The Mexican government hopes to unlock the full potential of the smelly seaweed by working with companies that turn it into something useful.

By William Savinar, Courthouse News Services

August 19, 2026

PUERTO MORELOS, Mexico (CN) — As unprecedented levels of sargassum wash ashore on Mexico’s Caribbean coast, companies are turning the unsightly seaweed into beneficial products — with healthier beaches in the process.

On a lush stretch of road outside downtown Puerto Morelos, Quintana Roo — 40 miles from Cancun’s high-rise hotels — is Carbonwave’s Mexican office and sargassum biorefinery.

Environmental secretary Alicia Bárcena called Carbonwave the main cog of the newly planned circular seaweed economy, a government-backed initiative based in Puerto Morelos. The Mexican government has identified 190 other companies as part of the plan to upcycle sargassum.

Bárcena said last month the sargassum problem has evolved from a temporary phenomenon lasting a few months into one with a permanent presence. The amount of sargassum hitting the shores is 27 times the historical average and four times last year’s level.

The state of Quintana Roo, on the Yucatan Peninsula, has been hit hardest by the smelly seaweed that originates from the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt and gave the Sargasso Sea, its former epicenter, its name. An estimated 9,000 tons of sargassum reach the Mexican Caribbean coast daily and the federal government has invested $115 million

But sargassum management doesn’t stop on sand.

From waste to resource

Carbonwave, which began in Puerto Rico, has been turning sargassum into biomaterials, fertilizers and specialty products since 2019.

The company’s collection wing, Grupo Ensol, picks up sargassum on the beaches in front of hotels along the Mayan Riviera as a waste management service.

“Cleaning the beaches is not something that is cheap. It’s really a big investment for the hotels, especially to do it the right way, and that struggle has made it really complicated for them. Whenever they’re able to give us fresh seaweed for our process that fits all the criteria, we give them 50% discounts on the disposal,” said Rodrigo Malagón, Carbonwave logistics and sales associate, during a tour of the facility earlier this month.

The Mexican Navy also delivers sargassum to Carbonwave after extracting it from the water using specialized “sargacero” boats, acquired as part of Mexico’s multimillion-dollar effort to combat sargassum.

According to Carbonwave, the seaweed has 12 hours before it goes bad.

To reach the biorefinery, the seaweed must be fresh and less than 10% contaminated, with no sand or plastic, Malagón said.

If the seaweed’s not up to snuff, Carbonwave takes it to government-authorized disposal centers.

Carbonwave checks for five key markers: the color, the smell, the texture, the consistency and the amount of contaminants like heavy metals.

After passing quality control, the seaweed is weighed for processing and then goes through a series of rinses, presses and filtration, draining liquid from the sargassum through tiny pores and separating it from naturally occurring heavy metals. Then it’s dried.

At the end, Carbonwave produces organic biostimulants through its agricultural product line, Sarga Agriscience. Sarga Power is distributed in Mexico and Sarga Extra is exported to the United States.

Though its primary business is biostimulants and beach cleaning, Carbonwave also sells emulsifiers to cosmetics companies. It is also working on a seaweed-based leather and has experimented with coffee cups and even guitar bodies.

“There are other companies that buy our product and make other products themselves based on ours. So, they either resell it as is, or they add some other nutrients, some little details. They make their own formula, but based on our product,” said Malagón.

Because sargassum is a natural nutrient-lover — part of the reason why it is spreading so rapidly — it helps plants as a stimulant.

“Our product doesn’t substitute any fertilizer. It complements it. It helps the plants absorb the nutrients better. It withstands extreme heat and cold. Whatever stress the plant has, that’s what it helps,” said Malagón.

The biorefinery uses three to four containers per day when processing. Each container weighs about seven to eight tons.

Malagón said the processing is the easy part.

“The most expensive part of our process is not the process, per se — it’s the logistics of bringing the seaweed from point A to point B,” he said, noting rural roads can be difficult to navigate for big trucks.

Sargassum to second chances

Another sargassum processing company in Puerto Morelos is BlueGreen Nursery, started by Omar Vásquez in 2018.

“I was the first guy doing sargassum cleanup in the area,” said Vásquez.

Vázquez’s claim to fame is his “sargablock,” bricks for homes made from 40% sargassum and 60% other organic composted material.

He built the first house out of sargablock in 2018. He called it Casa Angelita, a replica of his grandparents’ house in Jalisco named after his mother, who passed away 23 years ago.

Since then, using money from speaking engagements, landscaping, selling plants and gardening, Vázquez has donated 21 houses made out of sargablock to 20 different families in the area.

Vázquez was 8 years old when his parents brought him to live in California illegally. He returned to Mexico in 2018.

“I wanted to come back to Mexico and live my Mexican dream in my country. I thought if I work as hard as I worked in the U.S. in my country, I can make it.”

He said the sargablock process is fairly simple. Vázquez and his team collect the sargassum from the beaches, separate the plastic and trash, clean the seaweed by hand, remove the sand and then dry it. After adding organic material to the sargassum, the mixture is then compressed and molded into bricks using two press machines.

“We can make up to 2,000 bricks per day,” he said.

Vázquez says he struggled with alcohol and drug addiction and has been sober for 20 years. He makes a point of hiring people with similar backgrounds.

“All the guys that work for me, I give them a second chance, because we all deserve second chances. When you have alcohol or drug problems, you become a problem — a societal, economic and environmental problem,” he said.

“So what I did, I let God mold my life and do something different with me. So, what I did with sargassum was the same thing. Sargassum is this big problem that everyone complains about,” he said. “But we’re all part of the problem. Sargablock and myself, Omar Vázquez — it’s a mirror. You know, we’re the same.”

Courthouse News reporter William Savinar is based in Mexico City.