Karmactive Team
8 Million tons of plastic enters our oceans every year. 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic waste is estimated to be present in the ocean currently. 70% of our debris sink into the oceans ecosystem, 15% floats and 15% wash up on our beaches.
Lucy Hughes noticed the trash in oceans and their environmental impact at a young age. It was an eye opener for her. Lucy Hughes is an Entrepreneur and a Product Designer
MarinaTex was created by her as a final year project at The University of Sussex. Marina Tex is a form of plastic made from seafood waste.
Lucy visited a fish processing plant and wholesaler in Newhaven. She identified various types of wastes generated by production of seafood. Traditionally offal, blood, crustacean & shellfish exoskeleton and fish skin & scales are all disposed of. Due to the flexibility and strength enabling proteins, Hughes found immense potential in them. It took over 100 different experiments for Lucy to refine the composition and process to form MarinaTex. She also has used crustaceans and algae to improve the material.
MarinaTex is one of a kind material that can put the waste from the seafood industry to good use. With this opportunity Lucy can bring in a circular economy to seafood industry. Considering the amount of plastic trash floating in our oceans, MarinaTex is here to bring some positive change.
