Spotted: It’s estimated that up to 50 per cent of all plastic produced every year is single-use, meaning it’s only needed for a few moments before being thrown away. In a bid to cut that figure, in 2021 the EU implemented a ban on various single-use plastics, including cutlery. This ban has since created a big gap in the market for sustainable, disposable cutlery. French startup Koovee is working to fill that gap.
Koovee has developed edible cutlery designed to replace all types of single-use plastic utensils. The edible forks and spoons are made from a mix of flour, rapeseed oil, salt, and natural flavours, and have the taste and texture of crackers. Customers can purchase various flavours of the cutlery: natural, almond, and Herbs de Provence. To improve the sustainability of the cutlery further, Marseille-based Koovee also sources its flour from French wheat.
The edible utensils can last more than five minutes when completely submerged in 70 degrees Celsius water, so can be used for soup and other hot foods. Koovee was developed by ecologist and Sciences Po graduate Tiphaine Guerout, who told Springwise that the utensils are “organic, yummy, and sturdy enough for any type of meal.”
The cutlery was developed with the help of financing provided by the French Bank of Public Investment (Bpifrance) and the company also raised €500,000 in an angel round of funding in 2022. Koovee currently produces more than 7,000 pieces of cutlery a day and has a number of commercial customers. Guerout told Springwise that the company hopes to scale in Europe to provide Koovee to “every restaurant and supermarket.”
A number of other recent innovations spotted by Springwise are also working to eliminate single-use plastic, including packaging made from milk proteins and sustainable straws made from sedge grass.
Sportswear brand Puma has said it is a step closer to launching a truly biodegradable shoe, following a trial in which a specially made version of its Suede sneakers decomposed under strict conditions.
In the Re:Suede experiment, 500 shoes were sent out to testers for six months of wear. Of those shoes, 412 were returned to Puma and sent to an industrial composting facility in The Netherlands, where they were mixed with other green waste and left to biodegrade.
After around three and a half months, a large proportion of the leather trainer had broken down sufficiently to be sold in The Netherlands as Grade A compost – a high-quality compost typically used on gardens and landscapes.
Slowing things down was the sole, which in the Re:Suedes was made of thermoplastic elastomer (TPE-E), a type of rubber. It took longer than the other components to break down into small enough pieces to be classified as compost, around six months.
The Re:Suede shoe was designed with biodegradable materials
Puma is calling the Re:Suede experiment “successful” – with caveats. The longer timeframe required for the soles to break down is a deviation from standard operating procedures for industrial composting, so the shoes could not just be thrown into a household food waste collection.
However, Puma is hoping to launch a commercial version of the sneaker next year, incorporating a takeback scheme that would see it compost the shoe using its tailor-made process.
“While the Re:Suede could not be processed under the standard operating procedures for industrial composting, the shoes did eventually turn into compost,” said Puma chief sourcing officer Anne-Laure Descours.
“We will continue to innovate with our partners to determine the infrastructure and technologies needed to make the process viable for a commercial version of the Re:Suede, including a takeback scheme, in 2024.”
Its leather upper was found to decompose under industrial composting conditions
In a report of the experiment’s findings, Puma said it would pursue a “new business model in composting” that could support the decomposition of the shoe.
“The soles slow the process down, resulting in more composting cycles required to turn the shoe into Grade A compost, meaning they can’t be processed using today’s standard industrial composting operating procedures,” said the report.
“But with a new business model in composting and a higher volume of input into it, those standard operating procedures can change,” the report concluded. “There is a future for Re:Suede. To get there, we need more scale.”
Puma’s Re:Suede shoe is made of Zeology suede, which is tanned using a process based on zeolite minerals and free of chrome, aldehyde and heavy metals. Padding and laces are made of hemp, while the lining is made of a hemp-cotton blend.
For the composting process, Puma partnered with Dutch waste company Ortessa. The procedure involved shredding the shoe and placing the pieces into a composting tunnel – a unit where the temperature, humidity and oxygen levels are kept at optimal levels for bacteria to break down organic matter.
For the decomposing shoe granules to be considered small enough for compost, they had to be under 10 millimetres in size.
Those granules were periodically filtered out and sold as compost in The Netherlands.
The leftover pieces, 10 to 40 millimetres in size, became part of the “compost starter mix” and were combined with more green waste to continue decomposing. Ortessa estimated that the full shoe was turned into compost within approximately six months.
