UK sustainable packaging startup, iBoxit Limited, has secured £230,000 in investment from the British Design Fund, as part of a wider £400,000 funding round, to support the development and commercial readiness of its plant‑based alternatives to expanded polystyrene (EPS).
iBoxit was founded by entrepreneur John Farley, who first identified the scale of EPS waste while trading Scottish salmon internationally. During a visit to a processing plant on Scotland’s west coast, John witnessed the large volume of single‑use EPS boxes being discarded daily and this prompted him to explore sustainable alternatives.
EPS is widely recognised as a persistent pollutant, with the majority of single‑use boxes ending up in landfill or contaminating marine environments. iBoxit is developing recyclable and biodegradable packaging systems designed to exceed the thermal and structural performance of EPS while reducing its environmental impact.
The company’s plant‑based biofoam materials biodegrade into an organic fertiliser, offering a circular alternative for sectors including seafood logistics, food processing, pharmaceuticals and industrial packaging.
The funding will support finalising product development, manufacturing readiness and customer engagement as the company prepares for international expansion. iBoxit is currently launching operations in Australia, with Sweden soon to follow, as global demand for sustainable packaging technologies continues to develop.
John Farley, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of iBoxit, said: “The moment that changed everything for me was standing in a salmon processing plant and seeing thousands of single‑use EPS boxes piled up, destined for landfill or worse. It was truly shocking. I’d spent years in the seafood industry but witnessing that scale of waste in one place made the environmental cost impossible to ignore. I knew then that something had to change, and that experience has driven me ever since to prove that we can replace EPS with sustainable materials that protect both the product and the planet.”
He continued: “Our plant‑based alternatives demonstrate that sustainable materials can meet the performance demands of modern supply chains. Looking ahead, my ambition is to scale iBoxit globally and help industries everywhere move away from EPS for good. We’ve made huge progress, but this is only the beginning of what I believe we can achieve.”
Damon Bonser, CEO of British Design Fund, said: “iBoxit is addressing a significant environmental challenge with a scalable and technically robust solution. The team brings deep industry experience and a clear understanding of market needs, and we are pleased to support the next stage of the company’s development.”
The latest funding follows iBoxit’s earlier success in securing an Innovate UK grant to develop next‑generation packaging solutions for the seafood sector.
Find out more at www.iboxit.uk.
Innovations in Food (& Beverage) Processing & Packaging is a bi-monthly magazine distributed globally in Digital format. www.innovationsfood.com. X: @Innovfoodtech. Instagram: @innovationsinfoodtechnology. Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/terry-prior52
