With its peculiar green, hairy texture, the mussel beard is usually dismissed as waste by seafood companies.
However, entrepreneur Sander Nevejans may have found a lucrative opportunity in what many see as trash, thanks to royal endorsement from the King for his innovative idea to repurpose mussel beards.
The 35-year-old Belgian has discovered a novel use for these fibrous strands, which mussels use to cling to surfaces. He turns them into sound-blocking insulation products.
The ambition is for these acoustic panels to gain traction within the building industry, transforming what would typically be discarded into a valuable resource.
Nevejans shared, “Moules-frites, or mussels and fries, is Belgium’s national dish.”
“My mother didn’t prepare it often enough, but as a child, our summer vacations were spent at the Belgian coast, where I would use mussels to catch small crabs,” he reminisced.
‘At first, I didn’t even notice those little fibres; you just pull them off and discard them without even looking at them. It was only when I saw the programme about how they process them that I saw the opportunity.’
Sander Nevejans with trays of mussel ‘beards’
Mussel ‘beards’ are usually discarded but are now being put to better use
Not only do mussels make for a delicious dinner, their straggly ‘beards’ are being used in acoustic panels
Mussels are small meaty sea creatures that hide away in distinctive dark blue shells.
They fix themselves to the seabed with beards made of byssus threads, which are hard-coated but soft and elastic on the inside, with adhesive pads.
Shellfish farms provide long ropes for mussels to grow on before they’re hauled ashore and processed for supermarkets and restaurants.
In 2021, while working in interior design in London, Mr Nevejans came across a short film on the mass production of mussels, including the need to remove the tiny ‘beards’.
Intrigued, he sent off to a shellfish grower for a sample and set to work turning the off-cuts into a textile.
Mr Nevejans, who studied electro-mechanics at college, then fine art, then used his design and metalworking skills to transform them into a type of wool.
This is then formed into aluminium-framed panels that can be used to dampen acoustics in offices, music studios or restaurants.
It also keeps in heat and is plastic-free, recyclable and naturally flame-retardant, meaning his products don’t need to be treated with potentially harmful chemicals.
Scotland has 37 shellfish farms dotted around Shetland and the west coast, and they pool their products for processing in Bellshill, Lanarkshire, from where Mr Nevejans picks up some of the four tons of beards discarded each week.
Back at Seastex’s base, he’s engineered his own machines to turn the sticky fibres into textiles.
With a UK Government grant under his belt, he currently deals with every stage of the process, leaning only on a co-director back in Belgium for business advice.
He’s now looking to attract £2.5m of venture capital investment to move to bigger premises and create eleven jobs.
And Seastex’s green mission has already attracted the attention of King Charles.
The monarch’s King’s Foundation selected it among 35 small businesses it champions because of their clever environmental credentials.
Mr Nevejans recently met the monarch at the charity’s Dumfries House headquarters in Ayrshire.
King Charles has backed the acoustic panel project via the King’s Foundation
He said: ‘I had the honour to show byssus wool to the King. We spoke for two or three minutes and, to my surprise, he was very informed. He was talking about sheep’s wool and whether it had the same properties.
‘I’m a simple son of blacksmith. I’m just working to do something different, and, out of nowhere, I meet the King.
‘It’s never been my goal, but if you do what you love, you’re passionate and hard-working, then these unexpectedly really cool things happen. It’s amazing.’
A spokesman for The King’s Foundation said: ‘Our aim was to bring together a group of exceptional young people working across areas from sustainability and nature to traditional crafts and fashion design.
‘Sander’s application caught our eye given his innovative use of sustainable materials. It is also exciting to see this work happening across Scotland.
‘We are looking forward to seeing what he does next.’