The rubber outsole took longer to break down into compost
Re:Suede is Puma’s second attempt at launching a compostable shoe, with the first coming over a decade ago in the form of 2012’s InCycle collection.
Its Basket sneaker, which Puma said was fully compostable through industrial composting, was made of organic cotton and linen with a sole composed of a biodegradable plastic called APINATbio. The range was discontinued in 2014 and its failure blamed on poor consumer demand.
While several shoe designs have been marketed as biodegradable in recent years, the strict conditions required for them to actually break down are often not specified or the infrastructure not available. This can be seen as a kind of greenwashing.
Brands that have launched footwear described as biodegradable include Bottega Veneta with its sugarcane and coffee boots and Adidas with the uppers of its Futurecraft trainers.
A more experimental composition came from German designer Emilie Burfeind, whose compostable sneakers are made with a mushroom mycelium sole and a canine hair upper.
Spotted: Paper is often hailed as the perfect sustainable alternative to plastic packaging, with many consumers instinctively putting paper materials in their recycling bins without thinking. However, many paper-based products are laced with unrecyclable components, such as plastic coatings.
Now, Israeli startup Melodea has a solution – bio-based coatings that protect against water vapour, oil, and oxygen. Made from wood pulp and waste side streams from the paper industry, these 100 per cent plant-based coating solutions are completely recyclable, compostable, and biodegradable. They are suitable for use on paper, paperboard, PET plastic, and bioplastic products, and are also completely non-toxic and FDA-compliant.
Instead of absorbing water and disintegrating, or soaking up grease and becoming unrecyclable, the coatings act as barriers to keep the paper clean and dry. Melodea’s ‘VBcoat’ product resists both water and grease, as does its ‘VBseal’ coating, with the latter also providing heat-sealability to close up the packaging.
These can be used on their own or combined with the company’s ‘MelOx’ product to provide an additional oxygen barrier. Until now, most food packaging has relied on unsustainable materials like plastic because it stops the transmission of air, keeping produce inside fresher for longer. MelOx gives eco-friendly paper packaging the same essential oxygen-resistance.
Because Melodea’s solutions can be applied using standard coating technologies, they can be scaled easily and quickly, with the coatings able to protect products from chocolate and cheese to detergent and cosmetics.
In the archive, Springwise has spotted other innovations using paper to make packaging more sustainable, including a paper alternative to bubble wrap and paper bags made from urban biowaste.
A research team at the University of Michigan has created biodegradable formwork out of sawdust in an attempt to mitigate wood waste in the process of laying concrete.
A research team at the University of Michigan has created a sawdust material for concrete formwork
Led by DART director Mania Aghaei Meibodi along with researchers Muhammad Dayyem Khan and Tharanesh Varadharajan, the team sought to create a material to reuse industrial sawdust in order to lessen the waste created by formwork used in concrete construction.
The team mixed sawdust with biopolymers and additives to create its material, which can be moulded or 3D-printed into various shapes. In order to demonstrate its capabilities, the team used the material to create concrete formwork.
The material can be 3D-printed in order to create structural columns
The team 3D-printed a 1.8-metre structural column, pouring concrete into its centre incrementally. After the concrete was dry, the sawdust formwork was peeled off to reveal the column.
The sawdust material was then saved and recycled by adding water in order to recreate the viscosity level required for 3D printing. Using this process, the team successfully reused the same material over 25 times to create additional columns.
The material is created using a mixture of sawdust and biopolymers
According to the team, 15 billion trees are cut down worldwide per year, which results in three million pounds of sawdust dumped into landfills in the United States.
The sawdust may often be burned as an alternative, which can cause environmental pollution.
It can be recycled by adding water
“It’s like a precious material for me because you’re cutting down a tree,” said researcher Muhammad Dayyem Khan. “I think every particle of that tree should be reused if you’re cutting it down.”
According to DART Lab, formwork contributes to up to 40 per cent of concrete construction expenses and is usually constructed from wood. After its use on construction sites, the formwork is often discarded.
The team also plans to experiment with making larger structures with the material.
“For example, some structures can be printed in a big warehouse and then you just turn them back up,” said Khan. “Just rotate them 90 degrees and you’ve got a bigger structure.”
