“Humanity’s excessive production of material waste poses a critical environmental threat, and the problem is only escalating, especially in the past few decades with the rapid development of powerful electronic tools and persistent consumer desire to upgrade to the newest available technology,” the team, led by Professor Soekheun Choi, wrote in a paper published in the ASC Applied Materials and Interfaces journal.

“The poor disposability of electronics,” the researchers continue, “is especially an issue for the newly arising field of single-use devices and sensors, which are often used to evaluate human health and monitor environmental conditions, and for other novel applications. Though impressive in terms of function and convenience, usage of conventional electronic components in these applications would inflict an immense surge in waste and result in higher costs.”

Traditional circuit boards are manufactured from resin, glass fibers, and metal wiring, making them somewhat bulky and harder to recycle. That means that millions of single-use circuits in things like personal wearable devices, point-of-care medical devices, and environmental monitors simply get tossed in the trash every day.

In response to this issue, the team — assembled from the University’s Bioelectrics and Microsystems Laboratory in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering — turned to an exercise in “papertronics.” They created a single-use, amplifier-type electronic circuit board made from renewable and biodegradable materials like paper and wax.

The started by printing out electronic channels using wax onto a single sheet of filter paper. The wax was heated to 266 degrees Fahrenheit for two minutes so it could soak completely through the paper. The next step was to fill in all the areas not covered in wax with both semi-conductive and conductive ink. The team then screen-printed conductive metal components onto the paper before bonding the layers together with Thru-hole technology. Lastly, they cast a gel-based electrolyte at 140 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes onto the sheet.

The tiny, flexible circuit board proved effective when it came to resistor, capacitor, and transistor functions. If left unused, it could biodegrade over time with minimal permanent waste left behind — but the team also demonstrated that the board could be completely disintegrated within seconds with just the smallest of flames. And because of the limited amount of materials required, producing these paper circuit boards would likely be very inexpensive, and easily scalable for mass production.

Professor Choi and his team are excited by the potential their creation has to curb e-waste on a global scale. As they explain: “All electronic components are paper-based and integrated on paper-based printed circuit boards (PCBs), innovatively providing a realistic and practical solution for green electronic platforms.”

The post Research Team Creates Paper Circuit Board to Curb E-Waste first appeared on Dornob.

Wastewater management tends to be a big problem in rural India. In villages like Kundli, located on the outskirts of Dehli, hundreds of factories have popped up in a matter of decades, often releasing water contaminated with chemicals directly into the ground. The problem is that these factories, which manufacture items like plastics, rubber, jewelry, and polyester, typically don’t have enough space for high-tech water treatment solutions, even if they could afford them. The pollutants in turn make their way into groundwater and nearby waterways, contaminating the local bathing and drinking water.

The Indus tile system’s algae-based bioremediation process involves placing a wastewater tank on top of the building and then allowing gravity to funnel the water though “veins” in the “leaves.” The designers traveled to India and observed the production processes of textile dyers in Panipat and bangle makers in Kolkata, where various processes release different types of heavy metals into the wastewater. The team found that one particular type of algae was able to reduce cadmium levels in the water by 10 times within 45 minutes.

Fabricated in Khurja, India, which is known for its ceramics, the Indus tiles are made of clay and deeply textured to hold onto a viscous hydrogel containing the most promising pollution-busting species of algae. The vein-like channels are shaped by an algorithm to optimize their ability to absorb pollutants. As the water flows over a tile, the microscopic algae cells absorb and store the substances for energy. The hydrogel acts as a “biological scaffold” that keeps the algae alive, and it’s biodegradable. The materials required to prepare the hydrogel and algae cells can be supplied in a powdered form and reapplied to the tiles as needed.

The modular tiles fit together into a beautiful pattern using half-lap joints, so individual tiles can be replaced as necessary without disassembling the entire wall. This also makes it easy to scale the wall size up or down, tailoring it to each site. In the future, the designers hope to integrate a second phase in which the saturated hydrogel packed with heavy metals is removed and sold to high-tech companies, which can use the metals in their own manufacturing processes. The Indus tiles are set to undergo performance tests in the UK and then a pilot project in India itself.

The creators imagine adapting Indus wall tiles to different regions and needs, making them from local materials like stone or even waste materials. Different tiles could be tailored to different pollutants, infused with the particular type of algae that works best in that context. Given that the end result is so beautiful, it’s not hard to imagine the concept extending to residential applications, too. Just imagine installing a wall of these at the edge of your own roof instead of a gutter, cleaning rainwater for personal use later on.

The post Leaf-Shaped Wall Tiles Full of Living Algae Absorb Pollutants from Rainwater first appeared on Dornob.

