Source: AFP
Growing up on the west coast of Taiwan, where shellfish farming is popular, Eddie Wang saw discarded oyster shells turn from waste to function — a memory that inspired him to create a unique and eco-friendly fabric called “Seawool.”
Wang recalled that residents of his seaside hometown of Yunlin used discarded oyster shells littering the streets during harvest as insulation for their homes.
“They burned the shells and painted the remains on the walls. The houses were then heated in the winter and cool in the summer,” the 42-year-old told AFP at his factory in Tainan.
“So I was curious why oyster shells have such a miraculous effect.”
Wang’s company Creative Tech Textile, founded in 2010, already produced an “eco-fabric” — a polyester material made from recycled plastic bottles — but he felt its texture was a bit “ordinary.”
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So he began working with a research institute to experiment with making fabric from oyster shell scraps, in 2013 arriving at the right formula that produces a wool-like material.
Source: AFP
Today, its factory in Taiwan uses about 100 tons of oyster shells a year to turn out
900 tons of sea wool,
a trademarked and patented fabric.
Textile and apparel generates about NT$200 million (US$6.1 million) annually, with most of it coming from outdoor and sustainability clothing brands in Europe and the United States.
Made-in-Taiwan fabric would not be possible without the island’s unique oyster farming culture, Wang said.
‘A magic thread’
“This industrial chain cannot be found anywhere else abroad,” he says.
Source: AFP
“We have people to harvest oysters, we have experts to clean oyster shells, and we have people to dry and lime (process) oyster shells.”
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The small island of Taiwan has a big appetite for oysters, harvesting around 200,000 tonnes a year with the fleshy flesh appearing in local cuisine such as crispy omelettes and silk-like noodle dishes.
But its popularity also means about 160,000 tonnes of shells are discarded annually, according to figures from the Ministry of Agriculture.
They pile up on the streets of aquaculture towns — the majority in western cities like Yunlin, Changhua and Chiayi — causing environmental problems by emitting fishy odors and providing breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
In Wang’s factory, the shells are ground into nanobeads and combined with thread from recycled plastic bottles.
“It creates a magic thread,” he said. “Oyster shell is a material with low thermal conductivity — it neither absorbs heat nor dissipates heat.”
Source: AFP
Converting the shells — which capture and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere — into seaweed also requires no water, making it a “low-carbon product,” Wang said.
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A half-hour drive from its showroom where activewear, sweaters and pants are on display, state-owned Taiwan Sugar Corporation (TSC) also has a factory that grinds discarded shells into powder used to make household items such as incense sticks.
Crushed shells help reduce smoke and toxic chemicals emitted from burning incense, said Chen Wei-jen, deputy head of TSC’s biotechnology business division.
From waste to gold
Source: AFP
“We hope that oyster shells can have multiple industrial applications, and interested companies can use it as a raw material to make their products more environmentally friendly and add value to their products,” Chen said.
Before the shells reach the factories, farmers in Chiayi — a county famous for oyster production — collect the mollusks at dawn from racks set up along the coast.
They are sorted into baskets before being sent to factories like the Dai Sen-tai factory, where they are washed in a washing machine before being sent to small family businesses that drain the meat and send the shells south.
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Source: AFP
Dai, whose family has been in the oyster farming industry for three generations, said he is happy that Taiwan is giving new life to marine waste.
“When I was a kid, nobody wanted oyster shells — they were thrown and thrown everywhere,” he told AFP.
“It’s a good thing that waste has turned to gold now.”
Source: AFP
