Our technology has the potential to reduce the environmental footprint of the textile industry significantly. With our owners’ support, innovative agendas, know-how, and size, we assess that TreeToTextile can play an important contributing part globally, in enabling the textile industry to become sustainable and circular, says TreeToTextile’s CEO Sigrid Barnekow.

Editors: Ellen Ranebo & Josefine Karlsson, Broby Grafiska

By Josefine Karlsson and Ellen Ranebo on 25 April, 2021 In HM, ikea, Innovation, Material, Stora Enso

Single-use plastics and packaging is in the global spotlight. The packaging industry and brand owners are facing a huge shift, driven by both consumer and regulatory demands. So far, producing sustainable packaging has been too expensive for change to happen on a global scale.

PulPac is the world’s first patented method that can replace single use plastic at a lower cost on a global scale. The material, renewable, recyclable and biodegradable generic pulp from cellulose, makes it sustainable. A PulPac product can be cellulose only, which will dissolve in water within minutes. It can also be modified to hold moisture or liquids or to be strong and protect heavy and complex products. The main principle however, is to design for purpose. A PulPac product should last its use and then break down, regardless of where it ends up.

The PulPac technology is developed and patented by PulPac AB, a Swedish R&D and IP Company established in 2018. To reach out on a global scale, the PulPac technology is offered to brand owners and converters on a licensing basis. The aim is to disrupt the packaging industry and make impact at scale in reducing single-use plastics and contribute to a sustainable future for people and planet.

By Kristina de Verdier on 11 September, 2019 In circular, development, Innovation, Material, sustainability

The Shell Works transforms the shells of seafood into a paper-like material that could act as a sustainable alternative to single-use plastics. Four designers from the Royal College of Art and Imperial College have developed a series of machines that turn seafood waste into a biodegradable and recyclable bioplastic. The material consists of a mixture of vinegar and a biopolymer called chitin – a fibrous substance that makes up the exoskeleton of crustaceans and the cell walls of fungi. The material has been used to make anti-bacterial blister packaging, food-safe carrier bags and self-fertilising plant pots.

By Kristina de Verdier on 21 May, 2019 In Material, seafood shell, sustainable

PUMA and MIT Design Lab have been conducting research in the field of biodesign since June 2017. Biodesign is the practice of using living materials such as algae or bacteria to create products. It makes possible a football jersey made from the silk of a spider or a shoe box grown from mycelium, the root structure of mushrooms. PUMA Biodesign explores the new frontiers of biological design and fabrication to bring advances in science and biotechnologies closer to our daily lives through sport products.

Four initial experiments that derived from that study were exhibited at this year’s Milan Design Week. The four initial projects include a Breathing Shoe, which is a biologically active shoe that enables personalised ventilation by growing its own air passageways to keep the foot cool; Deep Learning Insoles, which collate realtime biofeedback by using organisms to measure chemical phenomena that indicates things like fatigue; Carbon Eaters, which is a microbially-active t-shirt that responds to its environment to change its appearance and inform the wearer about air quality; and Adaptive Packaging, a biologically programmable material that can change its shape and structure to become a new type of alive, biodegradable and adaptive packaging. See the videos here.

By Kristina de Verdier on 17 May, 2018 In bio design, fashion, Innovation, MIT, packaging, Puma, smart, sport, Technology

A ‘UV wearable’ is a stick-on sensor that tracks sun exposure, lowering the risk of skin cancer by raising personal awareness around how much sun is too much. L’Oreal’s technology incubator teamed up with Fuseproject to create the first product, My UV Patch launched in 2016. Now the next product is being launched, called UV Sense. UV Sense is the world’s first battery-free UV wearable, connecting to an app where personalised information and advice on sun exposure can be easily accessed.

My UV Patch is comprised of a series of tiles with photoreactive dyes that respond to UV rays, set against neutral reference points. Fuseproject was challenged to design a patch that followed these technical constrains, while designing new styles as body ornaments. By challenging the technical elements and shrinking them, we developed an aesthetic that could be directed into any number of stylistic collections. Working around the hand, arm, and wrist, we established a core collection that truly marries fashion with function; the My UV Patch redesign is sophisticated and discreet, a take on modern jewelry, with bold architecture and tonality.