In conventional batteries, there’s a positive electric terminal at one end and a negative terminal at the other, with either lead or lithium in between as the liquid, paste, or gel electrolyte substance that propels ions back and forth to generate electricity. Scientists and engineers at the University of Maryland found a way to replace that lead and lithium with chitosan, a polysaccharide sugar that gives the outer skeletons of shellfish their strength and flexibility. Even better, that chitosan can be sourced from materials that are usually thrown away as a byproduct of the food industry. The researchers published their discovery this month in the journal Matter.

“The most abundant source of chitosan is the exoskeletons of crustaceans, including crabs, shrimps, and lobsters, which can be easily obtained from seafood waste,” said lead author and Materials Science and Engineering Professor Liangbing Hu, director of UMD’s Center for Materials Innovation. “You can find it on your table.”

Chitosan can be synthesized into a firm gel membrane with the addition of acetic acid aqueous solution, combined with zinc, and then used as an electrolyte for a battery. Zinc is an abundant naturally occurring metal found in more than 50 countries around the world. It’s used to make batteries safer, and it’s recyclable. That means the major components of the batteries are cheap and readily available, a crucial consideration when so many so-called “sustainable” innovations require the mining of rare minerals.

“Zinc is more abundant in Earth’s crust than lithium,” notes Hu. “Generally speaking, well-developed zinc batteries are cheaper and safer.”

The UMD researchers found that their chitosan-based battery is 99.7-percent energy efficient even after 1,000 battery cycles (about 400 hours of use). That means they can be quickly charged and discharged without affecting their performance. They’re also not flammable, and two-thirds of their composition can break down in the soil within a mere five months, leaving the zinc behind to be recycled. The next step will involve testing the batteries on a larger scale and under commercial use conditions. If successful, these biodegradable batteries could be used in tandem with solar panels, wind farms, hydropower, and other green energy solutions.

“In the future, I hope all components in batteries are biodegradable,” said Hu. “Not only the material itself but also the fabrication process of biomaterials.”

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One potential option is a new biomass material made from an unexpected source: rice. Grown in more than a hundred countries, rice is the world’s most popular cereal crop, and its starch can be modified into a bio-based resin that behaves a lot like synthetic polyethylene plastic.

A Japanese furniture company called Meuble Co. Ltd. is developing a material they call RICEWAVE to replace the polyethylene they typically use to produce the cushions for their furniture, like the Dorothy Sofa Bed pictured below. Working with partner companies Biomass Resin Holdings and Mitsui & Co. Plastics Ltd., Meuble has spent the last five years prototyping products made with biomass materials.

Rice stood out as a strong contender because it’s grown locally to the company, within Japan. Not only does rice resin make use of inedible waste rice that normally gets thrown away, it can also be purpose-grown in abandoned agricultural areas of the country as an economic stimulant.

“Abandoned cultivated land in Japan is vast, exceeding the size of two Tokyo metropolitan areas,” the company explains, adding: “We have started making rice for rice resin in this abandoned land, which will lead to agricultural support and aim to revitalize the region.”

Using bio-based rice resin instead of petroleum-based plastic comes with another benefit: lower CO2 emissions. Mitsui & Co., which specializes in raw materials, says replacing just 30 percent of the petroleum-based plastic in a shopping bag with rice biomass can cut emissions by 30 percent.

Meuble Co. hopes RICEWAVE will ultimately replace polyethylene altogether in its core material, the petroleum-based “LITEWAVE,” which it produces using in-house patented technology. As is usually the case when attempting to switch to bio-based materials, that will require big changes to the manufacturing process. It won’t be cheap or easy, but Meuble Co. thinks it will be worth it, especially if they’re successful at proving rice-based furniture materials perform just as well as their synthetic alternatives.

Rice resin can also be used to replace at least some of the petroleum-based materials in trash bags, cutlery, toys, food packaging, and other consumer products. Currently, many so-called biodegradable packaging materials don’t fully break down in the environment because they contain small quantities of synthetic polymers like polyolefin. Replacing those polymers with rice resin or similar bio-based materials could actually make biodegradable products more durable and give them the ability to replace synthetic fiber-reinforced plastics in all kinds of products, even within the automotive industry.

Other parts of rice plants can be diverted to similarly eco-friendly uses. Though currently the standard practice is to simply let it rot, rice waste like husks, straw, and bran could be used for building materials, fertilizer, biomass fuels and more.

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In a Kickstarter campaign that’s already garnered six times its original funding goal, the Milan-based Krill team is planning to mass produce small lamps made mostly from food waste, specifically the peels of two Sicilian oranges.

