The north-west is one of Wales’ leading hubs for recycling and environmental innovations, so PlantSea will fit right into their new location as they work tirelessly to deliver a sustainable alternative to single-use plastics – derived from seaweed.
Plastic pollution and the impact it has on our environment is regularly highlighted in the media, significantly affecting our communities and having a devastating impact on our wildlife.
Communities in the north-west, particularly, have had significant success in reducing plastic waste, with Anglesey having led the nation’s recycling rates previously, and communities like Beaumaris establishing plastic-free working groups to help businesses in the area remove single-use plastics from their operations.
PlantSea was founded by three Aberystwyth University PhD students after they won the InvEnterPrize competition organized by the University Business School and the Aber Innovation Campus, securing initial start-up funding, and they have big ambitions for the future.
“Turning the tide on plastic pollution is our vision. We want to replace single-use plastics with innovative, sustainable materials derived from seaweed. We process seaweed and convert it into a sustainable material which can be suitable for a range of different uses.
“Our journey started during lockdown as three friends living in Aberystwyth and studying for our PhDs at University there, all with a common interest in the environment and its protection and wanting to do something about it – not knowing what that would be at the time.
“We’re converting seaweed into alternative materials, and eventually we will get to the point where we have a material that can replace plastics with a material that is much more sustainable than other common alternatives.”
Mr Gianmarco Sanfratello, Co-Founder of PlantSea, discussed the companies aims and origins.
Alongside his other co-founders, Alex Newnes and Rhiannon Rees, the three were inspired by their surroundings in Aberystwyth where they saw seaweed every day on the glorious beaches, before the environmentally conscious trio got to work on launching their business.
In the current climate, many more entrepreneurs will surely be looking to establish businesses or develop innovations in the biotech sector, but the newest tenants at M-SParc by Bangor University are not daunted by the competition and instead embrace it as they hope to collectively tackle a major environmental crisis.
It is very timely to be looking at this kind of technology, because the world is waking up to the problem and there is a lot of funding and support for finding alternatives to plastics, so we saw this as a great opportunity to get started.”
It is very important more companies see the opportunity and responsibility here to try and deliver these more sustainable solutions. We don’t see it as competition, because there is so much plastic out there to replace and there is an immediate need to find a solution to do it.
Consumers are starting to be more eco-conscious and want these solutions, so we are one of many working towards that and we’re very excited to be able to deliver our solution in the future.
Get in touch with the company below to find out more!