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Seaweed isn’t just one plant, of course, but the collective name we’ve given thousands of species of multicellular, marine algae. Some types still find their way on to your dinner table today, often as nori in Japanese cuisine. Others are used in fertilisers, face masks or other beauty products, thanks to their antioxidant properties.
More recently though, we’ve been exploring a wider range of seaweed types and discovering just what they can do. Researchers have leaned on the past uses of seaweed to innovate new fabrics and dyes, as well as pushing new boundaries with algae, converting it into fancy fabrics and alternatives to single-use plastics. Unlike some of the materials it’s replacing, seaweed is fully natural and compostable, while the growth of seaweed sequesters carbon to actually help solve the climate crises, rather than making it worse. Discover five brands doing amazing things with this marine plant.
of seaweed harvested for human consumption is cultivated rather than taken from the wild
Estimated total annual value of the commercial seaweed industry
Photosynthesising algae in the ocean produces approximately 70% of oxygen in the atmosphere
Maybe the biggest challenge in going plastic-free is food packaging. Plastic isn’t just cheap and easy, the truth is there’s very little out there that can do the job as well. Unfortunately, a whooping 85% of single-use plastic food packaging ends up in landfill. Swapping out plastic for wrapping parchment sounds like a great idea on paper (ahem), but it doesn’t keep food nearly as fresh, and food waste is as big of an environmental challenge as disposable plastic.
We’ve often imagined how wonderful it would be if we could make food packing just disappear, and Notpla has taken that idea and run with it. An adaptable and truly plastic-free membrane made from a blend of dried seaweed powder, plant material and additives, it’s not just compostable, but safe enough to eat. The product launched at the 2019 London Marathon and is currently being trialled by takeaway giant Just Eat.
Single-use beauty products such as sheet masks and eye masks are littering the planet, especially since the global expansion of K-beauty and the adoption of the multi-step skincare routine. Many of these masks contain plastic polymers, and take an average of 1,000 years to decompose. A significant trade off for a few moments of pampering.
UK coastal beauty brand Haeckels is adopting a different approach, one that allows consumers to benefit from the hydrating impact of masks, without the waste. The Bio Restore Membrane eye mask is grown to order, created by combining seaweed extract (agar) from handpicked plants with aloe vera, hyaluronic acid, eyebright and cucumber. Once grown, the mask is dried, allowing it to be shipped in non watertight packaging that would usually be made of plastic. Consumers simply rehydrate the masks at home before use.
Plastics are clogging up the seas, with divers finding single-use bags over 1,000km from the mainland and even 10,898m below the surface in the Mariana Trench. Sway is looking to flip that equation on its head and make the oceans the source of a truly regenerative, scalable solution. Still in its pilot stage, the company is planning a trial which could see it replace between 1,000 and 300,000 bags in CVS, Walmart, and Target.
The idea is simple. Home-compostable, seaweed-based replacements for everyday single-use plastics, which includes all the current range of nasties: polybags, retail bags, sealed pouches, and wrappers. It’s not just about fixing the future either, but also undoing some of the past damage. Sway partners with communities affected by overfishing and climate change and only works with farms that adhere to Aquaculture Stewardship Council Marine Stewardship Council standards.
Be it factory-farmed cotton, sweatshops or throwaway plastic clothing, the modern fashion industry doesn’t have the best history when it comes to environmental and social issues. One of the most damaging aspects is dyeing. Those bright, vibrant colours we all love come at a serious cost, with workers exposed to harmful chemicals, toxic runoff pumped into our rivers, and water usage reaching exponential levels.
Nascent brand Zeefier’s USP is using fast-growing seaweed and non-toxic fixers to gently borrow from the oceans, rather than polluting them. Partially sourcing its raw material from the by-products of other industries, the company is making a completely biodegradable dye in a surprisingly diverse range of colours that work well with natural fabrics like cotton, wool and linen.
Given its abundance, it’s no surprise that people have been experimenting with seaweed fibres for a while now. The modern history of using it for clothes dates back to the First World War, but we’ve moved on a long way since then. Pangaia’s C-Fiber is at the cutting edge, being a water-saving, biobased and 100% biodegradable fabric that’s already being used in a number of commercially available products.
C-Fiber isn’t pure seaweed, but a blend of sustainably sourced Icelandic seaweed – harvested every four years to allow full regeneration – and FSC-certified eucalyptus. The plants are turned into a fibre via a closed-loop lyocell process, and then used to either make 100% C-Fiber clothes or blended with other fabrics, like organic cotton. There’s even talk of the company licensing C-Fiber to other brands to spread the innovation far and wide.
