Cultivating A Sea Change
The fast-growing plant that's protecting our future
You’re probably familiar with seaweed, but do you understand its full potential? It turns out there’s more to this aquatic plant than meets the eye.
Without any inputs, seaweed stores carbon, cleans the water, and provides habitat for aquatic species. It's also a sustainable food source and packaging material, and a powerful solution for climate change mitigation.
As Douglas Hamilton from Atlantic Mariculture puts it, seaweed “may well turn out to be one of the most important natural resources that we have.” What possibilities might arise when we reimagine its uses?
One key area where seaweed is already making waves is in the way we grow, eat, and package our food. Seaweed can create a natural fertiliser that regenerates degraded soil, locking more carbon into the ground to grow healthier, more nutritious crops.
Not only does it support healthy food production, but seaweed is also a food in its own right. As researcher and professor Peter Ralph explains, if we start using proteins from algae as a primary food source, we could feed 9 billion people without harming the planet.
Once the food is grown and ready to be sold, seaweed can become an alternative packaging solution. It's light, flexible and transparent – just like plastic – but it biodegrades in only a few days. In London alone, Notpla’s innovative seaweed packaging has replaced over six million single-use plastic items, preventing microplastics from entering our waterways and emissions from polluting our atmosphere.
Seaweed doesn’t just offer nature-positive solutions to some of humanity’s greatest challenges. It also plays a vital role in Earth’s defence mechanisms. Like their land-based relative, underwater forests sequester carbon dioxide and provide food and shelter for hundreds of species. As the climate warms and the weather becomes less predictable, seaweed protects coastal communities from storm surges, provides secondary income for vulnerable island nations, and restores marine ecosystems.
Seaweed is more than a fad. From soil to shelf, this wonder plant is silently transforming how we nourish, protect, and sustain our world.
With thanks to the following contributors:
Amado Blanco, Co-Founder & COO, Coast 4C
Nick Hill, Co-Founder & CEO, Coast 4C
Amabel Hamilton, Director, Atlantic Mariculture
Douglas Hamilton, Products Specialist, Atlantic Mariculture
Eleonora Rombolà, Former Product Designer at Notpla
Louise Anderson, Former Research Director at Notpla
Pierre-Yves Paslier, Co-Founder & CEO, Notpla
Peter Ralph, Professor of Marine Biology, University of Technology Sydney
Joss Carnegie, Farms Specialist, Atlantic Mariculture
