Listen Now

Shell Homage is a biodegradable composite material out of egg and nut shells without toxic chemicals. It is completely biodegradable and can decompose when no longer in use. It can be used in several industries as product design, interior design, consumable goods and jewelry design. Shell Homage is founded by the integrated designer Rania Elkalla and was initiated during her master research project. The material properties can be controlled according to the application from stiff, hard, transparent, translucent or opaque surfaces to elastic and malleable sheets. The surfaces looks like marble or natural stone but the material is much lighter. The created composite material can be pressed, extruded, 3D printed or formed by injection molding. Each surface is handcrafted into unique combination of colors and patterns. It is 100% compostable when it is no longer in use. 

Elena Amato is a designer from Guatemala currently living in Brazil. She is passionate about circular design, developing materials using biofabrication and thinking about creative applications for them.  In 2019 she founded Ponto Biodesign, a biofabrication lab and design studio, where she has created sheets of bacterial cellulose with paper-like qualities as a sustainable alternative to the plastic packaging used in personal care products. The dried bacterial cellulose material can be glued together using water, eliminating the need to use glues or other adhesives when sealing the packaging. Natural pigments such as spirulina, hibiscus, saffron and charcoal are added to the mixture during the blending process to achieve different colors. In addition to these qualities, the low-tech manufacturing process has a minimal level of energy consumption, and Elena Amato envisions it being made locally to generate jobs in the area as well as eliminating the need to transport raw materials from far away. 

THE SHELLWORKS makes home-compostable materials from seafood waste that degrade in just 4-6 weeks. After the product life-cycle the material will start degrading when placed in earth and even acts as a natural fertilizer for plants. They developed a range of products for their clients such as candle containers, plant pots, films, and plinths. Also, they license their technology to companies who want to manufacture products on their own.

LABVA stands for Laboratorio de Biomateriales de Valdivia (Chile) which is an independent, self organized community group. Together they go out in nature to study plants & natural materials and experiment creating new biomaterials by developing kitchen recipes or growing them. But the enthusiastic people involved in this admirable initiative do even more than designing new biomaterials. They have a holistic vision: In today’s world we often are disconnected from a product’s origin and its possible impact on the environment. So LABVA’s approach is about reconnecting with nature and the local culture and build an awareness, emotional binding and cultural identity with materials and their use.  The key to LABVA’s success is connecting people locally, experimenting playfully and teaching children.  Because it is our children who will shape the culture of the world of tomorrow!

Material Designer Paula Nerlich is developing a bioplastic based on aquafaba from chickpeas as part of her research into circular, compostable biomaterials.  The material, which is currently under development, shows great potential for mechanical manufacturing and thus for industrial production. The biomaterial varies in color from cream white to pink and changes its color over time. However, it can be dyed with natural or food colors. The structure can be flexible or hard, the recipe is adaptable. The biomaterial is completely vegan and biodegradable. Compostability is currently being tested.  The temporary nature of biodegradable biomaterials reminds us of the flow of nature and makes us appreciate the quality of impermanence. The transience of the materials has the potential to create a higher value in the end product, while also emphasizing the circular nature of the material. 

Dopper, a Dutch Social Enterprise selling reusable water bottles, is on a mission towards a world with crystal clear water in every ocean and from every tap. Therefore, they launch initiatives like the Dopper Changemaker Challenge Junior, which is an international competition for children aged 8 to 12 that challenges them to develop solutions to single-use plastic pollution in our oceans.  Children have unlimited imagination and creativity, which – if guided well – can lead to brilliant solutions. It is important that children learn that their input is valued and taken seriously. The international competition – held in UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and Nepal – is both accessible for teachers, who can take part with their pupils, and for children independently. Provided educational materials are designed specifically to guide them through every step on their way leading to genius solutions! Children can upload their sketches on the Dopper website where  they have a platform they deserve to display their ideas and solutions. Also, a winner is announced by a jury and together a prototype of their solution is built and displayed in public. The initiative supports teachers‘ learning objectives and at the same time children get the chance to grow and expand their skill set. They develop their creativity, collaboration skills and readiness to deal with complex futures and embrace a changemaker attitude.

Cinzia Ferrari’s PLANT plASTIC! is a fantastic packaging material that doesn’t contain any toxic ingredient and that doesn’t become waste: Instead, at the end of its use it takes a new life form by growing into a house plant. Packaging is not a passive dead matter anymore. It is alive and contributes to a better environment: By growing into a plant, CO2 is absorbed from the air and single-use packaging consumption is reduced as the user will grow fresh products as tomatoes that are normally sold wrapped in plastic. The material is made of sodium alginate, plant seeds and Azospirillum Brasilense, which is a soil bacteria harmless to us humans and because of its nitrogen-fixing property promotes plant growth. For this reason this bacteria is well known as biofertilizer. The packaging made of this material is dry and organically inactive but alive. It will become active again only when it is planted into soil. For this reason, Azospirillum Brasilense won’t contaminate any packaged product.Cinzia’s motto is that in terms of design efficiency we should pay closer attention to nature. We need lightness in materials which not only means less matter but more efficiency: products need to sense and respond to changes in the environment.The project has been inspired by group work and experiments done during the MA Biodesign at Central Saint Martins in collaboration with Emily Roscoe, Meiqi Peng, Moises Hernandez and Paula Camiña.

In Bulgarian public kindergartens, children drink water from single use plastic cups. As a result, the annual plastic waste equals 240 million cups and would cover half of the Earth’s Equator, if wasted cups were arranged in a line. This is an extreme case of throw-away culture that is being imprinted into children’s perceptions as a norm. From an economic standpoint, the produced waste costs Bulgarian citizens around 3 million €/year. The “Choose the reusable cup” project started as a local community initiative in a state kindergarten in the town of Varna, Bulgaria. Sabina Maksimova, a mother of two, proposed a solution: a reusable metal cup, engraved with a unique symbol for each child. Later, this community initiative received the support of a local ecology organization – the Public Environmental Center for Sustainable Development. Currently, the project has the ambitious task to reach parent communities across the whole country. The mission of “Choose the reusable cup” project is to change perceptions and consumption norms, so that caring about the environment and healthy living will be more valued than the few-seconds convenience of the disposable container.

Coolpaste is a sustainable packaging design that literally thinks outside the box. The designer Allan Gomes gave birth to an eco-friendly alter ego of our trusty old toothpaste. The tube is made of impermeable cardboard and the cap is made of biodegradable Polylactide (PLA), a bioplastic derived from renewable resources such as corn starch, tapioca roots or sugarcane. The Coolpaste tube itself has a tab to hang it in the Point-Of-Sale shelf. This makes an outside packaging obsolete resulting in being lighter for transport, reducing waste and creating a unique branding. This smart eco-design solves logistical and environmental issues for global toothpaste brands.