October 7, 2026

Holy Carp receives Gold Good Design Award

by Angus Ware

We're pleased to share that Holy Carp, our world-first home compostable, plastic-free soy fish dropper, has been recognised with a Gold Good Design Award in the 2026 Australian Good Design Awards, Australia’s longest-running international design awards, for excellence in design, innovation and impact.

The Jury said:

The Jury commends Holy Carp as an elegant and innovative solution to a genuine environmental problem, recognising it as the world's first plastic-free, home compostable soy fish that successfully replaces an iconic single-use plastic item.

The Jury was impressed by the smart design response that draws on the familiar form while offering a compostable alternative, demonstrating that sustainable packaging can be both fun and functional without sacrifice.

The design's playful aesthetic and intuitive functionality represent an exemplary approach that embodies the principle of substitute, not sacrifice, while addressing a real commercial need for venues affected by single-use plastic bans while fostering positive community support for sustainability initiatives.

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February 18, 2026

The Story of Holy Carp!

In 2020, we launched the Light Soy lamp to shine a light on the big problem with small plastics, like the iconic soy fish, and to help stop ocean pollution at the sauce. Since then, we’ve inspired thousands of people to rethink waste and funded the cleanup of more than 34 tonnes of plastic. But sushi’s problem with single-use plastic hasn’t gone away. The soy fish are cute and convenient, but while they serve their purpose for just a few minutes, they can persist in the environment for hundreds of years. They’ve become a symbol of a wasteful, linear economy that’s harming both people and the planet. If they escape into nature, they can harm marine life and break down into microplastics, potentially ending up in our food supply and back in our sushi. To give a sense of the 'scale' of the problem: 40% of the world's plastic waste is from packaging. The world consumes around 855 billion single-use plastic sachets annually , and we estimate that 8–12 billion soy fish have been used since their invention in the 1950s. Those plastics haven’t disappeared. They remain in landfills and the environment, slowly fragmenting into ever smaller pieces. Scientists now find microplastics everywhere: from the deepest ocean trenches to the summit of Mount Everest and even in our brains. For the past five years, we’ve been highlighting this problem. But awareness alone isn’t enough. We’ve always wanted to find a better alternative than simply “going without.” At the same time, single-use plastic bans are coming. A ban has already started in South Australia and Hobart, Tasmania, and another announced for 2030 in New South Wales. More will follow. Sushi-lovers on the go need a way to enjoy soy sauce without leaving plastic in their wake. We set out to create a practical, planet-friendly and commercial alternative to the iconic soy fish. We collaborated with leading sushi restaurants and award-winning designers Vert Design. It's a small change, but we truly believe every drop matters. Holy Carp! is filled fresh at the store, which allows us to use a more sustainable material and means the product is fresher. It also gives stores the flexibility to choose which sauce they provide. We’ve also made Holy Carp! larger than a typical plastic soy fish after observing that many customers grab a handful rather than just one. Find out more about Holy Carp or enquire now.

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February 6, 2026

Impact Update 2026

Thanks to the support of our customers and our ocean impact partners Seven Clean Seas, we have funded the removal of another 4,020 kilograms of plastic from the environment. This brings Light Soy’s total impact to over 34 tonnes of plastic recovered since 2020, through a combination of the recycled ocean-bound plastic material used in our products and additional cleanup funding. That’s equivalent to 34 million soy fish prevented from causing harm in the ocean. A drop in the ocean While this is a great achievement, it’s also a sobering to realise what a tiny drop in the ocean this really is: By our estimates, it’s only equivalent to around 1 month of global soy fish consumption. According to Our World in Data, packaging is the source of 40% of the planet’s plastic waste, and Seven Clean Seas report that 23.65% of the plastic they collect is packaging. These are plastics used for mere seconds, yet they last centuries in the environment or landfills, which is where most of them end up if they’re not recycled (most aren’t) or burned. Rethinking the 'Sauce' of the Problem Last year we launched Holy Carp, a plastic-free, compostable alternative to the single-use soy fish, because we truly believe recycling is not the solution for most packaging waste. We need to rethink each and every product and interaction to reduce our reliance on single-use items and find better materials when they can’t be avoided. Drop by drop, we're making the world a better place.

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February 6, 2025

Impact Update 2025

It’s our 5th birthday this month, and we’ve just hit a milestone of 30 tonnes of plastic cleaned up That’s equal to the weight of 30 million soy fish prevented from causing harm in the ocean. If that many soy fish packets were laid end-to-end, they would reach the length of Honshu, the main island of Japan. We’ve achieved this through an amazing partnership with Seven Clean Seas, who not only clean up plastic from coastlines, mangroves, rivers and nearshore areas, but also provide formal employment and opportunities for locals in those places. They’re making a huge difference by addressing the cause of ocean plastic right at the source and helping the local community at the same time. The other source is of course the products we consume and how they are designed and move through our economy. We can always do more to reduce our reliance on single-use plastics and prevent any kind of waste from being created in the first place – and in the 5 years since we launched Light Soy, so much has been done to shift toward a circular economy by amazing people. Our products are designed to shine light on the positive side of humanity – we can make things better for the planet & for people people, bit by bit, drop by drop. It’s through science, technology, engineering, creativity, art and people that we will change the world. So thanks to everyone who has shared, purchased and loved our products – we’re very lucky to have a global community of sushi + design lovers to keep inspiring us. Learn more about the soy fish packets and how to make a difference

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