UV Sense is an even smaller, dome-based sensor, that fits directly on a thumbnail, or an accessory like sunglasses. Subtle patterns laid directly over the outer shell create playful and iconic expressions similar to nail-art, with clear versions for those who prefer simplicity. A miniscule window in the shell allows for light to enter; data collected and stored is then transferred directly to the mobile app through an NFC chip

By Kristina de Verdier on 1 February, 2018 In Design, fuseproject, Health, product, tech, wearable

Nike React Technology, now available for runners too! When Nike asked runners what they wanted out of their running shoes, they got very specific answers: They said they wanted better cushioning. They also said they wanted better energy return. And they needed their shoes to be lightweight, of course. Oh, and they had to last too. In a way, they wanted everything. The tricky thing is that these four qualities are incredibly difficult to deliver in one material because they’re opposites.

“Nike React foam cushioning” launched in June 2017 in basketball — a sport that requires players to shift direction and speed in seamless motion and to lift off at the blink of an eye. With the basketball shoes, designers encased the Nike React foam in order to provide durability and stability for traction control the players needed, but with running, engineers uncaged Nike React technology to showcase its full potential for the road.

To get there, Nike’s in-house chemists and mechanical engineers came together to test ingredients to see which composition would yield the perfect outcome. It was a process that demonstrated Nike’s in-house manufacturing ingenuity. After more than 400 hundred combinations of chemistry and processing, and using scientific methods to dial in on materials with certain amenable attributes, they landed the unique composition of Nike React foam.

By Kristina de Verdier on 24 January, 2018

This new collaboration will push boundaries in fabric innovation and usher in the next generation of cutting-edge textiles. Bolt Threads engineers fibers from scratch based on proteins found in nature, and then develops cleaner, closed-loop processes for manufacturing, using green chemistry practices.  Exemplified in the collaboration with Stella McCartney, Bolt Threads is able to create silk using yeast, making the textile vegan-friendly; staying true to the designer’s vegetarian philosophy. Solution oriented, this process reduces pollution, creates long-term sustainability, and always remains cruelty-free.

The material is the result of seven years of research and design in a lab. At the molecular level it is spider silk made by human hands. A big team of scientists, engineers, technicians and designers, have developed a way to closely mimic silk created in nature by producing a fiber from corn syrup that was fed to a yeast fermentation. Once the protein is harvested and purified into a powder, it is wet spun into fibres and twisted into yarns.

The first piece from the partnership will be a one-off gold dress made from Bolt Threads’ signature “spider silk”. It will feature in an upcoming exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art called Items: Is Fashion Modern?

By Kristina de Verdier on 8 January, 2018 In Design, fashion, Innovation, Material, product, sustainable

A computer program allows the designer to experiment and fine-tune shapes and patterns in a simulator. Once the desired response emerges digitally, the structure is fabricated. Via Frame.

By Kristina de Verdier on 23 August, 2017 In air, Design, Innovation, MIT, origami, packaging, products, structural

The battery is a flexible and stretchable microbial fuel cell (MFC) monolithically integrated into a single sheet of textile substrate. “There is a clear and pressing need for flexible and stretchable electronics that can be easily integrated with a wide range of surroundings to collect real-time information,” Binghamton University Electrical and Computer Science Assistant Professor Seokheun Choi said in a statement. “Those electronics must perform reliably even while intimately used on substrates with complex and curvilinear shapes, like moving body parts or organs. “We considered a flexible, stretchable, miniaturized biobattery as a truly useful energy technology because of their sustainable, renewable and eco-friendly capabilities,” he added. Source R&D Mag.

By Kristina de Verdier on 7 August, 2017

Researchers at the MIT Media Lab’s Tangible Media Group have managed to make shape-shifting pasta, edible origami 🙂 Why? To package and ship pasta more efficiently for example. But of course they have many examples of culinary potential for this technology.

The researchers have created flat sheets of gelatin and starch that, when submerged in water, instantly sprout into three-dimensional structures, including common pasta shapes such as macaroni and rotini. The researchers presented their work in a paper this month at the Association for Computing Machinery’s 2017 Computer-Human Interaction Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. They describe their shape-morphing creations as not only culinary performance art, but also a practical way to reduce food-shipping costs.

“We did some simple calculations, such as for macaroni pasta, and even if you pack it perfectly, you still will end up with 67 percent of the volume as air,” says Wen Wang, a co-author on the work and a former graduate student and research scientist in MIT’s Media Lab. “We thought maybe in the future our shape-changing food could be packed flat and save space.”

