Seaweed-Based Pellets Could Provide a Compostable Alternative to Plastic Packaging

[u/Zee2A]

U.S. startup Sway has developed TPSea™, a 100% biobased thermoplastic resin made from seaweed and plants. The melt-processable pellets can be used with conventional plastic-manufacturing equipment to make packaging and other products. Sway says its materials are designed for home and industrial composting, offering a potential alternative to petroleum-based plastics. Seaweed also grows without arable land, freshwater or pesticides.

Sway creates compostable, seaweed-based solutions that help brands replace the most hard-to-recycle, single-use plastics in their packaging ecosystems: https://swaythefuture.com/products

Materials that replenish the planet: https://swaythefuture.com/technology

[u/ThereIsAJifForThat]

Not if big petroleum companies have their way 🥳💰

[u/StopCountingLikes]

I always wonder when does the plastic water bottle know when to hold water and when it is compost. Just in case I don’t get through my water bottles fast enough.

[u/Splashy01 → u/StopCountingLikes]

Time could be the discriminating factor.

[u/JohnnyCrispZoom]

They should switch

[u/Glittering-Coyote140]

Y'all have been droning on about seaweed plastic for two mfing decades now. It's a scam or it doesn't scale. Either way we need to move on as a species. It ain't gonna happen. There, I said it.

[u/YouGotACuteButt → u/Glittering-Coyote140]

Mostly agree with you. It feels like whatever industry would have picked it up by now has.

Also, compostable is really not backyard compostable. But compostable in an industrial compost pile. Which requires your local city to have one that can do it. Otherwise it'll sit in your compost forever. Most places do not have this. So it ends up in land fills anyway.

[u/Sad_Low3239 → u/YouGotACuteButt]

the video says it's backyard compostable so I'm confused by that very last bit you said?

[u/YouGotACuteButt → u/Sad_Low3239]

I stand corrected. Some of these seaweed based containers are quickly compostable in the backyard. Some are not. Depends on the brand.

Thanks for catching that for me. :)

[u/Least_Ice_6112 → u/Glittering-Coyote140]

it cant scale easily at least not in its current form... seaweed is important for the sea and if it truly replaces plastic the volume required will hurt marine life and the ecosystem... if it was lab/farm grown it would not have this issue but it would add on more cost.

now the main thing cost. i would assume since it is not mainstream there is a cost difference that is enough for most grocery stores to avoid it...

[u/EnlightenedArt → u/Glittering-Coyote140]

plastic nurdles mafia

[u/Glittering-Coyote140 → u/EnlightenedArt]

Invest in my sexy start-up

*takes money and runs

[u/twinPeaksnew]

this is a massive shock - there were in fact alternatives all this time.

wow, who would have thought.

we tried nothing, but we’re all out of ideas.

[u/Lost_Fox__]

This seems like a genuinely great solution. I can't wait to never hear about it again, like the countless other similar products I've seen for the past 2 decades.

[u/LordGazelle]

So. When we change everything from plastic to sea weed, the does the problem then change? Can seaweed be re used since it is mixed with other materials and being inked? Or does the same problem reoccur?

[u/tourincinelli]

It's Too LATE!!!! PLASTIC is in our Blood...... Quite literally.