Introduction to Processes and Materials

Discovery

Brief:• Explore & Identify suitable materials

and processes• Consider issues of manufacture, waste

and re-use• Produce a 3d piece• Identify areas that would benefit from

innovative materials and design solutions

Packaging According to reports published by Keep

Britain Tidy, “Food on The Go” is the fastest growing type of litter, with a significantly growing increase in confectionery packaging, fast food packaging and snack packaging.

Packaging

The table above shows the percentage of sites according to LEQSE (Local Environment Quality Survey of England) on which ‘food on the go’ litter was found and how this has changed year on year.

Packaging

Past and recent campaigns have included:

“The Big Tidy Up”

“Don’t Feed The Animals”

“Dirty Pigs”

A DIFFERENT APPROACH

What if rubbish wasn’ t rubbish?

VAL UABL E

VAL UABL ELuxury brands often package their products in Limited Edition packaging made from desirable materials in decorative designs that people will want to hold on to. Whilst this minimises the destructive impact of careless litter disposal, these materials are generally not very sustainable such as precious metals and stones.

RECYCL ABL E

RECYCL ABL E

BIODEGRADABL E

BIODEGRADABL E

REUSABL E

EDIBL EWhilst possible in theory, the reality is that edible packaging would then have to be protected from dirt and dust with an additional packaging layer thus making this idea unpractical

PL ANTABL E

Finding a solution

In order to try and find a viable solution to this problem I researched into different ways to make packaging materials

from sustainable, organic products.

Here are the results.

EXPERIMENTS

CORN STARCH PL ASTIC

PROSBiodegradable

Waste ProductsCost

CONSBrittle

MIL K PL ASTIC

PROSBiodegradable

Cost

CONSBrittle

GEL ATIN PL ASTIC

PROSBiodegradable

FlexibleBy-Product from meat

industryCost

CONSUnpredictability when moulding

NEWSPRINT

PAPER MACHE

PROSBiodegradable

StrongGood moulding qualities

CostCan easily incorporate seeds etc for planting

CONSAppearance

RESUL TS

These results indicate that, with the right processes and materials, it is very possible to create a more environmentally

sound solution to snack packaging.The applications for this could provide real solutions to the

waste problem; whilst results have shown that campaigns to reduce waste are largely ineffective, creating waste that could potentially help or enhance the environment would reduce at

least some of the damage that packaging waste causes.

References

http://forums.treehugger.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4752&p=50213http://packaginguniversity.com/blog/tag/plantable-packaging/

http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/quality/local/litter/documents/fastfoodcop.pdfhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/local/suffolk/low/people_and_places/nature/newsid_8530000/8530593.stm

http://www.brc.org.uk/details04.asp?id=1109&kCat=&kData=263&sCat=Retail+Mythshttp://www.p-fuel.com/index_files/whypfuel.htm

http://www.americanchemistry.com/s_plastics/doc.asp?cid=1571&did=5972http://urbanmining.org/tag/recycling/

http://www.wasteonline.org.uk/resources/InformationSheets/WasteDisposal.htm

Images: Google Images

DiscoveryLouisa Cook

2011