Prince William creates seaweed packaging as he visits Earthshot Prize winner in London

Prince William was snapped in east London earlier today as he visited an Earthshot Prize winning company in the capital – and tried his hand at creating some eco-friendly products.

The Prince of Wales, 40, set up the Earthshot Prize in 2020 in a bid to find ‘extraordinary solutions to the world’s greatest environmental challenges’.

Among the companies honoured by the awards is sustainable packaging start-up, Notpla, the Hackney Wick headquarters of which the royal visited today.

The London-based start-up, which creates plastic-free consumer packaging products from seaweed and plants, scooped the honours in the ‘Build a Waste-Free World’ category last November. 

For his appearance, the royal donned a trademark look, wearing a two-piece navy suit with an open-necked pale blue shirt. 

During his visit, Prince William undertook a tour of the headquarters with Notpla co-founders Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez and Pierre Paslier. 

As well as seeing the company’s portfolio of products, the royal was shown how the brand is working towards minimising the use of single-use plastics.

He even got stuck into the action, visiting the company’s in-house laboratory, where he tried his hand at creating the company’s flagship ‘Notpla Rigid material’ from seaweed.

Since winning the Earthshot Prize, Notpla has increased its team by 10 people, and invested in new machinery for research and development.

Prince William’s appearance today followed last week’s release of a video that left some royal watchers swooning.

The six-minute clip – which was uploaded on the Prince and Princess of Wales’ YouTube account – showed William rowing with the Navy.

It opens with the royal arriving at Dorney Lake in Windsor to meet members of the HMS Oardacious.

The father-of-three met with Lieutenant Commander Hugo Mitchell-Heggs and his team who are crossing the Atlantic in their new eco-friendly boat this December. 

During his appointment, the royal (pictured, right) did a tour of the company with co-founders Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez (pictured, left), and Pierre Paslier (centre)

After being introduced to the group, Prince William happily got stuck into some rowing – but joked he may accidentally ‘slap oars’ with one of the professionals.

His appearance is part of an ongoing campaign, founded in 2019, to provide mental health support to those working in submarines. 

For the engagement, William dressed in a blue Royal Navy hoodie, black shorts and donned a pair of sunglasses.

Once they’d completed a few laps of the lake, the group then returned to Eton College’s Rowing Club where they discussed their coping methods at work.

Although the crew’s mental health was the topic of conversation, the Prince and Princess of Wales’ Instagram followers were distracted by William’s good looks.

Prince William (pictured in east London today) set up the Earthshot Prize in 2020 in a bid to find ‘extraordinary solutions to the world’s greatest environmental challenges’

The clip of William rowing amassed a number of gushing comments from fans on Instagram.

One wrote: ‘Prince William’s title should be Prince of Hotness.’

Another added: ‘Couldn’t help but think, “hello daddy long legs!”‘

‘Ah yes His Royal Hotness does it again,’ a third gushed.

‘Prince William is so handsome,’ a fourth replied.