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Sargassum was a Caribbean Disaster, Now it’s Gold // Matt Ferrell
Matt Ferrell | Trusted Newsmaker
From Crisis to Commodity: How the Caribbean’s Seaweed Disaster Became a Goldmine
Since 2011, millions of tons of sargassum seaweed have washed ashore in the Caribbean and Mexico. Once trapped in the Sargasso Sea, a freak 2010 weather event pushed it into open currents, where it began spreading like wildfire. Now, beaches from Barbados to Cancun are buried under smelly, rotting seaweed that kills marine life, drives away tourists, and costs hotels up to $70,000 a month just to clean one kilometer of shoreline.
An Ecological and Economic Nightmare
The impacts go far beyond lost tourism. Sargassum smothers coral reefs and seagrass beds, blocks sunlight, and depletes oxygen as it rots. In some cases, it has even clogged desalination plants, forcing islands like the U.S. Virgin Islands to declare states of emergency. The environmental fallout is massive, but so are the economic shocks: schools closing, jobs lost, and entire island economies threatened.
Turning Weed into Wealth
But innovators across the Caribbean are flipping the script. Instead of treating sargassum as waste, startups and researchers are mining it as a raw material for housing, energy, textiles, and even cosmetics.
In Mexico’s Yucatán, Omar Vázquez pioneered sargassum bricks, with each home locking away 20 tons of the weed. His first brick house, built in 2018, has survived five hurricanes. Residents also report the homes stay cooler in the blistering summer heat.
Meanwhile, resorts in Grenada are baking brownies with ovens fueled by methane captured from biodigesters that break down sargassum. One system could turn 5,000–8,000 tons annually into 150 kilowatts of power — enough to significantly cut diesel imports.
Fueling Cars and Factories
On Barbados, scientists are experimenting with retrofitting cars to run on biogas derived from fermenting sargassum with rum distillery wastewater and sheep manure. For just $2,500, a standard engine can be converted to run on seaweed fuel. It’s a quirky but serious step toward energy independence.
And beyond fuel, researchers are extracting high-value compounds like alginate and fucoidan — used in cosmetics and medical products. A biorefinery in Finland imports sargassum for exactly this purpose, demonstrating the global appetite for these bio-materials.
Textiles, Plastics, and Nanotech
Caribbean entrepreneurs are also transforming sargassum into fibers, paper, and biodegradable packaging. Alt Fiber in St. Lucia blends seaweed with banana stems and pineapple leaves to produce grease- and water-resistant packaging, potentially rescuing trees from the pulp industry.
Keel Labs is weaving seaweed into wearable fabrics, while companies like Sway and Lollywear are producing compostable bags and straws. Meanwhile, Florida startup Souris is refining sargassum into nanocellulose — a material as strong as steel but lighter than carbon fiber, ideal for cars, planes, and boats.
The Science Frontier
Major research institutions are also diving in. Princeton, UCLA, and the University of Puerto Rico are experimenting with using sargassum for hydrogen fuel, battery metals, and even carbon nanotubes. With backing from Schmidt Sciences and the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research, $47 million has been pledged to scale up solutions.
Challenges Ahead
Of course, sargassum has its dark side. It often absorbs arsenic and heavy metals, requiring careful processing before safe use. Disposal logistics remain costly, and blooms continue to overwhelm beaches each summer. But with innovation accelerating, what was once a crisis could soon become a valuable resource stream.
The sargassum invasion is both disaster and opportunity. For the Caribbean, it represents a turning point: sink under the weight of the weed, or rise by turning it into housing, power, textiles, and even high-tech materials. From bricks to biogas, seaweed is proving that even ecological catastrophes can be transformed into gold — if we have the vision to do it.
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