Speed Dating Turns Scarborough Seaweed into Soap

Yorkshire Coast Seaweed is being made into soap after a chance meeting at a speed dating event.

Clara Challoner Walker runs a soap making business in Malton, she met with local seaweed farmer Wave Crooks at a recent bio-economy event.

The kelp from the Seagrown farm off the coast of Scarborough is now being made into cosmetics by Malton based firm, Cosy Cottage Soap.

Founder Clara Challoner Walker says being able to use the seaweed locally is a win for the environment.

Former IBM executive Clara founded Cosy Cottage Soap to make natural and eco-friendly soaps, shampoo bars, skincare, candles and household products. Proudly plastic, palm oil and cruelty-free the company says that over the last twelve months sales of it's solid soaps and shampoos have saved over 300,000 plastic bottles from landfill.

Clara says the partnership with SeaGrown, located just off the Scarborough coast, harnesses seaweed’s natural properties and also sustains commercial growth and harvesting of seaweed, which is up to 20 times more effective at absorbing carbon than woodlands. The company says the crop also absorbs nitrogen, produces oxygen and creates habitat for marine life.  

As well as bath products, seaweed can also be used in the manufacture of animal feed, fertilisers, textiles and biodegradable substitutes for plastic. SeaGrown is pioneering new ways of offshore seaweed farming, allowing them to scale up their production capacity and giving the company plenty of opportunities to diversify into different products. Together, Cosy Cottage Soap and SeaGrown say they aim to offer consumers sustainable alternatives to many every day and premium products.

Yorkshire and the Humber area is already home to a number of industries that use bio-based raw materials and processes and has a number of organisations working to further develop connections between bio companies.

BioVale is an initiative to build the Yorkshire and Humber region’s capability and reputation as an innovation cluster for the bioeconomy. The Yorkshire and Humber region has a large and thriving bioeconomy, which accounts for 10% of the UK’s bioeconomy, generates almost £9 billion worth of goods and services each year and employs around 105,000 people.

Through a network of business incubators, entrepreneurial support, training and world class research projects; the organisation is aiming to ensure businesses such as Cosy Cottage Soap and SeaGrown have a successful future in a net zero world.

Clara Challoner Walker first connected with Wave Crookes from SeaGrown at a business speed-dating event held by Biovale.

Clara comments:

“Our collaboration with SeaGrown enables us to showcase how fantastic seaweed is for the skin but also allows us to generate consumer interest for this fantastic, sustainable ingredient.

“Working together with local companies that share the same passions and values helps us to make an even greater impact. BioVale and BioYorkshire unite and support businesses of all sizes across the region, who are already passionate about doing good for the community and the environment and enable us to collectively achieve more.”

Wave Crookes from SeaGrown, said:

“We know how valuable seaweed is to the marine ecosystem and as a carbon capturing plant, but it also has so many commercial applications. Our bath and skincare range with Cosy Cottage Soap underlines how working with other local businesses who share our sustainability values can be incredibly successful. By making quality products that people want to buy, we are attracting more people to buy from and invest in local businesses that are proactively supporting sustainable practices. This is the foundation of a thriving green economy.”

Steve Bagshaw CBE, Chairman of the BioYorkshire Industrial Advisory Group, says:

“The partnership between Cosy Cottage Soap and SeaGrown perfectly exemplifies how promoting the bioeconomy can benefit local enterprise, communities through the provision of work, and the environment. We are facing a huge climate crisis but are equally blessed with so many clever and innovative people working on solutions in the region.  We are supporting them to do this and be commercially successful. Our goal is to make North Yorkshire carbon negative, of course achieving this aim brings environmental benefits but we believe it is only a truly sustainable goal if we can also create jobs and enterprise.”