Pioneering Aussie business cultivates plant that could replace plastics
An Australian based company has been nominated for the £1 million Earthshot award for its work cultivating seaweed.
An Aussie farming business that supplies the world with a key ingredient used in toothpaste, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and pet food has been recognised for its work. It’s producing tonnes of seaweed to help fill increasing demand as new benefits of the plant are discovered, one of which could be as a replacement for some plastics.
Coast 4C is different because it works with small farmers in the Philippines to pull them out of poverty with a sustainable farming system. Because of its environmental focus, the company has been selected as a finalist for the 2024 Earthshot Prize, an initiative started by British Royal Prince William that awards five winners £1 million ($1.96m) each.
Aerial images supplied for the competition show lines of seaweed planted across 280 hectares of ocean that’s been zoned for sustainable seaweed farming. The company has helped suppliers move away from destructive farming methods like planting on coral reefs and harvesting mangroves for wood to use as planting poles.
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Coast 4C’s co-founder Nick Hill spoke with Yahoo News from his home in Sydney before he jetted off for the awards ceremony which will take place in Cape Town on Wednesday. Seaweed is prized because of its properties as a gelling agent, thickener, and stabiliser and Hill forecasts there will be increasing demand for it as a bioplastic, fertiliser and food source.
“We’re supply specialists, so we don’t do processing. There's already more processing capacity out there at the moment than there is supply, so we're really solving that problem of the bottleneck,” Hill said.
East and South East Asia produce 98 to 99 per cent of the global supply of seaweed.
Tropical red seaweed is one of the most popular seaweed species used in cosmetics.
Fortune estimates the global seaweed market is worth US $18.3 billion ($27.80) in 2024 and will grow to USD 34.56 ($52.4 billion) billion by 2032.
How plastic was routinely contaminating seaweed
Coast 4C is operating in a region facing some of the greatest pressure on marine environments. It has protected close to 6000 hectares as sanctuaries, as it helps locals gather an income stream outside of the fishing industry which can pull them out of poverty.
“We partner with smallholder seaweed farmers in the Philippines and improve their farming practices, so we get better quality seaweed and more seaweed,” Hill said.
“One big problem has been plastic contamination. Because the farmers are extremely poor, they can't afford more durable, long-term materials, so they’ve been using single-use plastics which are very difficult to separate during processing and they contaminate the product,” he added.
Farming seaweed helps incentivise the nurturing of the surrounding marine environment because harmful fishing methods like poisoning or trawling can destroy crops.
“Seaweed farming and coastal protection both need the same thing — enforcement and regulation of activities is happening in and around them,” Hill said.
Seaweed could soon be an alternative to plastics
While most of Coast 4C’s product is sold to the cosmetics and pharmaceuticals industry, the demand for seaweed as an alternative to plastic is expected to soar. Hill expects to see Australia further develop as a technology hub for advancing uses for seaweed, and for South East Asia to continue to be a major producer.
“We’re working with emerging bioplastics companies whose demand is currently very small. But each one will need around a third of the existing global supply of tropical red seaweed over the next 5 to 10 years, to achieve their goals,” Hill said.
“They're really keen to work with us because they’re worried about the supply side of things.”
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