Material Values

Since the industrial revolution, consumer culture has driven every aspect of our lives. Over-consumption has produced an increase in waste materials. We now face the challenge of acknowledging this and appropriately dealing with the waste. 

By replacing elements within a products life-cycle and supply chain, we can prolong the disposal of adequate materials. In place of sourcing virgin materials (much of which cannot support our extreme demand), we may use byproduct materials from waste streams, that would otherwise be discarded. 

First we must question our perceptions of value so that every material is treated with respect for its origins and its eventual impact on our environment.

Product Opportunity

After consulting the restaurant owner and manager, we discussed the opportunity to design a new bread and pastry display for the front counter, as they were unhappy with their current parchment paper display. From here, I looked to create a collection of table-top display vessels that would promote the restaurants own seasonal, circular ecosystem.

Case study: restaurant industry waste

I wanted to test this material sourcing concept within a specific environment. Restaurants seemed fitting, as the industry creates a diverse waste-stream. They also operate within the disposable material world, which merits the idea of value transformation. How may I shift our value perception of these cheap, disposable materials and make them more desirable?

During the period of a week, I documented the restaurants waste accumulation. The majority of the waste, which came from food deliveries and customer left-overs, comprised of paper and plastic based packaging materials, among food and other compostable scraps.

I started collecting these materials and setting up my own  ‘waste library’ to be used for constructing my designs.

Form Inspiration

Inspiration for the collection derived primarily from the unique formations and patterns created through the industrial processing of paper-pulp packaging.

Upon close inspection, the repetitive formations within paper packaging resemble landscapes. Many of these nuances go unnoticed due to the under-valued nature of these disposable materials.

Making Process

There were four steps within the making process. Shredding the raw material (waste paper products from the restaurant), soaking the shredded paper in the chosen dye (discarded coffee / coffee grounds and black beans), draining and adding adhesive, and finally forming. I went through multiple iterations of this process in order to create the most workable pulp combination. These iterations incorporated the amount of time the shredded paper would soak for, types of and ratios for the adhesives, as well as different dye variations.

The pulp bowls themselves were formed over aluminum spun molds, while the stands for the bowls were pressed onto discarded silk screens. The silk screen allowed for faster drying time due to its porosity and also added a layer of ink to the pulp as a result of its previous use for silk screened prints.