“We wanted to create a special piece, beautiful and useful as well as sustainable, so everyone can have something unique in their home that not only decorates the room but tells a story of revolution,” says product designer Victoria R. Schön in an official campaign video.

That revolution is the circular economy idea gaining steam with companies all around the world, with the eventual aim of recycling and reusing all product waste. Founded in 2018 by Ivan Calimani and Yack H. Di Maio, Krill Designs is a company dedicated to combining the need to recycle waste and the need to create new products through material research, design, and innovation. The Krill team hopes the Ohmie will be one step in changing paradigms so that “’sustainable’ will stop being an adjective and will become the norm.”

“We [didn’t] just want to make a change in design. We wanted to make this change beautiful and meaningful,” says Krill co-founder and CEO Calimani. “We have been developing biomaterials for almost three years, helping corporate be more sustainable and crafting eco design products for them. It’s time to use our expertise to make a product just for you.”

To make the petite and visually intriguing lamp, the designers at Krill obtained discarded peels from the food industry, dried them, and ground them into a powder. After being blended with a plant-derived biopolymer, the mixture was squeezed into a filament and fed into a 3D printer in a continuous spiral-like movement. This technique, called “vase mode,” gives the Ohmie its distinctive ribbed texture.

The final product is a 9-inch tall, 5.3-oz table lamp that has the feel, color, and even smell of an orange. It also comes with a USB-plug power cord, a dimmer switch, and an LED bulb with an output of 70 to 90 lumens.

Thanks to the many variations in natural orange color, the Krill team says that each lamp’s particular hue will be different depending on its organic origin. “Every Ohmie will be a completely unique piece,” the campaign page says. And since they’re all made of organic material, the Italian company also says the shape of each lamp could actually change slightly over time.

Closing the production waste loop, if an Ohmie ever breaks, the lamp body is compostable, allowing the majority of its mass to return to Mother Nature to be used again in another form.

With 9 days to go before its Kickstarter deadline of August 5, the Ohmie project had already attracted 347 investors who had contributed over $37,000, far surpassing the original goal of $3,500. Those purchasing the early-bird special got a 30-percent discount off the original price, paying $85 with an expected delivery date of November 2021.

The post Italian Designers Turn Orange Peels Into Compostable Lamps first appeared on Dornob.

Recently, researchers have taken the meaning of “future projects” to the next level by printing an actual living material that could have many exciting applications— including on the planet Mars.

A number of international researchers worked on the project, which was led by the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. Using a new bioprinting technique, they were able to print living “artificial leaves” made of algae and capable of photosynthesis. Kui Yu, a Ph.D. student involved in the project, explains that “the biodegradable nature of the material itself and the recyclable use of microalgal cells make it a sustainable living material.” This means that it can produce energy and still break down naturally over time. Neat, huh?

Printed on bacterial cellulose, the microalgae is also extremely durable. Super strong and sustainable, it’s the best of both worlds all in one eco-friendly little package.

So where does Mars come in? As you may or may not know, space is pretty much not amenable to growing things, as it’s an oxygen-less vacuum. However, in recent years, scientists have been researching ways to grow plants in space to support future colonies, including ones on the red planet. In 2017, for instance, Germany’s space agency tested growing tomatoes on the International Space Station by recycling astronaut urine. Other scientists have been trying to determine what vegetables are the most likely to grow in space, with the best answer so far being Española peppers.

The main reason scientists are so interested in growing things in space is because it’s a much more sustainable option than sending goods and supplies from Earth, which can get expensive quick (about $10,000 for a single pound of materials!). Additionally, they see potential paths to creating oxygen and energy in space, an environment not necessarily known for its hospitality.

The 3D printed microalgae can be used to harvest energy as sugars, which could then be converted into fuels. And since the microalgae is capable of photosynthesis, it’ll also be producing oxygen as an extremely beneficial byproduct.

The success of this project may also have other implications for the future of 3D printing beyond future Mars and space colonies. Marie-Eve Aubin-Tam, an associate professor involved in the project, is enthusiastic about the future of the sustainable tech, adding that “the printing of living cells is an attractive technology for the fabrication of engineered living materials. [This material] has the unique advantage of being sufficiently mechanically robust for applications in real-life settings.”

While not entirely clear on what these “real-life settings” might be, it’s not hard to imagine how useful this type of technology could be here on Earth. Sustainable, biodegradable, and able to be produced via 3D printing, this microalgae may be an answer to a host of energy-related problems here on our own beleaguered planet. To learn more about this amazing technology, check out the Delft University of Technology’s research in the scientific journal Advanced Functional Materials.

