Unilever NL : The plastic-free concept that could replace single-use sachets

The Hackathon challenged leading designers, innovators and packaging experts to come up with solutions to tackle the issue of plastic waste. The panel of judges included representatives from Unilever, One Young World, A Plastic Planet and Sky Ocean Ventures, along with a National Geographic fellow and top industry experts who acted as mentors throughout the day.

Other highly commended concepts from the event included a refill subscription model offering beautiful ceramic or glass storage bottles for household products, and 'laundry on a roll' dissolvable sheets of fabric detergent which are both convenient and environmentally friendly.

Unilever's R&D teams are now looking at how to develop the winning idea further, before trialling it in a suitable market.

All the ideas developed by participants - including the compressed tablet - are open-source, meaning they're not exclusive to Unilever. In fact, we're keen to share the ideas to help scale up the impact they may have and maximise potential market opportunities.