The Titusville entrepreneur has launched Sea Threads, a startup company dedicated to crafting clothing from 100% certified ocean plastics.
A World Economic Forum-Ellen MacArthur Foundation report warned five years ago that the world s oceans may contain more plastic than fish, as measured by weight, by the year 2050.
Cross, 24, earned a bachelor s degree in business and environmental studies from the Florida Institute of Technology in 2019. Shortly afterward, he established a base for Sea Threads at Groundswell Startups, a high-tech business incubator on U.S. 1 in south Melbourne.
Sea Threads uses ocean plastic waste that is collected in Indonesia, then compacted into bales in Sri Lanka. From there, the plastics are broken into small bits, melted and converted into polyester thread.