The 5 Gyres Institute

This #compostable bag is made with #seaweed – and now, it’s being used by your favorite brands!! In case you don’t know us already, we’re Sway, a material innovation startup based in California. Since the announcement of our patented Thermoplastic Seaweed technology earlier this year, Sway has been hard at work scaling it into a viable replacement for a particularly pesky kind of plastic: the polybag. Polybags protect products from the time they’re manufactured until they arrive at your doorstep, ensuring your purchase arrives in pristine condition. 180 *billion* plastic polybags are used annually in the fashion industry alone – it’s time for an upgrade. Through much trial and error, we have optimized this material into a versatile, durable format that can withstand global supply chains. With seaweed as its hero ingredient, this bag helps to divert petroleum and support healthy ecosystems and communities. And while it competes with plastic’s performance, it won’t last forever – returning to nature through home and industrial composting 🌱🌞🐛 Learn more at swaythefuture.com/pilot 🌊

Amazing event for The 5 Gyres Institute last night, educating our neighbors about the GOOD and the BAD in the plastic pollution reduction movement. Thanks to our host and BOD member Erico Franco Gomes! The Bad - micro and nano plastic are causing harm in every crevice of our ecosystems, environment, and our bodies. Dolphin blow hole exhaust contains plastic, it's crossed the brain-blood barrier, in mother's milk, and forever chemicals like PFAS accumulate in plastic pollution making it more harmful in the environment than it is in the initial use case. Oh, and it's growing. Petroleum companies who are unhappy with reduced oil for transpo (thanks to EVs) are pushing more into ethylene cracker factors to make more and more plastic. The GOOD - our movement was nonexistent 20 years ago and we already have a UN-backed, International plastic treaty on the table! 15 years ago, we were debating the if the "Great Garbage Patch" really existed, now we know the oceans are full of plastic and we are debating who is responsible (hint - it's producers). The movement has grown from one or two scrappy scientists duct taping a trawler into massive volumes of research and an army of scientists working to use data to drive policy. Pamela Marcus, Anna Cummins, Lisa Erdle, Sanjay Bhatia, Carolynn Box (cbox), Sara Mais