The material is used to mitigate waste produced by the concrete industry
While the BioMatters team initially experimented with the material for formwork, it suggested that the potential reaches beyond just concrete construction.
“It can be anything,” said Khan. “It can be small, decorative items. It can be furniture. It can be your walls, doors, windows.”
The material can also be sanded and stained similar to wood in order to create a smoother finish. The team has yet to explore what woods perform best for the material.
For more projects that utilize sawdust, Designer Oh Geon also used it to create a blocky stool while Mater Design utilised the material for a re-released version of the Conscious Chair.
Industrial design student Alara Ertenü has developed a packaging solution for soap made from peapods and artichoke waste, which is currently on show as part of Dutch Design Week.
The packaging, which comes in a golden-brown colour, is designed to offer a less polluting alternative to commonly used plastic soap packaging. The project aims to address the pressing environmental issue of single-use plastic consumption while simultaneously reducing food waste.
Packioli by Alara Ertenü is a biodegradable soap packaging
“All of this curiosity started with a question: how can these local food wastes be circulated back into the economy,” Ertenü told Dezeen.
“The goal behind the zero-waste wraps is to eliminate plastic packaging and also meet the hygiene, logistics and endurance needs of soap brands.”
The packaging is water resistant for up to 15 days
To make Packioli, artichoke leaves and stems are freezer-dried at minus 70 degrees Celsius alongside the peapods before being pulverized into a fine powder.
The powder is then mixed with water, vegetable glycerin and alginic acid – a natural acid derived from brown algae – to form a gummy-like substance.
It is made from artichoke waste and peapods
This is then poured into a mould and left to dry for up to two days at room temperature. Once set, Ertenü uses heat to seal the edges of the little parcels. Finally, the packaging is dyed using beetroot and turmeric, giving it its golden hue.
The packaging’s name, Packioli, combines the words packaging and ravioli in reference to how the edges of ravioli pasta are sealed.
The material can be used to wrap soaps of different shapes and sizes
Translucent and speckled in appearance, Packioli can be used to package soaps of different shapes and sizes and is designed to biodegrade completely within 15 days.
Users can keep Packioli in a dry place to preserve it for longer, or rest it on a soap dish and allow it to melt away in contact with water and with use.
“Packioli is resistant to humidity and water for up to one week, which ensures that it remains intact for 10 to 15 days if there isn’t any contact with human skin under water pressure,” she said.
The packaging is dyed with beetroot and turmeric
Ertenü, who is studying at the Izmir University of Economics in Turkey, sources the artichokes and pea pods for Packioli from a local market in Izmir, where according to the designer, around 80 per cent of every artichoke goes to waste.
“I regularly go to the local bazaar on the weekends to observe and talk with local people to investigate what is left out of the equation in the local food system,” Ertenü explained.
“By using artichoke leaf, it tackles the enormous artichoke waste – 80 per cent of each artichoke thrown out – especially in the west of Turkey.”
“According to Zero Waste Week, the global cosmetics industry produces over 120 billion units of packaging every year, most of which is non-recyclable and ends up in landfill, or worse yet, the ocean,” she said.
Ertenü wants Packioli to be used as an alternative to plastic packaging
In response, designers and brands are increasingly looking to create alternatives to plastic cosmetic packaging. Among them is sustainable packaging brand Notpla, which used seaweed leftover from its own production processes to create a kind of paper soap packaging.
Also on show at Dutch Design Week is a collection of stainless steel furniture and homeware by designer Paul Coenen that doesn’t require coatings, adhesives or fastenings, and a series of wireless solar-powered lighting systems by students from Lund University.
Packioli is on show from 22 to 30 October as part of Dutch Design Week 2022. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.
Design agency Morrama has devised a concept for a Covid-19 test that is biodegradable and fully recyclable, right down to its packaging – potentially eliminating a common source of plastic waste.
The ECO-FLO test – which is, for the time being, a concept design only – would be the first in the world to be 100 per cent recyclable and biodegradable, according to Morrama.
The design agency devised the solution to cut down on the amount of single-use plastic generated by the pandemic. While both face masks and Covid-19 tests are at least partially recyclable, it is only through specialised facilities and not through residential collection, so must users have been advised to place them in the waste bin.
