Can seaweed help solve the world

谢启红

伦敦的Notpla公司从第一个产品问世后就得到了英国政府的资助，这些资金将用以开发海藻制成的生物可降解包装材料。该公司以海藻为原料，生产一种可食用且可完全生物降解的包装材料，旨在让包装材料能够“自然地消失”，并用这种材料取代塑料。

After you finish your fries， eat the ketchup packet. When you add your pasta to boiling water， put the bag into the pot， too. If these instructions sound confusing to you， it is only because you haven't yet heard of Notpla， a London?based startup company that is designing a seaweed?based replacement for single?use plastic packaging.

Notpla's products are meant to be dissolved. Current offerings include film wrap for products like coffee or toilet paper and takeaway boxes that replace plastic?based coating with seaweed lining to make them fully biodegradable. Notpla's design director Karlijn Sib-bel said they looked to nature as inspiration for the ideal packaging， like the skin on a fruit. “A peel will eventually be used as nutrients by nature， and disappear and become a part of the cycle，” she said.

According to the UN， 331 million tons of plastic waste are produced globally each year， and out of the estimated 9.15 billion tons of plastic that have been produced since the early 1950s， about 60% has been buried or discarded outdoors. Microplastics pollute the ocean， the air and our bodies.

Notpla's founders looked to seaweed as the solution to the world's plastic problem be-cause it is abundant， grows quickly， doesn't compete with land crops， and takes in carbon from the air. Seaweed grows in the ocean and has a lot of positive benefits because it can create new ecosystems for other organisms to thrive in.

Since its founding， the startup has been funded by the British government for its first product， the Ooho sachet. The new financing round will go toward the production of the Ooho and Notpla coating， while further developing their new seaweed paper and multipur-pose film wrap. “The exciting thing is that this is a film that can replace most of the flexible packaging that you see around，” Sibbel said. For food items， such as pasta， scientists have even experimented with adding flavors to the packaging， so that dissolving the bag could add seasoning.

Some of Notpla's products are available online， and the company has landed some ma-jor partnerships in the UK and around Western Europe. As they scale up， Notpla's team hopes seaweed could replace single?use plastic in the supply chain more broadly.

ReadingCheck

1. What's the purpose of paragraph 1？

A. To introduce the topic of the text.26705F74-A241-4D6A-AC95-5742EFFB39FE

B. To deal with confusing problems.

C. To tell Notpla is a startup company.

D. To show some packages are edible.

2. What does paragraph 3 intend to tell us？

A. Our oceans have been polluted.

B. Plastic problems affect our lives.

C. We can get rid of plastic waste.

D. Plastic crises are rather serious.

3. What advantage does seaweed have over other materials？

A. It is easy to obtain.

B. It can be planted easily.

C. It is easy to break down.

D. It absorbs abundant nutrients.

4. Why does the company cooperate with companies in more countries？

A. To make its products available online.

B. To scale up the influence of the products.

C. To take the place of plastic on a large scale.

D. To supply more chances for ordinary people.

LanguageStudy

Ⅰ. Difficult sentence in the text

If these instructions sound confusing to you， it is only because you haven't yet heard of Notpla， a London?based startup company that is designing a seaweed?based replacement for single?use plastic packaging. 如果这些说明听起来让你感到困惑，那只是因为你还没有听说过Notpla，一家总部位于伦敦的初创公司，这家公司正在设计一种以海藻为基础的一次性塑料包装替代品。

【点石成金】本句中的If these instructions sound confusing to you为if引导的条件状语从句;it is only because...为because引导的表语从句;a London?based startup company作Notpla的同位语;that is designing a seaweed?based replacement for single?use plastic packaging为that引导的定语从句。

Ⅱ. Text?centered chunks

replace...with 用……替换……

be used as nutrients 被用作营养物质

the solution to 解决……的方法

take in carbon 吸收碳

experiment with 用……做实验

scale up 增大;扩大（规模或数量）26705F74-A241-4D6A-AC95-5742EFFB39FE