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Biotech firm Loop is concerned that today’s corpse disposal techniques have been working against nature for too long, polluting air, water, and natural biodiversity along the way. “Contrary to nature’s beautiful end-of-life cycle, people are not only parasitizing during life, but even after death they leave a scar on this beautiful planet,” the company website says. “Thanks to our modern lifestyle, the average human body contains 219 chemicals that can endanger ecosystems.”

A customary burial today includes embalming fluid, which leaks noxious compounds into the ground — not to mention the fact that conventional caskets alone use up an incredible amount of resources. The Berkeley Planning Journal estimates that the amount of wood used for coffins in the US every year tears down 4 million acres of forest and could be used to create 4.5 million homes. Cremation isn’t much better, either, as it sends carbon monoxide, fine soot, sulfur dioxide, and heavy metals into the atmosphere.

“It’s as if we see ourselves as waste, while we can be a valuable part of nature,” says Loop founder Bob Hendrikx, who first got the idea for a greener burial while showcasing his living home concept at the 2019 Dutch Design Week. If an organic material could house the living, he wondered, why couldn’t it encase the dead as well?

From those musings was born the company’s eco-friendly “Living Cocoon.” Working with the Delft University of Technology and the Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Loop has constructed these caskets from mycelium, an “underground fungal network [that connects] the roots of plants to form ‘Nature’s Internet.’” In other words, the coffin recycles organic matter into essential elements for new plant life. The bottom is even lined with a mossy bed, and the entire space is inhabited by helpful bacteria colonies.

The caskets are lab-grown in one week by combining mycelium with an organic wood chip substrate. The mycelium then eats through the substrate, growing to fill a coffin-shaped mold. It’s a method that’s especially easy on the environment, as it requires no outside heat, light, or energy. When all’s said and done, the case goes through a drying process, after which it’s strong enough to hold up to 440 pounds.

Loop asserts that the Living Cocoon will biodegrade within 45 days, with bodies being fully composted in three years. In a traditional coffin, the process would take 10 to 20 years.

“When the Living Cocoon is in the ground you can even water it, add seeds, and decide what tree you want to become,” says Hendrikx.

Not only can humans be turned into compost faster with these mushroom-based boxes, but they can also help purify the ground where they are interred, since mycelium is an excellent destroyer of toxins. “It’s used in Chernobyl to clean up the soil there from the nuclear disaster,” Hendrikx notes, adding that “the same thing happens in our burial places, because the soil is super polluted there and mycelium really likes metals, oils, and microplastics.”

Hendrikx and his Loop team would love to see their Living Cocoon be a means of decontamination all over the planet. “We have a dream of having super-new natural funeral-based concepts in which we go to different cities and search for the dirtiest soil and start cleaning that up,” he says.

Loop’s living coffins are available for purchase in the Netherlands for around 1,500 euros each. The company has sold 10 to date, with one already having been used for an interment in the Hague.

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Here comes one of those convenient upgrades that are practically begging to be a sold via infomercial. “CassCaps” is a set of alternative caps for all your standard-sized spice jars featuring built-in measuring capabilities for 1/4 or 1/2 teaspoon, which is sufficient for most cooking needs. To use it, all you have to do is select your chosen measurement, flip the bottle, and twist the lid to dispense the spice.

The creators are father-daughter duo Mark, who invented the pineapple slicer 30 years ago, and Erika, who helped bring her dad’s new idea to life through W.E. Cornell and REV Ithaca Prototype to Production Accelerator. Mike first got the idea 25 years ago, but it really kicked into gear as 3D printers became more common and he was able to print his first working prototype.

They explain that their “caps are proudly made in the USA with FDA-compliant and BPA-free materials. Our packaging is 100-percent recyclable, biodegradable, and made from recycled materials. Our glass jars are recyclable, made with FDA-compliant materials, and dishwasher-safe. Whether you want to measure out 1/4 teaspoon or a full tablespoon, CassCaps has got you covered. With each twist taking less than a second to complete, measuring your desired amount is fast and easy.”

“We’ve spent over two years crafting, refining, and perfecting CassCaps to provide home cooks (YOU!) the best experience while cooking. After over 100 iterations, 150 different 3D-printed models, and extensive testing, we are confident you will love CassCaps as much as we do.”

CassCaps just completed a round of Kickstarter crowdfunding to help get their product into the homes of both amateur and pro cooks everywhere. Packages start at $24 for two black CassCaps, two glass jars, and a set of labels, but you can save more by grabbing the Dozen Set for $89. Since they can be used with just about any spice jar you already have in your kitchen, they’re pretty versatile, too, and the ability to measure straight from the jar is definitely an upgrade. The fact that they’re made in the USA with 100-percent recyclable and biodegradable materials is just the icing on the cake.

