Plastic without plastic: ZDF heute-show spezial visits traceless
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
At a secret location somewhere near Hamburg, where a small Startup is hiding from the fossil lobby....
„Plastic without plastic - is that even possible?“ That's the question that Fabian Köster and his team from the satirical ZDF documentary heute-show spezial examined, when they visited us for their feature about plastic pollution. The answer? Yes, it's possible!
Satire meets hard facts
With global plastic production at around 500 million tons per year and a global recycling rate of just 9%, the urgency for real, scalable solutions has never been greater. In the feature, Fabian Köster and Lutz van der Horst set out to uncover the root causes behind the flood of plastic. They question recycling companies, politicians, the chemical lobby, and an environmental lawyer—busting a few persistent myths about packaging and recycling along the way.
A small ray of hope amidst all the sobering news about plastic waste: their visit to traceless! For Fabian Köster, our co-founder Dr. Anne Lamp spontaneously slipped into the role of "chemistry teacher." On camera, she explained how we produce our novel, nature-based materials from plant residues, and the role our material can play in the fight against the plastic crisis. She also highlighted why traceless products—should they ever accidentally end up in the environment (or on a plate)—leave behind absolutely no toxic residues or harmful microplastics. Along the way, all sorts of unplanned things happen, which is simply what you get when Fabian Köster comes to visit...
(And for everyone wondering with concern: Yes, Anne has fully recovered from the mild shock of Fabian casually eating our material on camera. Even though our material was definitely not developed for consumption, it is completely harmless—meaning everyone involved survived the shoot unscathed!)
Grab a bowl of popcorn (guaranteed to taste better than our forks) and check out the feature (German Language):
Circular by nature – and the way forward
When it comes to circularity and biodegradation, our solution excels practically "by nature." It is our mission to replace as much superfluous plastic with it as possible—because in so many cases, plastic is used today simply because it is cheap and its production and processing are widely established.
At the same time, it is clear to us that tackling the global plastic crisis requires multiple levers simultaneously. Innovative natural polymers are a crucial building block. Simultaneously, solutions must also be found for conventional plastics: Some things are already moving on the market, and through European regulations like the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), the pressure for everyone to increase recycling rates and avoid long-lasting waste is noticeably rising. We very much hope that the global outlook will look significantly better in five years.
Over half a million views in a week!
The feature has only been online for a week and has already crossed the 500,000 views mark on YouTube. We are thrilled by the immense interest and the many discussions sparked about the future of sustainable materials. At traceless, we work every day to find a solution to this truly serious issue, and that is anything precisely easy. Exactly for this reason, we find it refreshing to see the topic illuminated from a humorous perspective as well.
