Traditional plastics have been around for more than a century, during which time they’ve become perfectly optimized and heavily subsidized. This industry is primarily fueled by petroleum-based pellets that are melted and formed into finished products through global manufacturing. It’s a huge challenge to shift away from a well-oiled system. And also a huge opportunity.
After years of development, the Sway team is proud to share our breakthrough technology: TPSea™ – an entirely new, patented category of biopolymer resin that is home compostable and 100% derived from renewable sources. The #1 ingredient? Seaweed; a regenerative ocean crop that replenishes ecosystems as it grows.
While today’s plastics wreak havoc at every stage of the supply chain, the evolution of single-use plastics stemmed from noble intentions: convenience, hygiene, flexibility. We embrace these characteristics with one more addition: What if plastic could heal ecosystems rather than harm?
For the first time, ubiquitous plastic packaging can be replaced with Sway’s patented flexible film made with TPSea™. Produced using globally scaled manufacturing, TPSea Flex™ provides all the technical performance brands require, while adding ecological and societal value along the way.
Pairing the benevolence of seaweed with advanced materials science, our inaugural TPSea Flex™ film is strong and versatile, well suited for a range of packaging applications across industries – from fashion to beauty to food and beyond. Sway’s evolving product portfolio made with TPSea Flex™ includes thin-film packaging applications such as polybags, retail bags, and food wrappers, a category representing approximately 30% of all single-use plastic packaging.
Did you know 5 trillion bags, wrappers, and pouches are made each year? That’s 160,000 bags every second! Many of these single-use plastics will only be used for mere seconds, but less than 3% are recycled – meaning the vast majority go to landfill or flow into nature.
That’s why we are committed to creating completely biobased, home compostable replacements for these pervasive flexible plastics.
Sway Firstwave™ film is our team's first pursuit towards a plastic-free future, using seaweed as our primary ingredient. By using a liquid-based production method, we’re able to honor seaweed’s inherent gelling properties. Ocean-farmed seaweed is harvested, processed, gelled, and cast into rolls of film suited for an array of solutions where flexibility and full transparency are desired. Unlike traditional plastics, Firstwave™ lasts only as long as it needs to before returning to nature as a soil amendment.