{"id":79648,"date":"2025-08-14T11:52:39","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T15:52:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/?p=79648"},"modified":"2025-08-18T10:39:42","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T14:39:42","slug":"the-surprising-way-seaweed-could-replace-plastic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/the-surprising-way-seaweed-could-replace-plastic\/","title":{"rendered":"The Surprising Way Seaweed Could Replace Plastic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The millions of tons of <a href=\"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/ep-24-reuse-recycle\/\">plastic waste<\/a> polluting our ocean is a massive problem. One startup, <a href=\"https:\/\/swaythefuture.com\/\">Sway<\/a>, believes it has a surprising solution: Seaweed.\u00a0 &#8220;I became totally infatuated with seaweed&#8217;s potential to replace plastic,&#8221; says Julia Marsh, who co-founded the company with partner Matt Mayes. &#8220;I thought, this is so abundant. It&#8217;s so inherently plastic-like. And there&#8217;s probably a way to engineer it to fit into traditional plastic manufacturing.&#8221; In California, Sway has developed packaging products made with seaweed for use in fashion, home goods, cosmetics and more. &#8220;Plastic is both an issue through the lens of pollution and <a href=\"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/meet-the-winners-of-our-2022-women-in-science-incentive-prize\/\">contamination<\/a> for nature and our bodies,&#8221; Marsh says. &#8220;This is something that affects everyone, and solving the plastic problem is a gift to future generations.&#8221; Watch our inspiring video to learn the innovative way that Sway is turning seaweed from the ocean into a sustainable alternative to single-use plastic.<\/p>\n\n\n<div id=\"block_e1ae0fbee68ee9a6006255085c3197c9\" class=\"wp-block related-post alignwide\">\n      <div class=\"wrap\">\n    <div class=\"section-title\">\n      <h4>Related<\/h4>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"post-wrap\">\n              <div class=\"thumbnail\">\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/a-seaweed-startup-in-maines-chilly-waters\/\" class=\"post-image-link\">\n            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/a-seaweed-startup-in-maine-s-chilly-waters_thumbnail-150x150.png\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/a-seaweed-startup-in-maine-s-chilly-waters_thumbnail-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/a-seaweed-startup-in-maine-s-chilly-waters_thumbnail-525x525.png 525w, https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/a-seaweed-startup-in-maine-s-chilly-waters_thumbnail-60x60.png 60w, https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/a-seaweed-startup-in-maine-s-chilly-waters_thumbnail-45x45.png 45w, https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/a-seaweed-startup-in-maine-s-chilly-waters_thumbnail.png 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/>\n          <\/a>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"entry-text\">\n          <h3 class=\"post-title\">\n            <a href=\"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/a-seaweed-startup-in-maines-chilly-waters\/\">\n              A Seaweed Startup in Maine&#8217;s Chilly Waters\n            <\/a>\n          <\/h3>\n      <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sway, a California-based startup, has turned to the kelp forest to find a sustainable alternative to single-use plastic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":85,"featured_media":79650,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[{"did":"did:plc:l2n6ydtigm3gtra4vb4rfl7f","date":"2025-08-14T15:52:44+00:00","uri":"at:\/\/did:plc:l2n6ydtigm3gtra4vb4rfl7f\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3lwep3sswga2s","response":"{\"uri\":\"at:\/\/did:plc:l2n6ydtigm3gtra4vb4rfl7f\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3lwep3sswga2s\",\"cid\":\"bafyreideoawp5a4ngrjua226ammtto34pt6vekaju4vfv4sg2l2rdsnnee\",\"commit\":{\"cid\":\"bafyreiapp2m6k5xlq4krzhsoyjcimh4xuddikyaospa4e5pqmb374v64jq\",\"rev\":\"3lwep3st77i2s\"},\"validationStatus\":\"valid\"}"}],"autoblue_post_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[20556,20056,19731],"class_list":["post-79648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entrepreneur-videos","tag-environmental-innovation","tag-sustainability","tag-women-entrepreneurs"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.3 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Surprising Way Seaweed Could Replace Plastic<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sway, a California-based startup, has turned to the kelp forest to find a sustainable alternative to single-use plastic.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/the-surprising-way-seaweed-could-replace-plastic\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Surprising Way Seaweed Could Replace Plastic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sway, a California-based startup, has turned to the kelp forest to find a sustainable alternative to single-use plastic.\" \/>\n<meta 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content=\"@TheStoryXchange\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sue Williams\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Surprising Way Seaweed Could Replace Plastic","description":"Sway, a California-based startup, has turned to the kelp forest to find a sustainable alternative to single-use plastic.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/the-surprising-way-seaweed-could-replace-plastic\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Surprising Way Seaweed Could Replace Plastic","og_description":"Sway, a California-based startup, has turned to the kelp forest to find a sustainable 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