Two different seaweed uses popped on my radar recently.
One, was a sweater made with seaweed. Well actually seaweed with wood pulp. The Oliver Charles company is blending seaweed with a Lyocell wood fiber. Their sustainable fiber is then used in the making of summer sweaters. The website is interesting. Yak and merino wool are also used in some of their products for colder wear. I love any product one can wear for weeks at a time with no smell! Also know, you can become an Oliver Charles field tester. I read the challenge(s) and they sound like fun!
Second, was an Earthshot presentation from NOTPLA. That means not plastic. They are using seaweed to create liners for boxes and small containers for liquids. It’s a low carbon resource and biodegradable product. Research is currently happening for it to be brought to a larger scale. We surely know packaging is not going away anytime soon. Another product is Ooho. I love this idea of a single-use plastic sachet with water in it as they hand them out to marathon runners! They are being tried in Europe and may come to the USA. But the seaweed membrane is so delicate there may be limited use opportunities. Look for a seaweed-coated liner in a future food package as that is their main goal.
Seaweed grows quickly in all types of water. Let’s keep our waters healthy for it to grow. And let’s support the companies trying new ideas and creating sustainable products. Eliminating/reducing our need for plastic would help too. We keep talking about the plastic bags we should not be using. Our plastic waste takes hundreds of years to decompose. There are small bits of plastic in our waterways that fish are eating and thus we are too! Plastic has been around for more than 150 years. We know the ill-effects of it all.
Finally, it’s not just about plastic bags. Plastic is everywhere. It’s about us caring for our environment and doing what we can to make/keep it healthy. Seaweed is now considered in product development … not just in the food we eat!
