Plastic-like material can be made of seaweeds and it’s biodegradable too

Currently, each year more than 400 million tons of plastic are produced in the world; India ranks as the fifth country with the highest generation of plastic waste. As we all know, plastics are widely used products in any daily activity. Since its discovery more than a century ago, it has been part of our lives in almost any object we use, however, they are highly harmful to the environment, due to its very high level.

Looking for possible solutions to this problem, the American startup Sway could have found a suitable material to replace a considerable amount of plastic in the packaging industry. The startup has developed an algae-based plastic that, it explains, could serve to reduce pollution caused by the mismanagement of plastic waste.

With this new development, thinner film packaging such as polythene bags, retail bags and wraps will be compostable and even carbon negative through the use of materials derived from algae.

Replacing plastic with a seaweed-based equivalent

Millions of tons of plastic end up being thrown into the sea and a large percentage of these plastics are single-use. In substitution, there are several alternatives, such as paper cutlery. However, its elasticity and resistance are not similar to plastic. This is where Sway comes in, with the manufacture of a material that does replicate a large part of the properties of plastic.

Its use is intended for thin containers such as polyethene bags or wrappers. The company has shown that it is capable of simulating these thin layers of plastic, either transparent or with different colours.

Julia Marsh, co-founder and CEO of the Sway, California-based company, said Sway's seaweed-based plastic replacements offer immense ecological and social benefits in the face of climate change.

She said "The product has a useful life of 12 months and once this time is complete, the Sway material disappears between four and six weeks later, the company points out. Being focused on single-use products, they consider that it is enough time to be able to perform their function".

According to Sway, kelp grows up to 60 times faster than other crops on the land and can remove up to 20 times more carbon from the air than forests, when measured per square kilometre, making them carbon negative."

Products are derived

Sway's products are derived from marine algae, fully biobased, non-toxic, high-yield, and rapidly compostable in home and industrial compostable settings. Harnessing the regenerative power of algae, a carbon-absorbing, habitat-creating resource, Sway intends to deliver a naturally carbon-negative and highly accessible bioplastic.

This seed funding will enable Sway to accelerate the development of its first two products, high-performance, rapidly compostable poly bags and retail bags, leading to initial pilot projects with mission-aligned, influential partner brands in 2022. The increase also means significant investment in the kelp industry, which could play an important role in fighting climate change through carbon sequestration and ecosystem restoration.

The company is still optimizing its formulation but they claim that its material is already stronger than the normal low-density polyethene commonly used in grocery bags.

Starting in 2022, Sway hopes to get up to 300,000 retailers to offer its seaweed-based bags. Sway is working with the Compost Manufacturing Alliance to ensure the kelp materials are compliant with industry standards.