drinks in a short window, reusables are difficult due to loss, cost, and logistics. So, a single-use cup that’s recyclable and fossil-fuel-free is a much more viable option.”
 
Liverpool Football Club has also recently received its first delivery of VeriGreen Plus cups, demonstrating rapid adoption by high-volume venues. The cups were even endorsed by King Charles, who commissioned them through his Terra Carta mandate. Wiggins notes, “He has seen the technology in action close up when he visited the labs at Imperial College. His stance is clear: every step towards reducing waste, improving recycling, and developing new sustainable technologies is worthwhile.”
 
For Polymateria, these high-profile deployments are more than symbolic; they are proof points that the technology works in complex, real-world environments. Twickenham, for example, achieved a 98% cup collection rate on its first attempt, an extraordinary result in a venue that serves tens of thousands of drinks in a very short window.
 
VeriGreen Plus is also backed by strong credentials: it is carbon neutral and made from 100% ISCC-certified material linked to used plant oil via Mass Balance, combining operational practicality with a clear environmental impact.
 
The collaborative path to market
The journey from laboratory to full-scale adoption has been deliberate and rigorous. Wiggins recalls, “The initial contact was actually a random email inviting us to a focus group. At first, we weren’t sure; it sounded like rocket science, but we went along. We didn’t commit to anything until the technology received a BSI report, and that was the game-changer. From there, we did trials in the factory, which took around 18 months because the material is heat-sensitive. It took three to four years from first contact to launch. And now it’s attracting attention from major users. Ideas come into the business in all sorts of ways: through scientists, inventors, partners, or end users approaching us with a need.”
 
Celine Moreira adds, “Sleepless nights are part of it – it’s still a startup. But at the beginning, there were really two brains behind the technology’s development, both with extensive experience in polymer chemistry and biodegradation. We spent years balancing molecular structure, chemical formulation, and mechanical performance. Biodegradability sounds simple in theory, but you’re literally destroying the plastic while maintaining its practical properties for end users. It took trial and error and years of testing to get it right.”
 
Steven emphasises the broader ecosystem: “Innovation across this space is welcome. No single solution is a silver bullet. VeriGreen Plus works best when combined with proper collection, recycling infrastructure, and consumer education. That’s why standardisation, independent testing, and credible verification are essential. They give manufacturers and end users confidence to adopt new materials and scale solutions globally.”
 
Designing for operational diversity
Not every business operates in the same way, and eGreen reflects that reality. Wiggins highlights, “Not every business is identical. Some can afford reusables, some can’t. Some have dishwashers, some don’t. Festivals, for example, would need a large number of dishwashers — the logistics are significant. You can’t have a one-size-fits-all approach. We offer choice so customers can match the right material, the right format, and the right operational model to their needs.”
 
This philosophy ensures that whether the venue is a stadium, a school, a coffee chain, or a festival, the cup can function efficiently while supporting environmental goals. It also positions VeriGreen Plus within a twin-track approach: reuse where possible, recycle where feasible, and biodegrades safely when all else fails.
 
The global perspective
Polymateria’s mission is inherently global. Celine Moreira elaborates, “We want manufacturers to retain the benefits of plastic while tackling the bad part, the persistence in nature. Infrastructure varies worldwide. In Europe, recycling systems exist but are far from perfect. In countries like India, China, or Southeast Asia, the infrastructure is less developed, and fugitive waste can be 60-80% or higher. Our technology adapts to different climates and systems, with carefully calibrated dormancy and activation phases, providing both a shelf life and an end-of-life solution that fits local conditions.”
 
Steven adds, “Standards such as PAS 9017 and associated ecolabels are critical to scale. In Malaysia, the largest coffee chain uses biodegradable technology for straws, and other major chains for straws, cups, bags – a whole host of items, all of which are underpinned by these standards. That gives governments, consumers, and businesses confidence to adopt new solutions without fear of failure.”
 
A broader industry message
Finally, Wiggins reflects on the wider context for innovation in single-use plastics. “The industry benefits from messages like this, even if they don’t circulate as widely as they should. There are so many claims that it can be hard for operators to sort the wood from the trees. People often focus only on the product or the material. But what really matters is the end-to-end picture: how something is made, where it’s made, how much energy it uses, how far it travels, how it’s used, and what happens to it afterwards. Not everyone has the resources to investigate all of that, but it is increasingly important.”
 
She concludes with a reminder of the broader environmental imperative: “Government policy is very clear: reduce, reuse, recycle. That is the mantra. Reduce where you can—reuse where possible. Recycle the rest. VeriGreen Plus is designed to operate within this framework, supporting businesses, consumers, and the planet simultaneously.”
 
The future of single-use, without the burden
VeriGreen Plus demonstrates that single-use doesn’t have to mean single-lifetime harm. Through scientific innovation, rigorous testing, and practical design, the collaboration between eGreen and Polymateria offers a scalable, credible, and operationally robust solution. From the stadiums of the UK to coffee chains in Asia, the cups are already making an impact, proving that environmental responsibility and practical usability can coexist.
 
As Celine Moreira reflects, “We’ve perfected the technology over ten years. We have something of real value to offer the markets – benefits for manufacturers, policy support, and most importantly, a safer path for our environment.” Caroline Wiggins echoes this: “We’re already working on the next generation of materials and products.  You can’t stand still. Legislation changes fast, and it’s hard to predict what the next five years will bring. You have to be flexible and adapt to what customers and consumers want.”
 
Every now and then, a cup comes along that changes the way we think about sustainability, and VeriGreen Plus is one of them. Tested under some of the most demanding operational conditions, linked to used plant oil via Mass Balance, and carbon neutral*, it proves that single-use can be both practical and planet-friendly. Now, for the first time, you will have the chance to meet the minds behind the innovation and see it in action at Packaging Innovations & Empack 2026, taking place 11 & 12 February at the NEC, Birmingham. Register now for your free visitor pass and secure your spot to explore the latest in sustainable packaging innovations.