A Brooklyn company is creating a new technology it hopes will stop waste from finding its way into the ocean.

AlgiKnit uses seaweed to create more renewable forms of textiles.

The company is located at the Brooklyn Army Terminal. It started with three founding employees in 2016 and now has 14 workers.

AlgiKnit works with brands and manufacturers who purchase their yarns and then transform them into textiles that are to their standards. 

AlgiKnit co-founder Aleks Gosiewski says they started working from their dorm rooms and apartments.

Chief innovation officer and co-founder of AlgiKnit Tessa Callaghan says they use seaweed to eliminate waste that end up in the ocean.

“Seaweed is one of the most renewable and available organisms on the planet and has a lot of excellent benefits for the environment,” Callaghan says. “From carbon sequestration to water filtration, it’s a really fantastic organism for us.”

CEO and co-founder Aaron Nesser says the average human eats about a stick of gum worth of plastic microfibers from the textile industry every week. He says there are 1.4 trillion particles of plastic in the ocean.

The product is still in development, but staff say they are eager to bring it to the market.