Carbon Cell

Elizabeth Lee, Ori Blich en Eden Harrison

Carbon Cell’s foam is carbon-negative, plastic-free, compostable, and affordable—basically a game-changer for packaging. It’s made from biochar, a material derived from agricultural waste that locks away carbon for 100 years or more. With all these climate perks, Carbon Cell’s foam is ready to replace fossil-based foams, from luxury packaging and cold-chain shipping to acoustic and thermal insulation in buildings.

Nearly 50% of global plastic waste comes from packaging. What’s more, plastic-based foam packaging accounts for up to 30% of visible plastic marine debris. That’s why Carbon Cell’s solution has the potential to significantly reduce plastic pollution and make a meaningful contribution to a circular, sustainable economy.

In this interview with Elizabeth Lee, co-founder of Carbon Cell, we chat about the technology behind their material, why their foam fits with existing manufacturing, and the future of eco-friendly packaging.

Text: Catalina Iorga
Photography: Anouk Moerman & Carbon Cell

What led you to become a product designer?

My background is pretty eclectic. I started off more on the social science side of things—I studied psychology and linguistics.

Working in advertising for a while was quite interesting. It allowed me to travel the world and learn about all sorts of different types of businesses. But ultimately, I felt a little limited. I was often diagnosing issues without really having the agency to solve them or propose solutions.

I decided I wanted to get more involved in physical design—particularly taking my passion for materiality further. That passion originally came from my interest in signs and symbols and the physical aspects like colour, material, and finish—not just words and language.

So I went on to study sustainable design in New York, where I was living at the time. My primary motivation for going back to study was to focus on how material transitions could improve the environment.

Later, I moved to the UK to join a pretty unique programme called Innovation Design Engineering, which encompasses everything from machine learning and digital systems to biological systems. It draws people from very diverse backgrounds.

That's where I met my co-founders, Eden, Ori and Juan. In our second year, we did a research project looking into low-carbon materials. Initially, we focused on biochar as a raw resource—exploring where it could be used to increase carbon capture through technology.

What drew you and your team to biochar as the foundation for your material?

In the second year, my co-founder Juan, who's from Mexico, shared an interesting material he had been studying. In the Gulf of Mexico, there's a large seaweed bloom problem—this invasive species feeds off agricultural runoff, leading to massive seaweed proliferation. It washes up on the beaches and degrades there, ruining the habitat and emitting a lot of methane.

Juan came across a material called biochar and saw that it could help with two problems: getting rid of the biomass, and keeping the carbon that the seaweed had pulled from the atmosphere locked in. Instead of letting it rot on the beach and release methane, you could convert it into biochar.

That was our starting point. Because people are getting more into carbon capture and science-based climate goals, the production of biochar is going to increase. But in order for the economics of this approach to add up, we need to be doing something useful with it—you can't just bury it or stash it in giant warehouses.

In our research project, we started looking at all the interesting things biochar has to offer in terms of its technical material properties—it's super lightweight and really porous.

The biochar we use can help with soil and compost health.

Can you explain what biochar is and how it’s made?

When you carbonise biomass—usually agricultural waste—you trap the carbon. This is biochar, which is made in a low-oxygen environment. Think about how coal forms underground from prehistoric plants: high pressure, high heat, no oxygen.

It’s actually ancient technology, first developed in the Amazon thousands of years ago to improve soil fertility. These days, it's done in high-tech ways that recover the energy and gases and minimise environmental impact.

We don't make the biochar ourselves but work with producers around the world. Depending on their location, they use different resources—from cellulose waste from papermaking, to wood clippings, and rice or corn husks.

How do you transform biochar into your foam product?

We take the biochar, grind it down, and grade it to a certain particle size. We also carry out quality checks, making sure it doesn’t contain heavy metals or high levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)—like what’s on burnt toast—which can be harmful.

