Omar de Jesús Vazquez Sánchez. Whitney Eulich via Christian via Science Monitor.
A Mexican gardener launched a company that uses beached seaweed to make sustainable bricks.
Whereas many people view seaweed as undesirable, Omar de Jesús Vazquez Sánchez saw it as an opportunity.
- In 2015, Vazquez extended his gardening business to include seaweed removal services.
- He added the service after record quantities of sargassum, a type of seaweed, started accumulating on beaches in Mexico and across the Caribbean.
- The seaweed releases a strong odor when it decomposes, which bothered tourists.
- In 2018, Vazquez developed a way to use the seaweed to create building blocks.
- He
founded a company, Sargablock, to produce and sell building materials
and also to construct affordable housing for his local community.
- “I wanted to mold something good out of something everyone saw as bad,” Vazquez told the Christian Science Monitor.
