Why seaweed is the answer
Why seaweed? It’s a miracle crop. It grows prolifically without need for fertilisers, nor land nor fresh water.
Kelp is one of the fastest growing species in the world. It can grow up to a foot in length every day. And as seaweed grows, it stores up carbon, while de-acidifying and re-oxygenating the ocean. More than half the oxygen you breathe comes from marine photosynthesisers like seaweed and phytoplankton.
The benefits of seaweed continue once it’s out of the ocean. Adding seaweed to livestock feed can reduce the methane emissions from the burps and farts of cows and other grazing animals by as much as 70 per cent. And of course it can be a great fertiliser in its own right, replacing those made from fossil fuel extracts.
But it’s using seaweed as a source of biopolymers, from which bioplastic can be created, that’s where Kelpi’s focus lies. Each piece of bioplastic packaging that we create from seaweed will mean less demand for fossil fuels, less carbon dioxide emissions.
Kelpi’s bioplastic packaging will be home compostable. That means that when you’ve finished using it, it should biodegrade naturally within weeks on a home compost heap. Of course there are other bioplastic products that can be composted. But growing plants to make bioplastics takes up fertile soil and fresh water that’s generally needed for food production. And that makes seaweed an ideal biomass.
And marine-safe. We’re targeting rates of biodegradation in salt water that will mean that even where Kelpi packaging is washed out to sea, it should readily decompose.
We’re not the only company that recognises the huge potential of seaweed. And we won’t be the first to make bioplastics from it. But we’re proud to be amongst the first wave of new biotech businesses pushing at the leading edge of scientific research in this area to bring new products to market. 2021 should be an exciting year.
.Photo by Francesco Ungaro on Unsplash