A lot of products with a similar “As Seen on TV” vibe are viewed with skepticism about whether they’re actually necessary or just another silly gadget that’s going to collect dust in the back of the junk drawer. Whether that’s true for you might depend on how much you cook, and how judicious you are about following recipes to a tee. But if you’ve accidentally poured too much salt straight into your other ingredients one too many times, you might find the prospect of a little more accuracy to be worth the risk.

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Designer Evelina Kudabaité saw an opportunity in a material that’s often overlooked. Tree bark is typically removed from logs before they’re processed into lumber for architecture, furniture, and other projects, creating “slash piles” of unwanted material that then has to be discarded. While some mills send this material to chipping facilities to become mulch, the logistics of transporting it aren’t always financially feasible, and it often gets burned instead.

So what if materials like this could be “rescued” by craftspeople for another purpose? Kudabaité’s new “GIRIA” collection upcycles this waste into a range of beautiful tableware that retains the pleasant properties of plant-based materials. Consisting of plates, bowls, platters, and jugs, GIRIA is made of tree bark scraps collected from sawmills which are then dried, chopped, and mixed with powdered leaves.

The Lithuania-based artist mixes these materials into a paste and shapes them by hand into the vessels, coating them with a non-toxic finish that can be gently washed with a cloth. Since they can’t be washed directly in a sink, they’re not ideal for everyday dishes, but they can still serve beautiful decorative purposes, or inspire short-term food usage as an alternative to harmful plastics.

The finished dishes retain a rustic look that reminds us where they came from, and that there’s plenty more of the same materials to be had, especially as a byproduct of sustainably managed working forests. The different kinds of leaves and powders used in the making of each object, including charcoal for darker tones, gives them a unique look. No two pieces will ever be identical.

The official GIRIA website explains that “the project is aimed to pass the sensations of the forest through material, to establish a connection between the user and the object. This collection is a result of an experimental process by which it was meant to show how materials, which are destined to become waste — tree bark and leaves — can be transformed into sustainable design through the traditional crafts like cooking and clay molding.”

“It is a research on the alternative and unconventional ways to shape wood, which reminds [one] of the culinary process. During the research, a recipe of a unique material that consists of harmless organic substances has been found. No two items in GIRIA are the same: each is made by hand, and the bark dust of different kinds of trees (oak, pine, ash, and tree leaves) gives a unique texture, varying in color and roughness of a surface.”

Kudabaité adds that “the collection distinguishes itself from mass production, making the products as individual as their owners.”

The post GIRIA: Biodegradable Dishes Made of Tree Bark Waste first appeared on Dornob.

Shipping products from one side of the planet to the other means ensuring the merchandise will arrive undamaged. More often than not, plastic foam, or polystyrene, is the lightweight functional material selected to do that job. But IKEA recognizes the damage to the planet that polystyrene causes, mostly because it takes hundreds (if not thousands) of years to decompose in landfill. By contrast, plant-based packaging can break down in a matter of weeks. Developed by product design company Ecovative Design, the mycelium-based material is called Mushroom Packaging, or MycoComposite. The material is actually grown in a controlled environment in less than a week, providing a sustainable option for any packaging requirement that might arise.

Mycelium works in conjunction with several other plant-based materials, including hemp, husk, oat hulls, and cotton burrs. The manufacturing of the new packaging material begins at the Ecovative Design foundry based in Green Island, New York, where the company has already partnered with several local farmers. Once ground, sorted, and cleaned, the agricultural products are combined with the mycelium and sealed for several days. During that time, the fungus grows around those products, filling the empty spaces within the mold. The newly-formed material is then heat treated to dry out, kill spores, and ensure the stop of the growth process.

Joanna Yarrow, Head of Sustainability for IKEA in the UK, says that “the great thing about mycelium is you can grow it into a mold that then fits exactly. You can create bespoke packaging.”

Based in Sweden, IKEA has long been a leader in corporate and environmental responsibility, going so far as to offer a plant-based alternative to the famous IKEA meatballs in response to reports of harmful methane gas emissions caused from raising cattle.

“IKEA wants to have a positive impact on people and planet,” explains another company spokesperson, “which includes taking a lead in turning waste into resources, developing reverse material flows for waste materials, and ensuring key parts of our range are easily recycled.”

Yarrow adds that deciding to use the mushroom-based packaging material was the retailer’s “small yet significant step towards reducing waste and conserving ecological balance.”

