BIOPLASTICS
How can we eliminate food waste?
How can we influence our society to be sustainable?
This project stemmed from the desire to help find a alternitive to reduce 'food waste'. I began by experimenting, using food waste to fabricate materials along with different textures. I gravatated to Bioplastics as I knew the benfits of using sustainable bioplastics as a alternitive to plastics and the significant enviromental impact it can have if used everyday. The bioplastics are biodegradable, low tech and plant based.
This bioplastic is corn-starch based.
Corn starch is composed of amylose and amylopectin polymers. Both of these polymers consist of glucose (sugar) monomers. Starch granules will not dissolve on their own in water, but when heated the intermolecular bonds will break, opening up sites for hydrogen bonding. This allows the starch to dissolve in water, creating a viscous fluid. Vinegar, a weak acid, helps to break down the amylopectin, which allows the dried bioplastic to be more flexible.
Although this attempt of bioplastic contained too much corn-starch; it added alot of texture . The ingrediant included cornstarch, white vinegar, water and glycerine.
This consist of an herble tea mixed with potato strach, water, glycerine and vinegar. The tea did not mix well, resulting in a layer of tea on the top rather than in the middle.
I experimented using off milk to get different textures as it is known as one of the the most wasted foods. The black and red photo on the right was created using old sweets.
The brown matertial is an bioplastic created using banana peel along with herbs and honey. Its texture is resemblance to leather. When creating it, I rolled it out to thin which resulted in it being fragile and kept breaking. If i was to make it thicker it would have been alot more useful.
