Caribe Circular: World’s First Multi-Actor Alliance to Industrialize Sargasso Launches in Cancun

Cancun, Quintana Roo — The hotel, restaurant, and business sectors of the Mexican Caribbean have launched Caribe Circular, the world’s first multi-actor circular economy program applied to tourism at an industrial scale. The initiative aims to transform sargasso from an environmental nuisance into a raw material for a new industry that protects the region, creates jobs, and positions Mexico as a global leader in regenerative tourism.

The first business groups to join the Grand Alliance for the Safeguard of the Mexican Caribbean include the Hotel Council of the Mexican Caribbean, AMEXME Cancun, CANIRAC, INVEROTEL, and the Riviera Maya Hotel Association, along with the federal government’s Mexican Institute for Research in Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture (IMIPAS). They signed a Manifesto of Adhesion and a Joint Declaration of Commitment.

Caribe Circular’s goal is to integrate 80% of hotels and 50% of restaurants in Quintana Roo by the end of 2028. In its 2026 launch phase, more than 150 hotels and 600 restaurants will join, creating 250 direct jobs and valorizing 150,000 tons of sargasso. By 2028, the target is to exceed 1,180 hotels and 5,900 restaurants, generate 3,500 jobs, and valorize 2 million tons annually.

“Today, in Cancun, we stop talking about sargasso only as a problem and start talking about it as raw material. Caribe Circular doesn’t clean beaches: it builds the market that makes it profitable to collect sargasso offshore, before it reaches the coast,” said Ignacio Muñoz, CEO of The Seas We Love – SargaTech Platform.

Caribe Circular reverses the traditional sargasso management chain: first, it builds industrial demand across six valorization vectors — bioplastics, biomaterials, bio-agricultural inputs, alginates, bioenergy, and biochar — then guarantees supply through the Sargasso Value Market (MVS), and with economic destination secured, it finances oceanic collection before the sargasso reaches the coast.

The alliance is operated by The Seas We Love – SargaTech Platform and brings together the hotel and restaurant sectors, organized business groups, federal authorities, maritime authorities, and industry.

“The tourism sector of the Mexican Caribbean goes from being a victim of sargasso to being an economic actor in the solution,” said David Ortiz Mena, President of the Hotel Council of the Mexican Caribbean.

The SargaTech Circular Procurement Program (SCPP) is the economic integration mechanism. Beachfront hotels collect, pre-treat, and sell dry sargasso, and buy bioproducts made from that same sargasso for equivalent value — a closed loop. Hotels without beach access, restaurants, and business groups participate by buying circular bioproducts at prices equivalent to conventional ones, with no operational change and verifiable ESG traceability.

The current cost of sargasso for the Mexican Caribbean hotel sector exceeds $150 million annually, with nearly all collected sargasso ending up in landfills. The addressable market for SCPP in Quintana Roo alone is estimated at $2.46 billion per year.

“International hotel groups operating in the Mexican Caribbean support Caribe Circular because it combines what any tourist destination in the world needs: real environmental solutions, economic viability, and verifiable ESG traceability. This is destination competitiveness,” said Toni Chaves, President of the Riviera Maya Hotel Association and Executive Vice President of INVEROTEL.

Caribe Circular operates within a federal framework already published in the Official Gazette of the Federation: the PODECIBI Decree (July 4, 2025), which creates Circular Economy Development Poles for Well-being with tax benefits valid until 2030; the General Law of Circular Economy (January 19, 2026), which transforms the logic from waste to resource across the Mexican economy; and the National Fisheries Charter Decree (August 6, 2025), which incorporates sargasso as a fishery resource and changes its legal status from waste to usable resource.

The alliance aligns with an active Expression of Interest before SEMARNAT for 500,000 tons annually and with Letters of Intent signed with CHCM, INVEROTEL/AHRM, and IMIPAS. The estimated CAPEX for the complete industrial ecosystem is between $1.1 billion and $1.35 billion, financeable with private investment and multilateral banks (IDB, CAF, IFC, EIB) and European cooperation through Global Gateway.