Conventional packaging waste makes up a massive portion of the plastic pollution damaging waterways, animals, and natural resources. On top of that, plastic is sourced from petroleum, which is itself an extremely limited resource. Even the manufacture of plastic pollutes the air. Post-consumer use, plastic lays around for generations, seeping into the dirt and water where animals then ingest it. Humans, in turn, eat those animals.

Mushroom and other plant-based packaging, on the other hand, uses a fraction of the energy required to make plastic, produces minimal carbon emissions, and naturally breaks down into the Earth with no pollution. So what IKEA may describe as a “small yet significant step” might just be the end-all answer to cutting plastic production and waste while protecting animal and human health.

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London-based designer Tessa Silva demonstrates how with her project “Chalk & Cheese.” A graduate of the Royal College of Art, Silva spent three years refining a technique that mixes chalk with excess skim milk produced during the creation of butter and cream. Normally, that surplus would just go down the drain.

Sourcing the milk from an organic dairy farm in Surrey and the chalk from a quarry in Hampshire, Silva created a ultra-malleable material that could be hand thrown or moulded just like clay. She uses a sausage stuffer to extrude the material into moulds made of deadstock fabric (another post-industrial waste product).

This “milk plastic” has a consistency like that of air-dry clay or paperclip before it’s cured in a process similar to ceramic firing. Pigments and dyes can be added to achieve different color combinations and effects, but for her “Chalk & Cheese” series, Silva left everything in its naked form to show off the material’s unique qualities.

This isn’t the first time Silva has thought to replace plastic polymers with milk protein, either. For her 2016 “Protein” project, she demonstrated a way to use some of the 3,000 liters of waste milk thrown out by a single dairy farm in a week by turning it into plastic-like pellets.

The process looks a bit like making cheese, using heat to separate curds from whey and then drying them in an industrial dehydrator before mixing them with a natural plasticizer. Silva also mimicked the compression moulding technique commonly used to form plastic products to transform the raw material into vessels that could be lathed and machined like wood.

Her official website adds that “The Protein project is an investigation into the use of cow’s milk proteins as a natural material for the handcrafted production of sculptures, objects, and furniture. Milk has been a fundamental part of cultures and civilizations throughout the ages; it was of such high value that the ancient Egyptian hieroglyph for the word milk resembles the verb ‘to make.’ Originating from an interest in pre-industrial plastics — particularly the processes used to create materials prior to the mass-manufacture of synthetics — the project draws inspiration from the past to influence the future of making.”

“The material utilizes milk sourced from the waste generated by organic farms in England, and is sponsored by Hook & Son Farm. The project does not support industrial farming, but instead seeks to re-envision surplus milk as a resourceful and valuable raw material.”

Though it doesn’t seem to have been translated to mass production just yet, there’s clearly a lot of potential for Tessa’s innovations to take off. They’ve already inspired a series of workshops around London where participants can learn how to work with these milk-based materials and create objects of their own.

The post Milk Clay: Dairy Waste Transformed into Compostable Objects first appeared on Dornob.

The shell of a bird’s egg is one of our planet’s most marvelous small wonders. Researchers examining its fascinating properties have called it “nature’s technical ceramic,” noting its ability to protect its contents from both mechanical and microbial attacks while remaining breathable, regulating respiration, and allowing evaporation. It also stores calcium for the embryo to use for growth, and while it’s fragile enough to be broken by the beak of the emerging baby bird, it can also withstand the pressure of a mother bird’s entire bodyweight.

All of these properties make the eggshell a prime candidate for biomimicry when it comes to designing innovative biodegradable packaging for consumables like food, beverages, and personal care products. And while we’ve yet to see any such eggshell-inspired packaging take off on a large scale, designers are working on all kinds of projects that take this natural material into account. In one stunning example, the Germany-based Studio Basse Stittgen demonstrates how broken bits of used eggshells could help strengthen a new kind of bioplastic.

The studio says: “Annually, an average of 6.4 billion hens lay 1.1 trillion eggs. Simultaneously, one-third of all food per year is lost or wasted, which includes eggs that have short shelf lives and whose fragile shells are not the most suitable protection against processing and transport. From domestication to industrialization, the value of chicken and their eggs has progressively decreased, [with] the shift in human interaction with animals [going] from cohabitation to first encountering them dead and dissected served on plates.”

“In the project ‘How Do You Like Your Eggs,’ the content becomes container, [and] an egg cup is produced from discarded eggs. It explores the extraordinary materiality of an ordinary item of consumption.”

