In 2023, Newlab launched a Waste-to-X pilot program in partnership with Invest Puerto Rico to tackle difficult-to-manage materials, including one of the world’s major ecological challenges: sargassum inundation in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico.

Sargassum, a type of brown macroalgae, has long existed in ocean ecosystems. However, warming oceans and nutrient pollution have triggered massive blooms, particularly in the Atlantic and Caribbean regions. Since 2010, sargassum has been making landfall in unprecedented volumes, threatening local ecosystems, harming tourism economies, and straining coastal communities.

We curated four startups to complete commercialization projects in the region, tackling this crisis head-on by piloting scalable, innovative technologies that transform the sargassum issue into value and drive sustainable economic growth. Through this program, we were able to prove that a profitable industry for sargassum can be created, building entirely new value chains to collect, process, and develop new sargassum-based products.

For Newlab members SOS Carbon, Thalasso Biotech, PANGAIA and Sway, the influx of sargassum represents a unique opportunity to innovate. By redefining the way we approach this environmental issue, they’re transforming a perceived crisis into a thriving, scalable industry.

“Sargassum seaweed is not a problem—it’s just a biomass that’s been managed incorrectly,” explains Paulina Zanela, CEO and Co-Founder of Thalasso Biotech, a startup focused on processing sargassum and transforming it into high-value ingredients that can improve both planetary and human health.

SOS Carbon employs local communities, especially fishermen, to harvest sargassum efficiently with their technology. Leveraging artisanal fishing boats retrofitted into high-capacity collectors, their systems can each gather over 70 tons of sargassum per day. Once collected, the seaweed can be processed into new products, like biostimulants for sustainable agriculture.

PANGAIA is a UK-based materials science and fashion company, working to test and manufacture a yarn from sargassum-based ingredients that can be scaled up and integrated into their line of innovative garments. PANGAIA sourced their inputs from extracts created by Thalasso, demonstrating the integration of the value chain. 

Sway, a San Francisco Bay Area-based materials startup, transforms sargassum into innovative biomaterials, offering a sustainable alternative to petroleum-based plastics. Their work focuses on tackling one of the most difficult problems in packaging: film plastics, which are ubiquitous yet challenging to recycle or replace. Sway’s seaweed-based thermoplastic is designed to integrate into existing plastic extruding and compounding manufacturing infrastructure and be home-compostable.

The impact of these efforts is amplified through Newlab’s holistic approach to problem-solving. “Our work with Newlab was centered around validating that sargassum can be turned into a replacement for plastics… [Newlab] has been able to connect us with every step of the supply chain, from the actual folks on the ground harvesting the sargassum that’s washing ashore to [the entities] processing that sargassum and allowing us to use it in our materials,” says Julia Marsh, CEO and Co-Founder of Sway.

With Newlab’s support, these companies are transforming the largest algal bloom in the world into an engine for innovation. By addressing the sargassum crisis head-on, the piloting startups are charting a path toward sustainable economic growth for Puerto Rico while demonstrating the incredible potential of nature-based solutions. 

Their ultimate vision is to see products made from Sargassum in local bodegas, corner stores, and major retailers—proof that environmental challenges can be turned into opportunities for widespread, meaningful impact.

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Curious to see innovation in action? Watch our video to explore how these startups are transforming sargassum into a new economic frontier.