AWARD YEAR
2019
CATEGORY
Community
GOALS
Sustainable Cities & Communities
KEYWORDS
alternative to plastic, Indonesia local material, fibre reinforced bioplastic
COUNTRY
Sweden
DESIGNED BY
RUHAN CHEN, trained as product designer at China Academy of Art, Hang Zhou. She is currently studying her master’s degree at Lund University’s School of Industrial Design in Sweden.
POLA SALICKA, trained as product designer in Warsaw and Berlin. Currently, she is completing her master’s degree at Lund University’s School of Industrial Design in Sweden.
WEBSITE
http://schoolofindustrialdesign.com/viapalermo1/portfolio/kelapack/
Kelapack - biodegradable disposable tableware
Material and context driven into possible use of coconut byproduct and reduction of plastic waste.
“Kelapa- an Indonesian name for coconut, the fruit of Cocos Nucifera palm tree.”
Material and context driven investigation into possible use of coconut agriculture byproduct and thereby reduction of plastic waste overflow.
Indonesia stands out as country that grows most of worlds coconuts with plantations sustaining whole regions. As the industry focuses only on processing food products from the fruit, its fibrous outer shell is burned or dumped into the rivers. The same water is also an endpoint of all everyday plastic waste.
Kelapack disposable tableware is based on bioplastic from cassava and seaweed abundant in Indonesia. The polymer is reinforced by coir fibres and peat found in the discarded husk. It’s an easily biodegradable packaging alternative that won’t accumulate in the environment when disposed. Plasticity of material enables different colours and shapes of containers making them more prone to compete with its fossil based counterparts.