Stittgen’s project aims to generate awareness about the waste of eggs on many scales, but [it] also point[s] out just how much non-biodegradable plastic we use every day and how easily we could replace it with something healthier for the planet. “How Do You Like Your Eggs” uses expired egg whites and shells to produce thermoformed bioplastic cups with zero other additives. That’s it — just eggs.

“In today’s context, traditional non-degradable plastics are highly problematic, especially because of our throw-away culture; opposed to that in this project, a new, fully degradable bioplastic is used to create a narrative about consumption and waste,” says Stittgen. “This can be seen as a novel approach to how plastic can be a conveyor of meaning rather than a pollutant.”

The resulting containers look quite strong, and it would be interesting to see how they held up after long periods of everyday use. It’s just the latest intriguing concept for bioplastics that could offer new ways to transport and store products on their way to consumers, including materials that take inspiration from nature like edible sugarcane packaging shaped like fruit skin and disposable tableware made of discarded avocado pits. There’s even a type of bioplastic made of “liquid wood” that has all the malleable properties of plastic while being 100-percent recyclable and renewable.

The technology to produce such materials already exists, but putting the pressure on manufacturers to invest in our collective future by making the shift to biodegradable packaging is entirely up to us.

The post Eggshells: Turning Nature’s Ideal Container Into a New Bioplastic first appeared on Dornob.

Biofase has been working with biodegradable plastics ever since 2012, when Munguia was still a student. And since Mexico is so well known for its culinary dishes featuring the ever-popular guacamole, it only seems natural that he would choose to work with such a locally abundant resource. On top of that, avocado pits usually just end up being thrown away and burned along with other household waste at landfill sites.

Firmly believing that there was more to be done with those pits, Mungía spent 18 months researching and devising an efficient way to extract a biopolymer from each pit. This biopolymer could then be molded into any shape, thus facilitating the creation of the company’s signature eating utensils.

The post This Company Makes Biodegradable Plastics from Discarded Avocado Pits first appeared on Dornob.

Soap Nut Shells

A natural, environmentally friendly, and non-toxic replacement for your usual supermarket washing detergent, soap nut shells offer the only 100-percent organic way to do your laundry without inputting any harmful chemicals. Derived from the Sapindus Mukorossi, which itself is part of the lychee family, soap nuts are actually berries that can be harvested between September and February, and their trees grow them for as long as 90 years before slowing down production.

Of course, these trees also contribute to converting carbon dioxide into oxygen, which means that even the act of planting and growing soap nuts aids our environment as much as using their shells to wash our clothes does. Add a shell to your compost pile after washing with it to get even more green use from it!

To incorporate soap nut shells into your laundry routine, just pop them into a small fabric bag and throw them into the machine alongside your dirty clothes. Though the soap nuts don’t actually contain any soap, they do contain a surfactant called saponin that is excreted in hot water. Better for your skin, better for the environment, and better for your delicates, these shells are the clear way forward for an eco-warrior like you.

Shampoo Bars

In a bid to eradicate plastic waste, eco-conscious brands are looking to alternative packaging (if any at all) to cut down their carbon footprints. Just think about going to the pharmacy or supermarket to purchase your favorite hair care products: how many of them come in nothing but wasteful plastic bottles and containers? After perhaps a month of using a bottle of shampoo, we throw it away and replace it with another, meaning that in one year alone, a single user throws away 12 more bottles than they need to — and that’s just for one product. Collectively, over 80 billion plastic hair care containers are thrown out across the globe every year.

Shampoo bars are a great way to keep from contributing to that daunting figure. Use organic ingredients to make yourself one of these sustainable replacements to conventional shampoo, and your baths will be that much better with you knowing you’re using something that comes totally plastic and cruelty-free (and that lasts two to three times longer than the average hair care product).

Bamboo Toothbrush

It’s no big secret you have to thoroughly brush your teeth twice a day in order to sustain healthy oral care. Unfortunately, a standard plastic toothbrush only lasts an average of three months, which adds up to four toothbrushes a year. That number doesn’t seem too high for a single user, but multiply it by the number of gnasher-cleaning humans on the planet, and that figure climbs to a gobsmacking 3.5 billion toothbrushes thrown away annually. Next time your bristles are looking a little worse for wear, opt for a sustainable replacement.

Bamboo toothbrushes are biodegradable, vegan, organic, cruelty-free, and recyclable. Their wooden handles can be disposed of naturally, and their bristles (made by brands like The Humble Co.) can be made using nylon-6, which has a carbon footprint similar to that of wool while being highly durable and hygienic so that you never have to sacrifice your health for your conscience.

The post 3 Sustainable Replacements for Everyday Household Products first appeared on Dornob.

