Why Loopware
Plastic and silicone food containers leak into two places: your food and the earth. Both problems start with what the container is made of.
So that's where Loopware starts.
A plastic or silicone container can get into your food in two ways: chemical molecules that dissolve out of it, and physical pieces that break off it.
01
Chemical molecules that dissolve into food
02
Physical pieces that break off the container
What it is.
Chemicals left in plastic or silicone, or added to them, move into food. They're far too small to see, so they're measured by weight.
Why scientists are concerned.
Some can mimic or block hormones, the messengers that run growth, fertility and metabolism. Others can trigger irritation or allergy, build up in the body over time, or damage DNA. And mixtures can act together in ways no single test looks at.
In plastic.
Known: Plastics can release added and leftover chemicals into food; the EU lists over a thousand substances allowed in food-contact plastic, many with migration limits. Europe's food safety authority cut BPA's safe daily level 20,000-fold in 2023, after animal studies pointed to the immune system.
In discussion: Other agencies disagree with that BPA cut. How everyday mixtures of these chemicals act together.
In silicone.
Known: Silicone starts as sand but is rebuilt with petrochemicals, which leaves leftover rings called D4, D5 and D6. They can move from silicone into food, as a 2025 study of silicone bakeware found. In 2018 the EU listed all three as substances of very high concern: they don’t break down in nature and they build up in wildlife. D4 is classified in the EU as suspected of damaging fertility.
In discussion: What everyday food-contact exposure means for people. “Food-grade” usually means a seal passed general tests on how much material comes out of it by weight; no UK or EU food rule sets a specific limit for D4, D5 or D6, and we found no long-term study in people of D4, D5 or D6 from food contact.
What it is.
Heat, scratching and wear break off tiny pieces of the container itself: microplastics, and even smaller nanoplastics. These are fragments, not molecules.
Why scientists are concerned.
Getting in the way. Particles that lodge in tissue may interfere with how cells and organs work.
Inflammation that doesn’t switch off. Immune cells called macrophages try to swallow and digest foreign particles. When they can’t, they keep releasing aggressive chemicals and alarm signals, which can keep the surrounding tissue inflamed.
Still unknown. Whether particles damage DNA, or carry other chemicals into the body with them, is being studied.
In plastic.
Known: A 2023 University of Nebraska study heated plastic baby-food containers in a microwave for three minutes; in some cases each square centimetre released more than 4 million microplastics and 2 billion nanoplastics. Storing food in them for months released particles too, though far fewer. Microplastics have been found in human blood, placenta and brain tissue.
In discussion: In a 2024 study, people with plastic particles in their artery plaque had more heart attacks, strokes and deaths over about three years (20% against 7.5%), an association, not proof.
In silicone.
In discussion: What an everyday seal sheds as it is opened, washed and closed, and whether those particles reach or stay in the body. No food rule counts the particles a container sheds.
Sources: Hussain et al., Environmental Science & Technology, 2023 (University of Nebraska–Lincoln) · Su et al., Nature Nanotechnology, 2022 (silicone teats) · Marfella et al., New England Journal of Medicine, 2024 (artery plaque) · Environment International, 2022 (blood) · Environment International, 2021 (placenta) · Nature Medicine, 2025 (brain) · Journal of Hazardous Materials, 2025 (silicone bakeware) · ECHA Candidate List, 27 June 2018, and CLP harmonised classification of D4 (Repr. 2) · EFSA re-evaluation of BPA, 2023 · Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 · BfR Recommendation XV, Silicones, 2023.
“How plastic and silicone affect our health over a lifetime is still an experiment. Most of us don't know we're in it.”
Your own health is the trial. The results take decades, if anyone looks at all. And by the time the health worries are confirmed, the harm may not be undone. Every kitchen that stores and cooks food in plastic, silicone and other synthetic materials is taking part. You can step out of it today.
The same chemical molecules and physical pieces end up in rivers, seas, soil and wildlife. Then the container itself is thrown away. Out there, none of it can be taken back.
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Chemical molecules that escape into nature
02
Physical pieces that never break down
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The container itself, thrown away
What happens.
Chemicals in plastic and silicone escape while products are used, and after they're thrown away. Plastic additives turn up in the water that seeps out of landfills, and some releases carry on for decades after a site closes.
Why it matters.
Some of these chemicals barely break down in nature and build up in living things. Once they're out, they stay out.
In plastic.
The UN counts more than 13,000 chemicals linked to plastics. Of about 7,000 assessed, over 3,200 have properties of concern.
In silicone.
The EU lists D4, D5 and D6 as very persistent and very bioaccumulative. Since June 2026 it restricts them in consumer mixtures such as cosmetics and cleaning products, though not in finished silicone items.
What happens.
Most plastic doesn't break down. It breaks up, into smaller and smaller pieces, down to nanoplastics.
How much escapes.
About 22 million tonnes of plastic leaked into the environment in 2019 alone.
Where it ends up.
Particles have been found in deep-sea mud, Arctic sea ice and farm soil.
Why it can't be fixed.
Once spread, the European Commission calls them “almost impossible to clean up”.
Replaced, then binned.
Tubs stain, keep smells, warp and crack. So they get replaced, and only about 9% of plastic waste is ever recycled.
Silicone: recyclable on paper.
Only specialist plants can recycle it. Councils like North London's tell you to put it in general waste.
Glued together, recycling becomes literally impossible.
Sources: UNEP, Chemicals in Plastics, 2023 · UNEP technical report on plastic chemicals in waste, 2023 · ECHA Candidate List, 27 June 2018 · Regulation (EU) 2024/1328 · OECD Global Plastics Outlook, 2022 · Government of Canada, Science Assessment of Plastic Pollution, 2020 · European Commission, microplastics, 2023 · North London Waste Authority, silicone.
Founder of Loopware
A question he kept asking. Loopware is his answer, in his own words below.
When I started looking at what makes sustainable living hard, waste was the first problem I looked into. And waste isn't only what ends up in the bin. Most of it is decided long before: in what a product is made of, how long it's made to last, and whether anything can be done with it once it's finished.
I'd worked with factories for years before I came to the UK, so I followed it back up the chain. Products made to be replaced. Materials bonded together that no one can separate. Coatings that wear away. By the time a product reaches the bin, its fate was settled when it was designed.
So the answer has to start there too. Loopware makes everyday products from materials that can go back into a loop: recycled again and again into the same material, without losing quality, and without giving up the function and practicality the product is meant to have. One material wherever we can, nothing fixed in that can't come apart, and made to last.
Our first is a food container, because that's where both problems meet every day: it touches our food, and the usual one is plastic or sealed with silicone. Neither material meets our standard: neither serves a sustainable way of living, and neither comes without concerns for our health. So our container's body and lid are 304 stainless steel, made to our specification. When it's finally finished with, after years of service, it goes back into steel without degrading.
We can’t make anything with no impact at all. But we can start from the material. We dream big: everyday products that never become waste. We’re still a small company at the very start, and every container you bring home helps us make the next one.