Then we mix the biochar with a natural, bio-based polymer we developed. We compound the mixture with heat to create a slurry, which undergoes chemical reactions and is then formed into pellets. Soon, this entire step will be streamlined through an extruder—like a pasta maker for plastics—in a single, continuous process.

Once the pellets are made, we cure them. That makes them hard, stable, and easy to ship. At their destination, the pellets are placed into moulds. When heated, tiny gas bubbles form—just like when you're baking bread, or in traditional EPS (Expanded Polystyrene) shape moulding—and that forms a foam structure.

What types of applications are you currently making with the foam?

Structural packaging is where our product is most developed; that’s the first market we’re tackling. It includes luxury packaging—like box fillers for perfumes, electronics, and premium items—often with startups who are more experimental and keen on sustainability. They don’t place massive orders, and they’re open to trying something new.

As we scale up and start making bigger units, we plan to move into furniture, larger electronics, and even white goods.

We’ve also worked with the film and TV sector, specifically in block foam for modelling and set design, and we’re starting to work with the architecture sector—developing acoustic panels while continuing to test thermal insulation applications.

Broadly, we’re looking for anyone currently using foam who wants to transition away from it. It’s easier for us to work with people who involve us early in the design process—not just in procurement—because we’re still small and work very closely with our partners.

We’ve had interest from all kinds of sectors—even automotive foams. The application landscape is really diverse.

When did you know your research project could become a business?

The first big moment was when we got our lab results back from the initial material characterisation.

We'd been experimenting with different forms, but finally got access to a lab to test performance. That technical validation was a tipping point—it actually did quite well on several metrics, even in early-stage prototypes. So that gave us a reason to continue.

The second was during our degree show. We presented the project and started receiving a lot of interest—from the biochar world, but also from the architectural sector. People were asking if the product was available and how they could buy it. That kind of market validation was huge—it proved there was real demand.

And finally, very practically, we received a £20,000 fully funded grant. That personal side of starting a business—being able to support ourselves—was answered, at least for the early stage. That grant funding helped us get started: we used it for our patent filing and to get a space, which is really important for a physical product.

What sets your product apart from other sustainable materials on the market?

We position ourselves as something that fits into the existing manufacturing system. We’re “traditional” enough to use current equipment and processes, but we’re still making a significant environmental improvement. So instead of inventing an entirely new process, we’re co-opting existing infrastructure.

There are the incumbent materials—the more traditional plastic-based foams—and we’re clearly differentiated from them in terms of sustainability.

And then there’s, for instance, the new wave of biomaterials. You see things like mushroom-based foams, which have been popular in the design world for years. They’re now being made into acoustic panels and other architectural products.

There are also seaweed-derived foams, cellulose foams, and chitosan-based materials (which come from shellfish waste or are derived from fungi), along with a slew of other new bio-derived plastics.

Compared to those, our material stands out in that it doesn’t require completely new manufacturing methods. A lot of these new materials need cold moulding, bioreactors, or even living organisms to grow the product. That can be beautiful, but also complicated to scale.

Consumers rarely control the material used, so it’s about giving that choice back.

Beyond the environmental impact, what social and economic challenges does Carbon Cell address?

One challenge has to do with job transitions and the economy around materials. There’s a lot of legacy manufacturing that still uses traditional plastics. That industry is threatened by the shift to greener materials and changing regulations. But those people still need jobs—you want the transition to be smooth.

We’re designing our product to work within those existing systems. Ideally, you can use pellets of our material in an EPS press, for example.

So manufacturers can keep their existing equipment, but switch to something that’s better for the environment.

The response we got from manufacturers was really encouraging. They do want to change—they just don’t always know how. So we see ourselves playing a role in making that transition socially inclusive.
The other challenge is related to health. Research has shown the negative impacts microplastics have on plant photosynthesis, which threatens the global food supply, and on ocean ecosystems.Foam, in particular, is a big problem because it floats and ends up in waterways. So having a material that doesn't pose those kinds of risks to plants, animals and people is really important.