Unfortunately, the dream that plastic could protect the natural world from humanity slowly turned into a nightmare. Today, it’s seen as a monster out destroy the planet — which is exactly why a new material by crafting plastics! studio (CPS) seems perfectly poised to save the day.

The Composition

CPS’ amazing bioplastic is made from three simple ingredients: sugar, cornstarch, and recycled cooking oil. The designers claim that their material, called “Nuatan,” could ultimately replace “all the packaging we know.”

First introduced at a London Design Festival exhibition, Nuatan is being touted as much stronger and more resilient than existing bioplastics, with a chemical structure that safely breaks down when consumed, mulched, or composted. CPS Designer Vlasta Kubušová confirmed that once Nuatan has been sanctioned with a food-safety credential, it could be used for food and drink packaging, making its utilization potential nearly unlimited.

How Nuatan Came About

Material scientists at the Slovak University of Technology spent six years researching and refining the Nuatan formula. Nuatan is a combination of two diverse biopolymers, polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) and polylactic acid (PLA). The former is created by microorganisms when they metabolize corn starch, while the latter is a natural plastic made from corn starch.

After conducting extensive experiments on the bioplastic, the researchers determined that Nuatan could be used in several different fields, including (but not limited to) 3D printing, injection molding, and the creation of conventional blow-formed plastic. It’s also been reported to reliably hold in temperatures exceeding 212° Fahrenheit (100° Celsius) and maintain its structural integrity for up to 15 years.

These properties make Nuatan the perfect replacement for all the plastic products out there that are currently under fire for being harmful to the environment, including straws, grocery bags, and water bottles.

But Wait, There’s More!

Not only can fish and other water creatures safely consume Nuatan, but so can humans. Since it contains no carbon-based raw materials (like most other plastics do), it’s virtually harmless to living things, degrading inside the body upon consumption. Nuatan’s biodegradability also makes it conducive to industrial composting.

So What’s the Hold Up?

Money. Since it’s only used in a select number of products, the production costs are pretty high. That’s why CPS designers are actively searching for collaborators and investors to assist in product development and boost demand for Nuatan.

Kubušová explains: “We are hoping to find collaborators who want to include it in the right products, and not combine it with other materials, so it’s a mono-material. If we can find the right collaborators, it can change things a lot.”

CPS introduced Nuatan’s wonders by using it to produce luxury products, which are typically less influenced by raw material costs. Two years ago, the company created eyeglasses whose frames were colored using natural pigments like turmeric, indigo, and coffee waste.

Kubušová is hopeful. “We started with value-added products where the material price doesn’t make too much difference,” he says. “We hope that these products can create bigger demand so the price can come down.”

The post Edible Plastic Could Change Pollution as We Know It first appeared on Dornob.

Here are four brilliant sustainable alternatives to plastic cutlery that’ll bring about positive change in the world and start a ton of interesting conversations!

VerTerra

VerTerra Dinnerware is the originator of palm leaf plates. Made from 100-percent renewable resources and officially recognized by the Smithsonian as being the first of its kind in the USA, VerTerra’s “Fallen Leaves” collection offers some great sustainable alternatives to disposable paper and plastic plates. The designs have been described as stylish and chic whilst remaining true to their functionality with environmental impact. Made of only two simple products, fallen palm leaves and water, these plates will naturally biodegrade around two months after their disposal.

This dinnerware collection is versatile in terms of options, sizes, and styles, so no matter what you’re cooking, you can do it with a clean conscience!

Bare by Solo

This well known dinnerware company offers a compostable product line that’s made entirely from renewable sugar cane. Their PLA-lined hot cup has been specially designed to biodegrade quickly and fully. With its secure lid, the cup is ideal for hot drinks and life on the go!

Veneerware

Made from 100-percent organic bamboo, these biodegradable products from bambu will disintegrate four to six months after disposal and are sturdy enough to handle even the heartiest of meals. Available in bulk for big events like weddings and parties or smaller packs for dinner dates and family gatherings, these plates can even be reused a few times before being disposed of. Chemical and pesticide free, FDA approved and USDA Biobased certified, this dinnerware should be your go-to eco-friendly catering companion.

World Centric

The World Centric collection is made from wheat straw and leftover agricultural fibers, making it a completely renewable resource. The products in it are all microwave and freezer safe, allowing them to be used to carry both hot and cold food without any wax lining or plastic. The plates are also compostable and soak proof, so you can always reuse them if you want. Available in four different styles, these are the ideal dishes to help you host a huge party!

The post 4 Eco-Friendly Alternatives to Disposable Plates first appeared on Dornob.