Reducing our carbon footprint is vital for our environment as well as our well-being. The world is full of engineers, chemists, product designers, artists and scientists who are looking into the future of resources and trying to find ways to reduce or replace harmful materials. Another way in which we can reduce the total amount of greenhouse gases emitted during the production and processing of consumer goods is by using alternative materials that might have a lesser negative impact or might even leave a positive effect when reaching the end of their life cycle.
Malta is joining 19 other European countries to participate in the European Sustainable Development Week 2022 with the main aim to foster awareness on sustainable development and inspire organisations to take more action towards sustainability and to improve the quality of our lives, protect our ecosystem and to preserve the world’s natural resources. Esplora Interactive Science Centre has always been at the forefront to promote awareness on these crucial issues and in support of the European Sustainable Development Week 2022, we would like to showcase different ways of making materials which can replace plastic in form and function.
Replacing Plastic
Plastic materials are a by-product of the oil industry and can be very useful when robust and durable. However, plastic amounts to a lot of harmful waste that never makes it to the landfill or to a recycling plant, resulting in a negative impact on our environment. How can we stop using oil as a resource? One way to do this is to find ways of making materials which can replace plastic in both form and function. The following are some examples of alternative materials or ideas that can reduce or replace the many oil-based resources that we use in our everyday life:
Coffee Cups made from used coffee grounds
Coffee can be used to make the containers in which we drink it from! A German company spent five years developing a way of using coffee and beechwood waste to create a material free from crude oil that can be used as coffee cups . The company managed to upcycle coffee into an innovative material which is durable and robust and which can be used to create everyday objects such as cups. Want to know more? Check their website from here: https://www.kaffeeform.com/en/
Plastic Upcycled into furniture
Did you know that you can increase the life cycle of plastic bottles and similar objects by recycling them and using them to create more durable objects such as furniture and chopping boards? High-density polyethylene (HDPE) is the type of plastic that we find in common every day objects such as many shampoo bottles, milk jugs, detergents and bottle caps. Items that we throw away on a daily basis!
Precious Plastic is an open source project which shares free information on how to recycle HDPE waste and reuse as other objects with a longer life-span including furniture, pens, chopping boards and keychains. The main aim of this project is to reduce toxic waste made out of plastic by promoting its recycling. Check out their ideas from here: https://preciousplastic.com/index.html
Packaging Material made out of mushrooms
Mushrooms are rich in fibre, protein and antioxidants. They are high in nutrients and are known as superfoods, used in plenty of recipes and cuisines around the world. However, have you ever thought that this common type of plant can be used for alternative things other than food? Like mushroom packaging for example!
Mushroom packaging material is made from fungus ‘roots’ (mycelium) and hemp waste. This material is different from foam based packaging because it is fire resistant and can break down into compost at home in just 45 days. It does this without releasing any nasty chemicals into the environment, but rather adding nutrients into the soil. The making process uses very little energy because it requires no light and very little water for the mycelium to grow. Learn more about this from here: https://www.ecovative.com/
3D printing with Orange Peel
3D printing continues to experience success not only in the business sector but also amongst hobbyists and home users. Unfortunately plastic is the most popular material used for this type of printing. Because of this, a new innovative material made from orange peel and a biopolymer base aims to replace it. This material has a velvety texture and is quite robust. It can be used as 3D printing filament to make any object that you can imagine. The final product can be industrially composted back into organic material To know more check out: https://www.krilldesign.net/
Leather-like material made from cactus
Can you imagine having a fashionable accessory such as a handbag made out of cactus and still be practical and pleasing to the eye? A newly launched vegan leather-alternative, made from cactus, was developed in Mexico in 2019. This material is quite soft to the touch and it has a smaller negative impact on the environment than leather. At the same time this leather-like material also meets the specifications required by the fashion industry, furniture industry and leather-manufacturing industry. Learn more from here: https://desserto.com.mx/home
Food waste turned into light capturing material
Did you know that one third of the food produced for human consumption is either lost or wasted globally? 27 year old Filipino student, Carvey Ehren Maigue, found a way to turn food waste into a material that can capture Ultra Violet light. Known as the AuREUS system, this material, converts Ultra Violet light into clean renewable energy. For this innovative invention Maigue also won the first Sustainability Award of the James Dyson Awards.
All the above sustainable innovations show that it is important to make waste a thing of the past and instead think of ways of how we can recycle and reuse it for other resources. This way of thinking falls under the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development specifically Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) number 12 which deals with Responsible Consumption and Production.
More information about the European Sustainable Development Week 2022 can be viewed from here
