Puerto Rico Studio to seek 2nd life for disposed tires, plastic waste, sargassum
CarbonCycle, SOS Carbon, Sway, Thalasso Ocean and PANGAIA have been selected to pilot solutions to convert Puerto Rico’s sargassum seaweed, plastic waste and end-of-life tires into new value-added products.
The cohort, named the Puerto Rico Studio, was created through a partnership between Invest Puerto Rico (InvestPR), the island’s business attraction organization, and Newlab, an invention center based in Brooklyn, New York.
Sargassum is a seaweed whose excess accumulation in recent years is affecting coastal ecosystems and poses environmental challenges. Approximately 18,000 tires are disposed of daily in Puerto Rico, and there are significant import and export constraints for plastics on the island, participants said.
InvestPR, whose mission is to propel economic growth in Puerto Rico, and Newlab, which specializes in climate solutions, identified an opportunity in this waste crisis to scale circular economy technologies while addressing this issue.
The cohort will pilot the technologies through March.
CarbonCycle is a Missouri-based organization founded in 2018. It designs, builds and deploys waste-to-value systems. CarbonCycle works with U.S. government agencies to develop systems that use heat to convert used tires into fuels with minimal energy requirements and emissions.
CarbonCycle will work with Once and for All Tires LLC (OAFA), a Puerto Rico-based company that shreds and reshapes used tires into products such as mulch and gym mats. OAFA plans to use CarbonCycle’s technology to maximize tire waste utilization and create high-value products such as fuel.
During the pilot, CarbonCycle will undertake pre-development work to establish its technology in Puerto Rico. If successful, OAFA and CarbonCycle will look to incorporate plastic waste into their operations on the island in the future.
SOS Carbon, established in the Dominican Republic in 2020, works with fishing communities to collect near-shore sargassum seaweed to prevent it from beaching, which impacts the surrounding ecosystems, human health and tourism.
Its collection method yields higher quality sargassum for final products. SOS Carbon will assess regulatory procedures for collecting sargassum in Puerto Rico waters. All collection activity will be coordinated and validated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and Puerto Rico’s Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DRNA, in Spanish) to ensure responsible collection efforts.
Sway, a clean-tech startup founded in Berkeley, California, in 2020, focuses on developing seaweed-based, rapidly compostable plastic alternatives. In the final phase of its Puerto Rico pilot, Sway will conduct a compost trial for sargassum and test incorporating sargassum compounds into its bioplastic products, which are used for packaging apparel, accessories and dry goods.
Thalasso Ocean, founded in Norway in 2022 with operations in Mexico, plans to create a “micro biorefinery,” a shipping container-sized portable lab that extracts compounds from harvested sargassum. The process enables high-quality inputs for sargassum-derived products., such as Sway’s bioplastics.
Thalasso Ocean is dedicated to making sargassum management profitable for local communities through technological solutions.
“Thalasso envisions a network of micro biorefineries throughout Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, staffed by local workers, that will allow sargassum products to scale through a sustainable, local supply chain,” as stated in a press release.
PANGAIA, founded in 2018 and based in London, is a materials science company that creates lifestyle products through sustainable manufacturing. Its products include apparel and accessories made from recycled wool, plant-based leather alternatives, biopolymers and other sustainable materials.
PANGAIA will explore creating a sargassum-based yarn and contribute its manufacturing expertise to assess the economic feasibility of a sargassum-based supply chain.