What happens to your foam at the end of its life? How does it behave in compost or waste systems?

The biochar we use can help with soil and compost health. It retains water and micronutrients, allowing them to be released more slowly into the ground.

There’s evidence that if you use it in anaerobic digesters—which is where a lot of food waste goes for composting—it can improve gas yields. And ultimately, it helps sequester carbon from the atmosphere.

So, we see our product’s end-of-life cycle as contributing more than it takes away. That makes it regenerative in a way.

From an economic perspective, I’ve learned that waste management is a business. When trash is collected, it still has value. Often the model for waste companies is twofold: they get paid to take the trash away, and they get paid again based on what they can turn that trash into.

So, if in the long run we can prove to composters that our product makes better-quality compost, we’re more likely to get accepted.

Do you think your material helps consumers alleviate their personal guilt regarding packaging?

Definitely. I think it’s an interesting emotion because, as consumers, we often don’t have much control over the material choices made for us—especially when it comes to packaging. It’s usually not what you’re buying, but what comes with what you’re buying.

If we can use that emotional response to make a case for why manufacturers should choose our material instead, then that’s a big benefit. It’s about giving people a bit of that power back.

What do you think of aesthetics in sustainability?

I also believe aesthetics play an important role in sustainability. That probably comes from my psychology background—we encode values into the objects around us, and we use those objects to project our identity. So considering aesthetics can actually help drive sustainable choices.

Beauty can be a tool for behaviour change—it can support rituals of care, help us appreciate patina, and value products more as they age. That can increase product lifespan, which supports sustainability.

For our product—foam—it has a short life. So we designed it to degrade appropriately. That means we have to think about how people dispose of it, how we communicate that, and how we avoid greenwashing. All of those are design considerations.

Considering aesthetics can actually help drive sustainable choices.

How do the material’s sensory qualities—its colour, texture, weight—shape how people perceive it?

From what we hear from clients, there’s something alien about the material. It feels volcanic or extraterrestrial. It doesn’t really fit into a known category, and people find that intriguing.

I think the first thing that everyone notices is that it's black. For me, that’s quite interesting because the materials we’re looking to replace are often white. So there's a very stark difference.

This makes it quite different from other bioplastics, which often look so similar to what they’re replacing that you can’t really tell there’s a difference. We didn’t initially realise it, but the black colour has become an asset—it really triggers a re-evaluation.

It also tells you something about where it came from. There's an element of material truth in that. It’s black because it comes from carbon. You might not know exactly where that carbon came from just by looking at it, but you know it’s different from typical materials.

If we tell them it's an alternative to polystyrene, they’ll pick it up and say, “Huh, it’s a bit heavier.” But if we don’t give them any context and they just see this dark material, they’ll say, “Oh wow, it’s surprisingly light.”

What kind of support or partnerships are you looking for to move forward?

We’re looking to connect with people who think broadly about redesigning systems and products.

Thanks to our recent £1.2 million investment, we’re now in a position to take on more collaborators. I’d be especially excited to meet designers working with foam, cardboard, or other structural materials—anyone interested in co-developing new products.

On the client side, we’re looking for companies interested in placing orders—but who don’t need the product immediately. The facility we’re moving into—part factory, part lab—will give us a production capacity of around 20 kilograms per hour. That means we can start fulfilling larger volume orders.

That said, a corporation needing 10,000 units by the end of the quarter to hit a shipping deadline probably isn’t the best fit. But someone who can bring us in early—maybe for a product launching next year or packaging a prototype—that’s much more aligned with where we are.

It’s about working with people who have a longer-term vision—those with the space to experiment and make sustainable choices.

As we look ahead, we’re feeling really positive. We believe our foam will soon be priced competitively—even against cheap plastics—which makes future collaborations even more exciting.

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Carbon Cell

Elizabeth Lee, Ori Blich en Eden Harrison

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