Sway Seaweed Packaging has been named one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2025.
Sway is a material innovation company creating compostable solutions for plastic made with seaweed. Sway’s flagship product, TPSea Flex™, a seaweed-based, home-compostable flexible film, is not just a packaging alternative, it’s a regenerative leap forward for the planet.
From Sea to Soil, and Into the Mainstream
For years, sustainable packaging materials were a hopeful aspiration. Today, thanks to Sway’s breakthrough innovation, they’re scaling into reality. TPSea Flex™ offers the strength and performance of plastic, but it’s crafted from seaweed and home-compostable materials. Even better? It can be run on existing plastic manufacturing infrastructure, making adoption fast and frictionless for brands worldwide.
TIME’s recognition is more than a trophy. It’s a signal that next-generation, circular materials are ready to replace petroleum-based plastics at scale.
A Vision That’s Scaling Fast
Sway isn’t just innovating, they’re activating. The company has already:
• Sourced over 2.7 million pounds of seaweed from regenerative farms
• Removed 105,000 pounds of carbon through cultivation
• Supported 90+ seaweed farms globally
• Protected 100+ acres of marine biodiversity
• And set a bold goal: replace 1.4 billion plastic bags by 2030
Partnerships That Propel
Sway’s growth is fueled by strategic partners who believe in a regenerative future:
• Florence Marine X, Faherty, and Burton are already bringing seaweed packaging to market.
• EcoEnclose and Atlantic Packaging are making Sway materials available to brands everywhere, with Atlantic integrating Sway’s films into its New Earth Approved Catalog.
“The packaging industry is at an inflection point, and companies like Sway are leading us toward a more sustainable future. Sway’s Earth-digestible materials, which feature regenerative inputs, can enable brands to choose deeply responsible packaging. We’re excited to make Sway’s next-generation packaging accessible to our customers, and I believe this partnership will set a new standard for what’s possible.”
— Wes Carter, Atlantic Packaging President
The Tech Behind the Seaweed
Sway’s proprietary TPSea™ resin is a melt-processable seaweed-based pellet that can be used to create flexible films via blown film extrusion, the same method used to make most plastic films today. This compatibility with legacy systems makes it a plug-and-play solution for brands seeking to shift away from plastic.
Not Just Plastic-Free, Planet-Positive
Unlike many compostable materials on the market, Sway products are designed to enrich compost, supporting soil health while removing plastics from the waste stream. Their circular model supports:
• Regenerative ocean farming
• Coastal economies
• Decarbonization through carbon-sequestering seaweed
• Post-use soil enrichment
And the World Is Watching
Sway’s rise has been chronicled in Seaweed Stories, a new documentary series streaming via Leonardo DiCaprio’s YouTube channel, and has garnered support from Fast Company, the National Science Foundation, and the USDA.
“Sway is celebrating the ocean as the hero of a new material future. We work with one of Earth’s most abundant resources — seaweed — as the base of all our technologies. This recognition from TIME validates years of innovation and the tremendous progress happening across the biomaterials industry. Clean oceans, abundant biodiversity, and thriving coastal economies all intertwine with our success as we continue to grow in 2025 and beyond.”
— Julia Marsh, Sway CEO and Co-founder
A Blueprint for a Better Future
With over 5 trillion plastic bags used globally each year, Sway’s scalable, biobased alternative offers a real pathway to regenerate ecosystems while serving commercial needs. Their innovation shows that sustainability and performance aren’t at odds, they’re deeply intertwined.
And with partners like Atlantic helping bring these materials to market at scale, the industry is witnessing a historic inflection point. The question is no longer if we can replace problematic plastics, it’s how fast we can do it.