From Compostable Cling Wrap to Algae Artwork: Meet the Innovators of Australian Design

This article is written by guest contributor Leeyong Soo, freelance writer, sustainable fashion advocate and contributor to Peppermint magazine. Leeyong’s fashion creations can be seen at @stylewilderness.

Country Road is proud to support The Design Files Files + Laminex Design Awards as the official sponsor of the Sustainable Design or Initiative Award. Head here to watch the awards live Thursday 21 October at 7pm AEDT.

Turning algae into works of art, paying companies for their worn-out office furniture and using food scraps to make cling wrap might sound far-fetched, but these ideas might just save the future of the planet. Guest contributor Leeyong Soo speaks with three of the finalists in the Sustainable Design or Initiative category of The Design Files + Laminex Design Awards.

Turning food scraps into home-compostable
cling wrap with Great Wrap

Conventional single-use plastic is the target of Jordy and Julia Kay’s work at Great Wrap. The pair were inspired by the sheer volume of pallet wrap they regularly encountered in their previous roles (winemaker and architect, respectively) to create an Australian-made, home-compostable cling wrap. The added bonus is that it is made from food waste, meaning that their product eliminates two problems at once.

Currently we use food waste as the main raw ingredient in our wrap and the benefit of this is we aren't using intensive agriculture to source sugar cane or corn starch that is often used in compostable stretch wrap alternatives – we're using a product that otherwise would've ended up landfill and turning that into Great Wrap,” says Julia.

Speaking from Great Wrap’s solar-powered factory on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, Julia explains how the product undergoes rigorous research and testing at each iteration.

Each time we improve our formula we work with a lab in Belgium to make sure our products are performing to the specific certification standards needed for home compostability,” she says, adding that “sustainability lingo” can be baffling for consumers.

Biodegradable cling wrap usually means that the product was made from petroleum plastic and an organic additive was blended in. This means it breaks down much quicker when exposed to sunlight and moisture, but sadly it breaks down into microplastics that then flow into our ecosystems and never disappear. Compostable cling wrap can be made from many things such as corn starch or potato waste. If it is certified home compostable (like Great Wrap) then it must break down in a compost pile in under 180 days and leave behind zero toxins.”

Food waste and the prevalence of plastic are two of the biggest environmental problems we face in Australia, so Julia and Jordy are dreaming big to face them head-on.

At this stage our aim is to knock petroleum-based plastics off the shelf and out of people's lives!” says Julia. “Then once we’ve replaced all of the different types of stretch wrap (domestic, catering and pallet) we aim to put an end to all soft food packaging on the supermarket shelf. We’re going to be very busy!”

Giving old furniture a new life with Cultivated by Cult Design

Being busy is something the team at Cult Design knows all about. The leading furniture, lighting and design company is attempting to change the way consumers shop by encouraging them to reuse quality designer items, rather than always buying new.

Tons of furniture end up as waste every year in Sydney alone, in part due to the quick turnaround of office refits, according to Cult Design brand manager Joshua Ellis. “If you have an office and you want to relocate or refurbish, you get an interior designer, a builder, and they’re on deadlines and just want to get everything out as quickly as possible. Often the timing means things end up in landfill due to penalties for going over time.”

Joshua says it’s a problem that Cultivated aims to solve, with the help of their customers. Commercial and retail customers looking to change the look of a space have three options available to them via the company’s Cultivated program: “buy back”, where Cult Design purchases used furniture and refurbishes it for resale to the wider market, with the customer receiving credit towards their new item; “refurbish”, which involves the company’s network of craftspeople refurbishing old items and, in cases where an item is beyond repair, “recycle”.

The Cultivated initiative was launched in 2013 and is now a focus in the business, says Josh. “We’re selling beautiful products and want to make sure they are looking the best they can for a lifetime,” he says, adding that the accompanying upskilling of local craftspeople is a plus. “To refurbish these pieces is a hands-on process. Pre-COVID, our upholstery team got to travel to train with brands such as Fritz Hansen in Denmark and brought back knowledge about hand stitching and other techniques that we don’t have here.

We want to make sure these old hands-on skills are kept alive, but it’s also positive in terms of energy consumption as items won’t need to be sent back to Europe. Currently, it’s Sydney-centric, but our aim is to have local manufacturers working in Melbourne, Brisbane and the rest of the country so things won’t even need to be shipped around Australia to get refurbished.”

We need to get back to the mindset of buying well and reusing. Refurbishing means we can have something that looks new but is better for the planet as it uses existing resources.”

Turning algae into works of art with Other Matter

Jessie French is fascinated by algae—the underwater variety. The Melbourne artist has studied the plant form for years and believes that the ocean and the algae growing in it is a severely overlooked resource. “The planet is 80% water and yes, planting trees is good, but if we could focus on the abundance that is in the water that would be great,” she says. “Algae are much more efficient at processing carbon than a mature tree, and they can clean up the waters as they grow. They can be grown without fresh water or fertilisers, and they’re very nutritious.”

Jessie’s interest in forms of algae is not, however, in their use as a food source. Rather, she is exploring their potential as a material that is an environmentally safe, sustainable alternative to conventional rigid plastics made from petrochemicals. She refers to this material as “bioplastic”.

In her studio, Other Matter, where she works on her artistic practice and experimental design, Jessie uses an extract from red algae as a polymer, mixing it with other algae-derived substances, and occasionally humectants such as glycerine that allow the material to absorb more water and coffee grinds to add strength. The resulting substance is then moulded into artworks including her series of bowls, cups and other tableware.

Resin-like in appearance, it is coloured with pigments from the various types of micro-algae, such as spirulina, that Jessie grows in her studio. But unlike resin, these creations are “safe enough to eat”. “You could boil it down and eat it, although it isn’t designed for its taste,” she laughs.

While Jessie’s algae-derived artworks have an ethereal beauty that would seem to preclude any desire to dispose of them, they are designed to be infinitely recyclable: they can be boiled down in water and reformed into other objects, even in a home kitchen. Should it happen that reuse is exhausted, they break down in compost in about a month. “The home context is significant as the material is able to be recycled directly at home as part of a closed-loop system, which I feel is an important way forward in the face of top-down inaction from governments and industry.”

Jessie acknowledges the somewhat complex production process and “speculative” nature of her work. “My artwork presents a view of what can be, with regards to materials like this,” she explains. “I believe in the power of art and culture to convey messages and complex information as well as offering hope in what is a dark time for the planet. Though these are artworks, the design studio offers a way for me to do more than just talk the talk about these things, and also apply these innovations to real-life projects to replace petrochemical materials.”

You can register for The Design Files + Laminex Design Awards livestream here. In the meantime, view the rest of the category finalists here.