Caribbean‑scale Sargassum invasions—tens of millions of tons a year—can be harvested and converted into products (e.g., biomaterials, fuels, fertilizers) rather than landfilled. Researchers are building processing pathways and supply chains, while grappling with contaminants and logistics. This reframes the seaweed surge from a cleanup expense into a potential raw‑materials stream.
— If viable, a waste‑to‑resource policy could mitigate tourism losses, create coastal jobs, and guide regulation on biomass quality and harvesting impacts.
Hannah Gould & Georgina Robinson
2026.01.13
64% relevant
Both articles reframe a waste/exit problem (Sargassum vs human remains) as a potential resource stream and industry: the Aeon essay critiques commodifying bodies as ecological solutions while the Sargassum idea shows how waste→industry narratives can redirect policy and create new supply‑chain questions, highlighting the risk of greenwashing when markets form around environmental narratives.
Devin Reese
2026.01.09
75% relevant
Both pieces describe turning an abundant biological nuisance or byproduct into a useful feedstock: the Nautilus article shows brewer’s spent yeast being used to culture bacterial cellulose scaffolds for cultivated meat, which parallels the Sargassum idea of harvesting seaweed as industrial raw material; each reframes waste as a resource with supply‑chain and policy implications.
Devin Reese
2025.12.02
52% relevant
Both stories reframe biological material streams as industrial feedstocks: the Sargassum idea turns nuisance seaweed into products, while the riflebird‑inspired work shows natural optics motifs can be translated into sustainable, lower‑toxicity materials for industry; both raise similar governance issues about sourcing, sustainability, and local economic effects.
Fiona Spooner
2025.12.01
55% relevant
Both pieces reframe massive biological flows as a consequence of human systems and as potential policy/economic targets: the 95% mammal‑biomass figure points to a similar opportunity/constraint logic as Sargassum (i.e., enormous, anthropogenic biomass streams that require governance, supply‑chain design, or valorization). The Our World in Data numbers make clear the scale at which agriculture and animal husbandry shape global biomass, which strengthens arguments for treating biological waste and resource flows as industrial policy problems.
Lisa S. Gardiner
2025.10.01
100% relevant
The article cites 24 million tons of Sargassum in 2022, a 9% tourism drop in 2011, and a network led by Loretta Roberson (MBL) with Rutgers and Princeton to develop Sargassum uses.