The ECO-FLO test has fewer parts than today’s lateral flow test (left)
“At Morrama, we were inspired to create a test kit that doesn’t contribute to the amount of plastic ending up in our landfills, so ECO-FLO was born,” said the agency’s founder and creative director Jo Barnard.
Morrama’s proposal achieves this goal by making the test itself from moulded paper pulp, and its outer packaging from biodegradable NatureFlex film, which would both break down in approximately four to six weeks.
The other plastic elements – the swab, test tubes and their associated packaging – are all eliminated, as the agency rethought every step of the testing process to minimise materials and maximise ease of use.
The test would be made from paper pulp and the sachet from biodegradable film
Instead of the two mainstream test types on the market, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and rapid antigen (lateral flow), ECO-FLO applies a new method called the Parallel Amplified Saliva rapid POint-of-caRe Test (PASPORT).
It works with only a saliva sample, so there is no need for buffer solution or a nasal swab – an element that can be difficult to use for those with disabilities or impairments, or when testing children.
The user would only need to spit on ECO-FLO’s absorbent pad, close the test package and push the moulded button to transfer the sample from the absorbent pad to the test strip.
All of the instructions are printed directly on the test
All of the instructions are printed directly on the test so there is no need for additional leaflets, and it is made more readable by replacing the currently used scientific notations – such as “C” for “control” and “T” for test – with simple checkboxes. In Morrama’s conceptualisation, the packaging is the product.
“Thinking about the test as less of a product and more a piece of functional packaging really influenced the direction,” Barnard told Dezeen.
“Packaging by its nature should always be designed for end-of-life, so we started not with a design, but with materials that can be recycled and recaptured.”
While the need for Covid-19 tests may be in decline, Barnard says the ECO-FLO design remains relevant for countries still undertaking mass testing, such as China, which is disposing of over a million kits a day.
It would also assist groups with accessibility requirements, such as the young, old and those with mental health or learning difficulties.
Results in simple English make the test easier to read
However, Morrama is also positioning ECO-FLO as a provocation for the world to start thinking about sustainable design for future pandemics now.
“Whilst much of the Western world has moved on from mass testing of Covid-19, there has been regular warnings from experts that pandemics are only set to become more likely,” said Barnard.
“With the failures from our response to Covid still fresh in our mind, we need to act now to ensure we are better prepared in the future.”
The moulded paper design includes a push button to activate the test
For the concept to become a reality, PASPORT would need to be approved for use in at-home test; currently, it is still in trials. Cost should not be a barrier, as Morrama expects the required paper injection moulding or dry moulded fibre processing to be cost-competitive with plastic injection moulding at volume.
Morrama was founded in 2015. The agency’s past projects include the minimal Angle razor, also aimed at reducing plastic waste, and a series of “smarter phone” concepts aimed at improving wellbeing.
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Spotted: Polyethylene terephalate (PET) is a common type of plastic used for applications such as water bottles, dispensing containers, and biscuit trays. Although PET is recyclable using both mechanical and advanced recycling processes, a large amount of this plastic ends up in the environment due to the sheer amount in circulation. Moreover, PET is made using chemicals derived from fossil fuels. There has therefore been a push to develop bioplastics that can replace PET and other plastics. However, this is easier said than done.
PET bottles are so ubiquitous because they have useful properties such as low cost, heat stability, and mechanical strength. These attributes have proved to be difficult to replicate in plant-based plastic alternatives. But researchers from the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) have recently developed a biodegradable plastic that exhibits many of the benefits of PET while also being environmentally friendly.
Developed by a team at EPFL’s School of Basic Sciences, the plastic is made using the non-edible parts of plants. “We essentially just ‘cook’ wood or other non-edible plant material, such as agricultural wastes, in inexpensive chemicals to produce the plastic precursor in one step,” explains Professor Jeremy Luterbacher who led the research team.
The new plastic is both heat-resistant and tough, and could be a good material for food packaging as it acts as an effective barrier to gases such as oxygen. Thanks to its structure, the plastic breaks down into harmless sugars in the environment, and it is also compatible with chemical recycling.
Applications for the plastic include medicine, textiles, packaging, and electronics. The researchers have already used it to make fibres for clothing, films for packaging, and filaments for 3D-printing.
Other bioplastics recently spotted by Springwise include a collaboration that turns food waste into bioplastic for cosmetics, a smart bioplastic made from green algae, and a compostable plastic that breaks down quickly.
