Packaging that performs like plastic, costs about the same, and biodegrades back to soil in 3–12 months. We started with seedling bags that get planted straight into the ground with the tree, and the same material now wraps parcels, lines food cartons and protects flowers. We supply nurseries, agri-exporters, brands and logistics teams across Kenya and beyond.
The bag you carry home for ten minutes can outlast you by five centuries. Only 45% of it is recycled (World Bank), and single-use plastics are responsible for roughly 1.5% of all global greenhouse-gas emissions, a quiet accelerant of climate change.
The world's most problematic aquatic weed. It floats on water and blocks navigation and fishing, chokes drainage and hydropower, starves the water of oxygen until fish and biodiversity collapse, and breeds mosquitoes in fresh water bodies globally.
[A] + [B] What if one mess could clean up the other?
Harvest the weed. Transform it. Mould the future of packaging.
HyaPak started, quite literally, by getting stuck. A group of Egerton University engineering students spent five hours trapped in a dense mat of water hyacinth on Lake Naivasha.
That afternoon framed two problems sitting in the same water: an invasive weed strangling the lake, and the plastic waste piling up on its shore. So we asked the question that still runs the company today. What if one problem could solve the other?
What began as a final-year project took years of work, and a lot of batches that did not hold, before a weed would behave like plastic. Today it is a team of engineers, designers, community members and lab researchers building packaging that looks, feels and performs like plastic, grown from the very weed clogging the lake.
Fishermen, fisherwomen and lakeside communities around the affected waterbodies pull the hyacinth from the water. We pay a fair rate for every batch of dried weed, which turns a daily nuisance into real income and a reason to keep the lake clear.
The harvested biomass is laid out to dry in the equatorial sun and readied for processing. No heat-intensive industrial drying, just sunlight, air and low energy.
In our workshops the prepared biomass becomes our proprietary plant-based material, engineered to look, feel and perform like plastic and matched to the demands of each end use.
The material is moulded into seedling bags, mailers, carton liners, floral wrap and custom packaging that are drop-in replacements for fossil-fuel plastics. At end of life, it biodegrades back to soil on a schedule we set, between 3 and 12 months.
Agriculture is our beachhead, and the seedling bag is the product that proved it. The same water-hyacinth material now moulds to spec for the plastics around food, e-commerce and retail. Drop-in shapes, close to plastic on price, without the centuries of afterlife.
Most buyers already want off single-use plastic. What stops them is the maths. Compostable options like PLA and moulded paper do break down, but they cost more and often need an industrial composter to do it. HyaPak is built to land in the one quadrant that actually gets adopted.
A circular, community-led model that joins the blue economy to climate action: cleaner lakes, restored biodiversity, durable livelihoods, and measurable progress against several of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Figures from HyaPak internal pilot testing and field data, 2023–2025. Full methodology available to partners on request.
06At the highest level
HyaPak's biodegradable seedling bag presented to Kenya's Head of State, H.E. President William Ruto by the HyaPak team from Egerton University as part of Kenya's Jaza Miti reforestation programme to plant 15 billion trees by 2032.
PHOTO © STATE HOUSE KENYA
HyaPak is recognized and trusted in sustainability, manufacturing and innovation around the world, from Nairobi to Dubai and the UN General Assembly.
United Nations Environment Programme & Planet A
Obama Foundation · Africa
COP28 · Nature, Food & Water Systems
Outstanding project
KEPRO SPICE Awards, Kenya
Winning Project
Yale Africa Startup Review
East Africa Science & Tech Commission
Kenya Innovation Week
As seen on
Water hyacinth is not a Kenyan problem. It is a freshwater problem on five continents. The playbook we run on Lake Naivasha, harvest the weed, pay the community, replace the plastic, works anywhere the weed grows. That is what we are building, and what we are raising to scale.
We are in conversation with mission-aligned investors and funds backing climate, circular-economy and blue-economy ventures. We share the investor brief, traction and a data room with serious enquiries. Tell us a little about your fund and we will set up a call with our team.
Request the investor briefIs hyacinth clogging a lake or river near you, with a government already paying to clear it? We license and co-build the model with distributors, processors and public programmes abroad. If that sounds like your region, let's talk replication.
Explore a partnershipPrefer email? Investors and international partners can reach us directly at info@hyapak.com. A real person reads it, usually back to you within a couple of days.
A wordplay of Hyacinth + Packaging.
Yes, and we mean it. Depending on the product, it is gone within 3 to 12 months of being discarded, and we tune that timeline to the use case. Independent biodegradability testing is available to partners on request.
We obtain water hyacinth from Lake Naivasha and Lake Victoria in Kenya, with the help of fishermen and fisherwomen from the affected lakeside communities. We create green jobs and provide an extra source of income for them through this.
We sell predominantly in Kenya, and occasionally ship to Germany and the USA. We also have pilots in discussion in several other countries.
Most likely, yes. If it is an interesting packaging problem that needs a sustainable answer, we want to hear about it. Send it through the form below and we'll work through it with you.
Water hyacinth is the most problematic aquatic weed in the world, affecting more than 70 countries. It is also among world's fastest growing plants. Tough challenge to eliminate it.
We are based at Egerton University, Nakuru, Kenya. You're welcome to visit after setting up a date with us via the contact form.
We mobilise people at community level to clean up a section of a river running beside their community. In one weekend, we clear 10–20 metres, while teaching the importance of environmental restoration and sustainability.
10Let's talk
Become a pilot partner, get a quote, or book a call. Whatever you need, a real human on our team gets back to you.