Every Friday we share local innovation insights sourced from tw:in, our global trend community. Here’s this week’s Spot of the Week!

Indonesia-based Evoware produces edible/biodegradable/sustainable food packaging and dinnerware made from seaweed. The company, which won the USD one million Circular Design Challenge and joined its accelerator in Q1, has a twofold social mission to reduce plastic waste and support Indonesia’s struggling seaweed farmers. Since the packaging dissolves in hot water, Evoware is also planning to release noodle/seasoning kits for ‘extra’-instant noodles.

This was sent our way by tw:in member Pedro Tribst. It caught his eye because, as he said, “Evoware is trying to solve some huge problems – for example, the plight of the seaweed farmers – that others hadn’t figured out how to tackle, and do so in a socially sustainable way.”

Nia Christy, our Asia analyst who’s from Indonesia, gave us her perspective: “This is interesting because Indonesians never really cared about using less plastic – in fact, we’re the world’s second-biggest plastic contributor to the ocean (after China)! I grew up seeing plastic litter whenever I went to the beach. Another crazy stat? Fifty-five percent of fish in the Indonesian market is contaminated by human-derived debris. In this country that relies so much on the seafood trade, it’s insane how little people understand this issue, let alone care. Offering a solution that supports the local economy is a powerful way to change that mindset.”

One final takeaway inspired by this innovation: more is more when it comes to sustainability. Can you create a single product or service that, like Evoware, by its very design tackles several issues at once?

tw:in (TrendWatching’s Insight Network) is our private Slack community, where we share and discuss innovations with hundreds of passionate trend enthusiasts around the world. Sound interesting? Join us now!