# An Overview of the Alternative Use of Seaweeds to Produce Safe and Sustainable Bio-Packaging
## 5 Future Perspective and Conclusions  
The interest in seaweed hydrocolloids grows, and they have been considered potential candidates to produce biodegradable plastic. In support of this, the London start-up company Notpla has created a natural, edible, plastic-like material that can biodegradable within four to six weeks. The membrane is made from seaweed farmed in northern France; first, it is dried and ground down into powder, and then transformed into a thick, gloopy fluid, which dries to form a plastic-like substance. This natural plastic could lead to a decrease in plastic pollution all over the world, which generates 300 million tons of plastic waste each year. Another project involving sustainable plastic is the project Mak-Pak, launched by the collaboration between researchers of Alfred Wegener Institute, Hochschule Bremerhaven University, and the fast-food chain Nordsee. This project developed the production of a sustainable macroalgae-based packaging for fast food, which has been already tested by real consumers.  
Nevertheless, packaging made from pure phycocolloids does not meet the criteria for bioplastic of commercial use, due to their poor mechanical and water barrier properties. The addition of biopolymers or plasticizers will improve the performance of the biomaterial. The antioxidant and antimicrobial properties of seaweed-derived bioactive compounds will also improve the maintenance and shelf-life of food and medicines.  
The use of seaweed for biodegradable, safe, and hygienic packaging attracts the interest of the marine pharmacology and food industry, which may not only exploit the potential of seaweed-derived bioactive compounds for the development of novel and natural drugs, or healthy food products and supplements, but also provide a sustainable packaging that preserves them and does not alter their properties, in a sustainable and eco-friendly way.  
Unfortunately, the traditional extraction of phycocolloids has some disadvantages, which can be solved by the adoption of more eco-friendly extraction methods, which are already proven; however, they still need continuous research to reduce implementation costs and to persuade industrial investment and further studies to develop these sustainable technologies.  
The potential of seaweed-derived bioactive compounds is of great interest for the development of sustainable and eco-friendly bioplastic, which can be seen as a solution for replacing petroleum-based plastics and to avoid the large production of plastic waste.  
**Author Contributions:** Conception and design of the idea: [PERSON] and [PERSON]; writing and bibliographic research: [PERSON] and [PERSON]; supervision and manuscript revision: [PERSON] and [PERSON]. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
**Funding:** This work is financed by national funds through FCT--Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P., within the scope of the projects UIDB/04292/2020--granted to MARE--Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre and UIDP/50017/2020+UIDB/50017/2020 (by FCT/MTCES) granted to CESAM--Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies. This research was co-financed by the project MENU--Marine Macroalgae: Alternative recipes for a daily nutritional diet (FA_05_2017_011), funded by the Blue Fund under Public Notice No. 5-Blue Biotechnology. [PERSON] gives thanks to Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for the Doctoral grant 2021.05005.BD. [PERSON] acknowledges University of Coimbra for the contract IT057-18-7253.  
**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.  
**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.  
**Data Availability Statement:** Not applicable.  
**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.