PORTLAND, Maine — Several hundred people from across the globe working in the seaweed industry are gathering in Maine's largest city.
Seagriculture USA 2023 is taking place this week at the Westin Hotel. The conference covers the vast potential of seaweed use as a food source, bioplastic, medicine, and sustainable economic development.
That includes a new Maine company producing an alternative coating for food containers and wrappers free of toxic PFAS chemicals that can leach into food.
Jessica Chalmers and her husband, Colin Hepburn, have ambitious plans that could change the face of the food packing industry and beyond. Their company, Everything Seaweed, uses refined bio-materials from seaweed to a point where the human eye can't see them. So small that the material made into a gell can repel and absorb water.
"It absorbs up to 700 times its weight in water, which is just what the synthetics can do. Many of these synthetics can't do that, and none of the alternatives can do that," explained Jessica.
Currently, there is no viable natural alternative to coatings for food containers and wrappers made with PFAS. Industrial chemicals that prevent oil and grease from leaking through paper and cardboard. Colin has a background as a chemical engineer and has worked with seaweed for decades. He demonstrates how paper coated with seaweed cellulose nanofibers was more effective in repelling water and oil than uncoated and PFAS-coated paper plates and containers from the deli counter or a grocery store.
"Something that could be applied to a food container and allowed to dry and form a dry coating that is waterproof and grease-proof," Colin said.
Two significant factors drew the couple to Maine. The state is seen as a leader in the U.S. seaweed economy and also leads the nation in laws restricting the spread of PFAS. That includes banning the chemicals from fast food wrappers, pizza boxes, and take-out containers, and the final rules are expected to be passed next year.
Meanwhile, the company is conducting testing with plans to build a factory, which will house a first-of-its-kind seaweed biorefinery, in Maine by the end of 2025.