By Kristina de Verdier on 30 May, 2017 In edible origami, efficient, flat pasta, Food, Innovation, MIT, packaging

The French start-up company Lactips started in 2014 with the purpose to tackle the problem of environmental waste. In order to do this they produce water soluble and biodegradable thermoplastic pellets based on milk protein. Those pellets are used as a raw material for thermoforming, film, or any kind of plastic applications. You have probably seen their soluble film for dish detergent, which is fully integrated with the product – there is no need for the consumer to remove the packaging. So now the company has taken another exciting step in the global packaging development. They have developed an edible plastic packaging for the food industry, created from milk protein (casein).

By Kristina de Verdier on 11 April, 2017 In Design, Edible, environment, Innovation, Material, milk protein, packaging, sustainable

Halo is a completely bio-degradable coffee capsule compatible with your home Nespresso machine. Designed with an innovative blend of compostable natural fibres to protect the coffee flavours. Like many coffee drinkers across the world Halo was dissatisfied with the coffee capsule industries practices, vagueness and green washing.

-13,500 non-biodegradable coffee capsules being thrown into landfill every minute.

-39,000 coffee capsules globally are produced every minute.

-Between 13,500 and 29,000 of these are sent to landfill.

-That’s over 20 billion capsules containing aluminium or plastic produced every year

-Circling the earth 14 times over

Aluminium and plastic coffee capsules are difficult and time consuming for people to recycle so most of them get thrown in the bin. Or they have to be sent for industrial composting which can be very difficult and expensive. Halo is made of entirely organic materials; Bamboo and paper pulp. “It’s not a cheap way of packaging coffee but it’s the right way.”

By Kristina de Verdier on 17 March, 2017 In Coffee, Compostable, Design, packaging, pods, sustainable

Andrew Dent, vice president of library and materials research at Material ConneXion presents 11 exciting new materials designers should watch, for the web magazine Fast Company. Blurring the line between paper and plastic, Paptic is a new material that is easy to print on, easy to recycle, and perfect for packaging. “It might not change the world,” Dent admits, but he thinks we’ll soon start seeing it everywhere, because while it feels and looks like paper, it’s as strong and tear-proof as plastic. Check out the other 10 materials here.

By Kristina de Verdier on 15 November, 2016 In Design, Material, material connexion, packaging, paptic

As earlier reported here on Ambalaj, Carlsberg are developing the world’s first fully bio-degradable and bio-based beer bottle. The new bottles will be made from a bio-based green fibre material, made from wood fibres, developed in participation with EcoXpac. The bottles are thicker but lighter than plastic alternatives. They can be manufactured into any design and size, and the trees that will be used are to be replanted at the same rate that they are harvested.

“The bottle has been created with input from some of the leading packaging specialists in the world, who are very excited to participate in the project. Though we still have technical challenges to overcome, we’re on track on the project,” says Håkon Langen, Packaging Innovation Director.

The company have stepped up by creating the ‘Carlsberg Circular Community’ to rethink design, production and packaging for the brand. Carlsberg’s Sustainability Director, Simon Hoffmeyer Boas says that “To Carlsberg, sustainability or CSR is business, it’s not something that’s detached.”

Source: Bio Based World News

By Kristina de Verdier on 18 October, 2016 In beer, biobased, bottle, fiber, packaging, sustainable

Designed by Martina Green. “One third of all plastic produced is used for packaging. Plastic has great packaging qualities, but there is an imbalance between the lifetime of products (hundreds of years) and the actual time of utilization (a few minutes). Plastic packaging generates large amounts of waste that never really disappear. The plastic
 will break into smaller and smaller pieces and cause problem in different ecosystems. Martina is a product designer focused on biodegradable materials. She graduated in Design MA 2014, at the university of Gothenburg. This July she presented 3D-printed algae packaging made from local kelp mixed with biodegradable polymer. The idea is to use algae as an alternative to non degradable plastic packaging. Algae has been used by mankind in ancient cultures, and today it’s harvested on a commercial scale, mostly in Asia. As a packaging material algae has many good qualities; it grows fast, breaks down quick and naturally, does not occupy land space and it is facilitating the growth of marine ecosystem. Martina’s Algae packaging can be used for different applications and the time of degradation can be adapted to required lifespan.”

By Kristina de Verdier on 12 August, 2016 In 3D-printing, algae, Design, packaging, sustainable