When Mayela Fernandez used to visit the Caribbean with her family, she witnessed the effects of sargassum, a decomposing seaweed that releases toxic chemicals into the air. Piles of decaying brown seaweed stretched across the shore, filling the air with a noticeable stench.
Since 2011, several coastal zones from Cancun to Havana to Miami have endured serious economic, environmental and public health concerns caused by the invasive species.
Fernandez knew there had to be a way to stop sargassum from harming communities and restricting beach access. After observing product developers in Southeast Asia making sustainable packaging with kelp and seaweed, she speculated sargassum could be an opportunity to turn poison into a positive impact.
their sargassum coating solution. Credit: Jahan Ramezani / Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Fernandez, now a master’s of business administration graduate, and Michelle Cullen, a polymers and coatings master’s student, are bringing a bio-derived product called Ecoplasticity to life. Officially founded in 2025, the sustainable alternative to plastic linings on food service containers uses toxin-free sargassum seaweed as the product base.
“We all have one goal in mind with Ecoplasticity,” Fernandez said. “It’s to develop a 100% bio-based, high-performance coating without compromising the nature of it.”
Ecoplasticity has now secured $100,000 of funding from private organizations, pitch competitions, the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship summer accelerator and the Cal Poly Baker & Koob endowment, supporting their newest hire, lab development, travel and more.
Ecoplasticity’s seaweed lining allows food service companies to swap out plastic for fully compostable and recyclable seaweed coatings. These linings are applied to paperboard food packaging, similar to what students use daily at Cal Poly. Linings help stop grease, oil and liquids from soaking through or altering the container’s rigidity.
There is a California law that hold companies accountable in their sustainability practices, fining up to $50,000 a day for corporations without fully compostable or recyclable packaging.
“Fortunately, these laws actually give our product a competitive edge over other products on the market right now,” Cullen said. “We’re able to claim that our product is plastic-free, compostable, biodegradable, bio-based and recyclable.”
How a passion for sustainability drives Ecoplasticity
Early on, Fernandez used guidance from Tom Katona, director of Student Innovations Programs for the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, to jumpstart the business, even when the technical requirements for Ecoplasticity were unfamiliar to her.
“It didn’t matter that she wasn’t a material scientist or a chemist,” Katona said. “She was just trying to figure stuff out, and I thought that just showed a lot of initiative.”
Cullen joined the project to complement Fernandez’s expertise in business with her own experience in materials engineering. As a team, they worked towards turning a toxic problem into a sustainable solution.
“I really like the innovative space,” Cullen said. “That’s why I wanted to work on this, because it was something new. I’ve always been really interested in sustainability.”
Chemical engineer Adam Grosvirt-Dramen, the newest addition to Ecoplasticity’s technical team, experimented out of his garage for the first four months. The recent switch to a small incubator space has provided access to lab equipment, more advanced chemical testing and lab space, according to Grosvirt-Dramen.
“The best part has been working on something that I’m not only fully interested in, but also something that has a real-world impact,” Grosvirt-Dramen said.
Grosvirt-Dramen is continuing to develop Ecoplasticity’s coating formula while they send out samples to potential customers.
Last summer, during their participation in the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s Summer Accelerator, the co-founders conducted the most customer discovery interviews they had done in such a condensed time span, according to Cullen. Client reviews are valuable, providing constructive feedback and affirming they are heading in the right direction, Fernandez said.
Ecoplasticity is also supported through a senior project in the materials engineering department. Four Cal Poly students are currently experimenting with cross-linking ions, trying to trigger their release to create solid coatings. This opportunity provides students with hands-on experience and contributes additional effort to Ecoplasticity’s mission, materials engineering professor Seamus Jones said.
Jones supervises the senior project and supported Cullen through an independent study course focused on Ecoplasticity’s initial lab development.
“We have a lot of students who want to do impactful, industry-relevant things,” Jones said. “I like that our students can feel prepared to do things that they didn’t expect to do.”
From the beginning, Cullen and Fernandez were very specific in their mission, according to Jones.
Competitions such as Innovation Quest in 2025 helped prepare the founders to speak in public and feel more confident explaining their product’s purpose, according to Cullen. Ecoplasticity is one of six finalists in AngelCon 2026, competing for the prize funding this April.
Currently, Ecoplasticity is partnering with businesses to build the best product possible, Fernandez said. Cullen noted that their next steps include filing for a provisional patent and continuing to work towards their final formula.
“At the beginning, my confidence was based on motivation and hope,” Fernandez said. “Right now, I have motivation and hope and also evidence that it’s working.”