The archive · Product Ideas · Product decision · 2025
Shellworks Vivomer dropper: one compostable material replaces the un-recyclable pipette
A pipette dropper moulded from a single fermented biomass polymer that performs like glass, rubber and plastic in use, then composts at home in 52 weeks.
Shellworks
What it had to solve
Serum, oil and wellness droppers are fused from glass, rubber and plastic, and their small size makes them slip through recycling equipment, so nearly all end up in landfill or incineration — millions of units a year. London-based material startup Shellworks wanted a dropper that behaves like the original but disappears responsibly at end of life.
How it works
Beauty brands had solved the visible packaging problem but ignored the dropper: serum and oil pipettes are fused from glass, rubber and plastic, and their small size lets them slip through recycling equipment. Shellworks calculated that nearly all of them end up in landfill or incineration, millions of units a year, and set out to make the entire dropper home-compostable instead of merely lighter or refillable.
The answer was Vivomer, the company's plastic-free polymer made from waste biomass such as plants through fermentation. The team spent two years developing a single grade that could mimic the rigid glass stem, the squeezable rubber bulb and the sealing behaviour of plastic, then moulded bulb, stem and cap as one piece so the whole object composts together. The material is free of petrochemicals, BPA and PFAS, stays stable in normal use, and only begins to break down when it reaches a home-compost environment, degrading within 52 weeks.
Shellworks launched the dropper in June 2025 with a production capacity of 2.4 million units a year and headroom to scale. UK hair-care brand Sam McKnight and People. Planet (formerly Haeckels) signed on, and Shellworks said around ten further brands in the UK, EU and US were in discussion. At the Pentawards ceremony in Amsterdam the design won the Platinum Award in Sustainable Design, with the jury praising it for re-engineering a saturated category from end of life backwards.
The company frames the dropper as proof that sustainability can be the foundation of a product rather than an add-on: to date it says Vivomer has replaced more than 90 tonnes of conventional plastic and shipped over 1.8 million packaging units worldwide.
Why it lands
- It removed the recyclability trap at the root: one mono-material dropper needs no disassembly and composts whole, where the fused original could never be separated.
- Vivomer was tuned to imitate glass, rubber and plastic, so the design kept the tactile, shelf-appealing dropper experience instead of trading function for eco-credentials.
- Shellworks targeted the invisible waste stream — small components that escape recycling — rather than competing on the already-scrutinised bottle.
- The material was engineered to be stable in use and break down only in compost, which answered the industry's suspicion that biodegradable packaging fails before its job is done.
What it did
Pentawards gave Vivomer Dropper its 2025 Platinum Award for Sustainable Design. UK hair-care brand Sam McKnight and People. Planet (formerly Haeckels) adopted the dropper, and Shellworks said it was in talks with around ten beauty brands across the UK, EU and US, reporting that it had already replaced more than 90 tonnes of conventional plastic with Vivomer across its range.
What you can take
When an object cannot be recycled because it is a fused mix of materials, the fix is not better sorting but fewer materials: one substance playing every role makes the whole product compostable.
Since then
Vivomer Dropper became one of the most discussed sustainable packaging launches of 2025, taking Pentawards Platinum in Sustainable Design. Adoption began with Sam McKnight and People. Planet, and Shellworks says it was in talks with about ten more brands across the UK, EU and US while scaling dropper production beyond 2.4 million units a year. The company reports replacing more than 90 tonnes of conventional plastic with Vivomer and positions the dropper as proof that compostability can be engineered into the smallest, most technical packaging formats.
Sources
- Shellworks launches fully home-compostable pipette dropper packaging
- Shellworks tackles beauty waste with world's first compostable pipette
- Pentawards 2025 winners revealed
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.
Your turn
You just read one. Describe the brief you are staring at, and see who has been given the same problem.
Free account · 3 free questions · no card