Exploring Pilot Production of Seaweed Leather

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Uncommon Alchemy is developing a vegan alternative to leather made from seaweed. Seaweed leather aims to replace environmentally harmful animal and polyurethane leathers with an alternative made from renewable and regenerative resources that can fully biodegrade. This project will research and develop manufacturing processes to de-risk pilot production of the material and accelerate commercial scale up.Due to ethical and environmental concerns, the synthetic leather market is growing, but most vegan leathers are made from petrochemical plastics like polyurethane and PVC. These materials deplete fossil fuels and persist in the environment without biodegrading. Biobased leathers represent a growing market sector, but usually contain some petrochemical plastic content for binding or coating purposes. This means they are only partially biodegradable. Seaweed leather offers an innovative alternative as it contains no petrochemical plastics, is fully biodegradable and comes from raw materials that have an actively regenerative effect on the environment.Uncommon Alchemy's founder, Anna Watkins, is a current recipient of a Young Innovators Award 2020/21\. During the Young Innovators programme, Anna has made significant progress on developing seaweed leather, improving functionality and aesthetic properties, producing prototypes, and developing the business. She has presented seaweed leather on local and national scales, and engaged in role model activities to inspire and support her community. Anna won the Young Innovator of the Year Award 2021 from the Anjool Malde Memorial Trust for her progress during the programme.Follow On funding will enable Uncommon Alchemy to take a critical step forwards in the business and accelerate transition to pilot scale production of seaweed leather.