The increase of population, mismanagement of waste streams, combined with the climate crisis have led to scarcity of arable land to provide enough food and biomass for the future. In this context, the ocean and the abundance of seaweed in it is seen as a logical resource to turn to. Hence, the seaweed industry is on the cusp of transformation and exponential growth. Seaweed growth promotes marine ecosystems, captures carbon and reduces ocean acidification, highly increased by the rise of temperatures due to climate change.
Seaweed biomass can be used for food, feed, pharma, neutraceuticals, biofuels and as a biomass source for creating compostable packaging. In promotion of the circular economy Europe has established an ambitious target by 2030 in which 70% of packaging materials must be reusable, recyclable or compostable.
In this context, B’ZEOS, as a start-up working on developing compostable seaweed based packaging materials, is on the forefront of on learning how these new materials will integrate into the circular economy: their impact on existing recycling frameworks and the legislative and regulatory compliance steps which have to be overcomed to ensure commercially viable products. Within the MARK-SEAPACK project, B’ZEOS is working to clear the regulatory pathway for seaweed packaging to get to the market. The grant is funded by Safe Seaweed Coalition.