Our approach to packaging

The vessel matters just as much as what it holds

Every delivery creates some waste. We believe it should never create more than is truly necessary, and that the way we protect a product can honour the living world rather than burden it.

How our thinking has changed

From glass, to lighter, to refillable

Our packaging has never stood still. Each decision reflects what we understood at the time about materials, transport and the systems our customers can actually reach.
First
We chose glass

When we launched our first supplements in 2018, we researched everything from plant-based plastics to glass, and chose glass deliberately. It reduces plastic production, recycles readily in most countries, can be reused or refilled, and isn't dependent on fossil fuels to make. We knew its production carbon footprint was higher than plastic's, but judged that a material not tied to fossil extraction was the right call, and asked customers to reuse bottles wherever they could.

Then
We questioned weight

Glass protects beautifully, but it is heavy, and weight travels through every mile of the supply chain as energy and emissions. For our fibre, we moved to lightweight, reusable tin: the same protection, a fraction of the transport burden.

Now
We design for refill

The real shift is circular, and it's just beginning. We've started bringing a refill model to some of our products: a durable tin you keep, paired with industrially compostable refill pouches you replace. Packaging becomes a system rather than a single-use object, with less waste at the doorstep and a smaller footprint each time round.
Glass
Lighter tin
Keep and refill

Milestones along the way: plastic removed from secondary packaging (from 2018); plastic-free champion accreditation with Surfers Against Sewage (2019); compostable packaging development begins (2023); the PHGG refill-and-reuse system launches (2024).

Our take on packaging

High-performing packaging is environmentally sound

There should never be a trade-off between protecting a product and protecting the planet. Packaging that fails to do its core job, keeping a product stable, effective and undamaged, simply shifts waste from one place to another, and a spoiled product is the most wasteful outcome of all. So, we weigh the whole picture, not a single metric. UK packaging recycling still varies widely by material. In 2024, around 64% of UK packaging waste was recycled overall, with glass at roughly 66% and metal at 68%, while plastic packaging reached only about 51% - even when energy recovery is included. Those gaps shaped our choices: years ago, we removed plastic from our secondary packaging entirely, moving to 100% cardboard and paper for outer packaging and padding.

Fossil-free at source

We favour materials that don't depend on fossil fuels to exist, and we look upstream - at how a material is extracted and made - not only at how it's thrown away. Origin is part of the footprint.

A real route for the end user

A material is only as recyclable as the system around the person holding it. We choose packaging our customers can genuinely recycle, reuse or compost, not in theory, but in their own kitchen and waste disposal services.

Weight is carbon

Every gram is hauled across the supply chain. Reducing weight - glass to tin, rigid to refill, lowers energy and emissions in transport without compromising what's inside.

What our lab taught us

Beyond the product

When we ran our microbiome laboratory in Bristol, we learned a great deal from working with lab recycling initiatives, in a setting where plastic is hard to avoid for contamination control. Measuring the origin and final destination of our waste, reducing and reusing where sterility allowed, and sharing solutions through a local sustainability working group all sharpened how we think about materials. Those lessons still shape the way we approach packaging today.

A worked example

Bio.Me™ Prebio PHGG
Our prebiotic fibre shows how these principles meet a real product - where the answer has to serve efficacy and travel and the living world at once. PHGG is a fine, hygroscopic powder. It draws in moisture, which means its packaging has a genuine job to do: keep the product dry and stable so it stays effective from our lab to a kitchen cupboard, including the journey in between. Get the packaging wrong and the fibre clumps or degrades, and a spoiled product is waste in its most expensive form. So our answer is deliberately two-part: a durable tin you keep, and a refill pouch you replace. The packaging that has to last, lasts. The packaging that's used once is designed to return to the soil. This isn't only the right thing to do, it's what people increasingly expect. Research suggests 27% of customers won't buy from retailers with unsustainable packaging, while 41% say branded packaging drives them to buy again (DS Smith). For us, thoughtful packaging isn't a cost to bear for a certificate; it's part of how a product earns its place on a doorstep.
The packaging must match what the powder needs: protection from moisture and light, a robust seal, and resilience through distribution and everyday handling. When we re-imagined PHGG we did two things at once. We reformulated the fibre to be three times less dense, which gives superior solubility and ended the clumping customers used to experience in both hot and cold drinks. And we moved the primary pack from glass to lightweight, reusable tin, keeping all of glass's protective qualities while cutting weight, and with it the energy and carbon carried through the supply chain.
A tinplate can, roughly 82 g and 99 × 123.5 mm, designed to be kept and refilled across many cycles rather than thrown away. Tinplate is one of the most widely recycled packaging materials in Europe, with recycling rates in the low-to-mid 80% range, and its magnetic properties mean it's easily captured by sorting systems at end of life. It replaces heavier glass while holding the same protective quality.
A lightweight three-layer pouch made in Essex, UK, sized to a 30-day dose and engineered to protect a moisture-sensitive powder: - Paper from FSC- and PEFC-certified Nordic forests. - Cellulose derived from PEFC-managed wood pulp. - A bio-polymer made from non-GMO corn starch. In the presence of water, oxygen and compost microbes these materials break down into water, CO₂ and biomass. Its lighter weight also means lower transport emissions per serving than a rigid pack. Our outer packaging is 100% cardboard and paper, with plastic removed from secondary packaging and padding.
The two parts take different routes, and we'd rather be precise than reassuring: - Keep and refill the tin first. When it finally reaches end of life, it's widely recyclable as metal across the UK and Germany. - The pouch is certified industrially compostable to EN 13432, certified by TÜV Austria and carrying the Seedling mark. It's suitable for industrial composting where facilities exist; for best results, cut it into smaller pieces before disposal. The pouch is not recyclable. - Check your local service. Acceptance of compostable packaging in food or garden waste varies by area. Across many UK councils and German municipalities it isn't accepted in kerbside biowaste, so please check what your local service takes. We keep looking for ways to do better. The margins on these certifications are fine, and we'll continue to explore whether a future version of the pouch can earn home compostable certification too.
The refill pouch, in detail

Industrially compostable, and what that actually means


We've only just begun bringing refill formats to a handful of our products, and the PHGG pouch is one of the first. Compostable packaging is only meaningful if it's certified, if it still protects the product, and if we're precise about which kind of composting it needs. We'd rather tell the whole story than the flattering half of it.

The pouch is certified to EN 13432, the recognised European standard for industrial compostability, by TÜV Austria and carrying the Seedling mark. EN 13432 requires at least 90% of the material to biodegrade within six months under controlled composting conditions, leaving no harmful residues. The pouch body composts over around 26 weeks at ambient temperature.

We pursued home compostable certification and didn't pass it, by a fine margin. Very small flecks of metallisation from the cellulose layer were found in the final compost. So, we don't claim home compostability: the honest, certified status is industrially compostable, and that's the only claim we make. The margins between passing and not passing these standards are genuinely narrow, and we'd rather be straight about where we landed.

Bio-based films can let through more moisture and air than conventional plastics, which can shorten shelf life. We ran stability testing before adopting this pouch and ruled out options that didn't protect the fibre well enough, because a pouch that lets the product spoil trades one kind of waste for a worse one. Sustainability and quality have to hold hands.