Plastic brings many benefits to society. It protects our food, makes our clothes waterproof, and decreases the carbon footprint of our cars with light, strong materials. 

But plastic is polluting our world. It’s produced with fossil fuels, releases microplastics during use, and causes the accumulation of harmful waste after disposal. 

To tackle this problem, Uluu made two core decisions. 

First, we produce PHAs. These materials are biocompatible, yet still provide the plastic-like properties we rely on. PHAs are reusable, recyclable and compostable. They biodegrade, even if lost at sea! 

Second, we use farmed seaweed. This marine crop can be regeneratively grown to entirely replace the fossil fuels we use to make 400 million tonnes of plastic every year.

We use farmed seaweed rather than fossil fuels to make materials. 

Importantly, seaweed absorbs lots of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as it grows.  

A fraction of that carbon is locked in marine sediments, as pieces of seaweed break off and become permanently buried underwater.

And the harvested seaweed can be used to produce products, replacing things that would otherwise harm our planet.  

At Uluu, we use seaweed to make alternatives to plastic and animal protein. At the moment, producing one tonne of plastic from fossil fuels emits the equivalent of more than 2.5 tonnes of CO₂, while one tonne of animal protein emits the equivalent of more than 20 tonnes of CO₂.

We want more farmed seaweed in the world, and we want to incentivise that through Uluu.

Seaweeds are amazing at restoring our oceans. They not only remove carbon from the atmosphere but also clean up nutrient pollution that causes havoc in our marine environments.  

Importantly, seaweed farming provides sustainable jobs to coastal communities that would otherwise rely on overfishing to survive.  

In most countries, the majority of people involved with seaweed farming are women, which we’re really enthusiastic about.