Could the solution to fashion’s big plastic problem be algae?

Have you ever considered the impact of the teeny-tiny beads that decorate your clothes or are strung together to make a necklace? These beads are often made of non-compostable plastic and coated with toxic lead or solvent-based dyes that are harmful for you and the environment. Luckily, Parsons School of Design graduate Aradhita Parasrampuria is thinking of these kinds of micro-details with Cellsense Bio, her materials brand that’s turning algae and regenerated cellulose drawn from textile waste into beads and embellishments that replace plastic across fashion, jewellery, and beauty.

The 26-year-old Parasrampuria trained as an embellishment designer at Tory Burch, where she realised the potential for creative, sustainable materials that move beyond the regular options like hemp or plastic made from recycled bottles. While living in New York, the Textile Design graduate spent nights and weekends in community biolabs learning synthetic biology and biochemistry. “The turning point came when I brought some early algae-based bead samples to the design team and asked for honest feedback. They were enthusiastic because it addressed a problem they had been struggling with, but they were also clear that sustainability alone would not be enough. The material had to be genuinely desirable in terms of colour, clarity, and hand feel.” That gap—between what designers wanted and what the supply chain could deliver—felt like her ‘aha’ moment and crystallised into Cellsense Bio.

“It’s one of the fastest growing and most abundantly available raw materials on the planet,” she says of algae. It absorbs carbon, doesn’t need fresh water, and brings unexpected performance benefits, like anti-microbial and hydrophobic properties. At a material level, Cellsense Bio’s beads are biocomposites made from algal polysaccharides and cellulose regenerated from post-industrial and post-consumer textile streams. The algae is sourced from partners focused on responsible cultivation. Cellsense Bio’s beads behave like familiar embellishments in wear and feel, but their life cycle ends differently. Compostability here is intentional, not conceptual. “People often think durability and biodegradability are mutually exclusive,” Parasrampuria explains. “But many familiar materials, like wood and wool, are both.” 

The beads are crosslinked using naturally derived components to allow endurance in use and breakdown later. “In compost or landfill-like environments, they gradually biodegrade over roughly 10 to 15 weeks, depending on size and thickness.”

This is stuff of the future, made in a lab in Brooklyn, where robotic syringes deposit beads directly onto fabric from digital patterns. “At the bead level we are already in the same range as high-quality plastic or glass embellishments, and at the fabric level our automated process allows us to undercut traditional hand beading while paying fair wages,” she says. Patent applications are pending for both the material formulation and the robotic deposition process.

Parasrampuria is already a Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 title holder and winner of the Swarovski Foundation’s Creatives for Our Future mentorship and grant programme for her ability to bring together science and fashion with a view to the future. “Aesthetics were non-negotiable, because my entry point into this problem was as a designer. If the material did not look and feel desirable, it would never be adopted,” she adds.

The company has already completed four paid pilots across fashion, jewellery, and beauty. Partners include beauty brand FKAHaeckels (the algae beads are used as exfoliating elements in skincare), clothing designer Ian Allen Greer for a capsule collection using Cellsense’s beads dyed using microbial pigments, and jewellery labels NPOMME and Roma Narsinghani; the latter has already launched four collections using Cellsense materials.

For Parasrampuria, algae isn’t here to replace leather or denim. It occupies a different lane. She says, “In the long term, I see algae and other bio-based inputs feeding a whole portfolio of next-generation materials, from coatings and films to solid parts. Embellishments are simply where we start.“ Small-format elements like beads and sequins are often ignored, yet they cause disproportionate environmental harm. Helping fashion rethink those details may feel unspectacular on paper, but in practice it’s a meaningful pivot: materials that finally behave as well as they look. In a fashion industry that’s grappling with its future, Cellsense Bio makes the case that the smallest components deserve the biggest rethink.