Award Winning Agar Plasticity: Seaweed Packaging

Introduction

The Japanese studio AMAM  work with agar, a seaweed-based material to develop new and more eco-friendly ways of packaging goods. Their current ongoing project is called Agar Plasticity: a Potential Usefulness of Agar for Packging and More. It has been named as the Grand Prix winner for this year's Lexus Design Award for emerging designers.

Extracted red algae waste(54kg) produced by a local Japanese sweet shop on 26th of Feb.

Material Chosen

Agar is traditionally consumed as a food in Japan for making sweets. It is also been used in scientific and  medical fields internationally. Agar can be extracted from red algae. Because of the porous, feathery structure and the very low density of black algae, it is potential to be explored as packaging material. Other biodegradable substances like mushrooms have also been explored as a plastic alternative. However, agar is propelling into exciting, uncharted territory, as "no one has ever explored the possibility of agar to  replace plastic packaging and there are lots of things unknown." (AMAM, 2016)

Material Experimentation

AMAM has done material experiments of pure agar powder and combination of agar powder with others.Through countless experiments, they managed to produce transparent films, loose-fill cushioning using  only powdered agar. Combining agar powder with extracted red algae fiber was able to produce material with various hardnesses and thickness, which could be used as wrapping for flowers, or as cushioned for wine bottles, or molded to make boxes. The composite from shell ash and agar powder becomes could be molded into complicated shapes, even like wall tiles. Therefore, 

They has produced a selection of products and packaging which are possible to replace plastic products like shopping bags, cable tie, toothbrush, cutlery, ballpoint pen, etc.

Material Experiment

A collection of prototypes made using agar as a prime ingredient

Disposing

Agar could also be disposed of in an environmentally friendly way. As AMAM written on their website, "When disposing of these, all of them can be utilised as a material improving water retention of soil or as fertiliser with well water-retention, because agar absorbs and holds water very well, or should they end up in the ocean or landfill, they would not be harmful to the environment, to other lives. The agar simply biodegrades." (AMAM, 2016)

Analysis

"In 2012, two hundred and eighty-eight million tons of plastics were produced worldwide, and more than 36% of materials used for packaging were plastics which is as synthetic material that is not biodegradable."(AMAM, 2016)  This severe environmental situation is the motivation of the project. "This is a bold and ambitious experiment, which aims to address one of the biggest pollution problems of our time. The designers have made tremendous progress during the course of the award cycle, particularly in devising a wide range of possible practical applications for the material. Their success in doing so gives us confidence in their ability to tackle the many challenges and complexities they will face in continuing the development of the project.” said Alice Rawsthorn (2016), Lexus Design Award 2016 judge.

The only worry I had about the agar packaging is the water absorptivity of the material. Waterproof is still an advantage of plastic as a packaging material, as it could against weather condition and is more protective. I am hoping further research and development of this project could overcome this weakness.

The benefit of replacing plastic with agar is inevitable, as agar could be extracted from waste algae and is biodegradable.  Besides environmental aspect, I found it is also more organic and subtle esthetically. I would love to receive a product packaged by agar than plastic.

Reference

AMAM. (2016). AMAM. [online] Available at: http://www.a-ma-m.com [Accessed 17 Nov. 2016].

Dawood, S. (2016). Lexus Design Award 2016 - from seaweed packaging to a toy for autism - Design Week. [online] Design Week. Available at: https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/11-17-april-2016/lexus-design-award-2016-from-seaweed-packaging-to-a-toy-for-autism/ [Accessed 17 Nov. 2016].

Rawsthorn, A. (2016). AMAM wins Lexus Design Award 2016 with Agar plasticity - Lexus. [online] Lexus. Available at: http://blog.lexus.co.uk/amam-wins-lexus-design-award-2016/ [Accessed 17 Nov. 2016].

How to make masking tape?

Raw Material

The masking tape is made of  paper and adhesive.

Probably half of the fiber used for the paper today comes from wood that has been purposely harvested. The remaining material comes from "wood fiber from sawmills, recycled newspaper, some vegetable matter, and recycled cloth. "(Hunter, 1927)

The adhesive, which must be able to be removed without leaving a residue, is a "synthetic rubber, including petroleum, petroleum by-products, natural rubber, acrylic resins, silicone rubber, dispersions, polymers, solvents and other chemicals."(Glasse, 1982) the properties are similar to organic latex-based rubber adhesive.

Process

Large (much wider than the finished tape) sheets of the backing paper are passed through a roller after being coated with adhesive, using thousands of pounds of pressure to laminate the adhesive to the backing.

Once the adhesive has dried, it is run through slitting machines that cut it down to usable widths.

Finally, the slit masking tape is wound onto paper or plastic hubs and the final packaging is applied.

Reflection

I have been using making tape nearly everyday for sticking notes, making model, fixing paper, making mark and so on, but never thought of the raw material of it and the process of making it, as it is naturally exist. From doing this exercise, I now have a more clear idea about the background of maskidgtape, but also and started to question the what material of the objects surrounded me are made of and the process. I realized that one simple objects could made by complex materials and design process. The objects than become richer to me as it consists of lots of substance from different places of the world.

Reference

Hunter, D. (1927). Primitive papermaking. 1st ed. Chillicothe, O.: Mountain House Press, pp.32-33.

Glasse, M. (1982). Adhesives, adherends, adhesion. International Journal of Adhesion and Adhesives, 2(1), p.12.

The Toaster Project by Thomas Thwaites

Introduction

Thomas Thwaites has built a toaster from scratch, extracting raw material and processing them himself into a product that Argos sell for only £3.99. He has traveled across the country to collect raw material for his toaster and processed them in a domestic scale.

Materials

Thwaites' toaster consists of just five materials; "iron(for the grill), copper(for the pins of the plug and wires), plastic(for the casting, plug, and wire insulation), nickel(for the heating elements) and mica(around which the heating element is wound)."(Thwaites, 2011) However, the Argos Value Range toaster he used as his model was made by nearly 100 materials, which is a far more complicated process. He has faced numerous obvious challenges trying to replicate the massive industrial process on a small scale. "He has traveled nineteen hundred miles to collecting raw materials."(Thwaites, 2011) Lots of time, money and effort has been put into this toaster. He even "melted iron ore in a microwave." (Fairy, 2009) Although he had tried very hard, the outcome looks a bit scratchy, compare to the Argos toaster. It did not work successfully.

Analysis

As the artist said, "I think our position is ambiguous- the scale to the industry involved in making a toaster is ridiculous but at the same time the chain of discoveries and small technological developments that occurred along the way make it entirely reasonable."(Thwaites, 2011)Under his toaster making project, he is saying profound things, of a different order. "The 'failures' he encounters, during his toaster making, point to the success of his real message; that we have become disconnected from how our world is supported and sustained.'" said by Steve Furlonger (2009), the former Head of Sculpture at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design.

Although I use toaster almost every day, I was never thought of the process needed for making a toaster before seeing this project. I realized now that most of the everyday products were made by complex materials. The convenience of our daily life is benefited from the mass production industry and the total inter-reliance of people and societies. 

Reference

Fairs, M. (2009). The Toaster Project by Thomas Thwaites | Dezeen. [online] Dezeen. Available at: https://www.dezeen.com/2009/06/27/the-toaster-project-by-thomas-thwaites/ [Accessed 16 Nov. 2016].

Thwaites, T. (2011). The toaster project, or, A heroic attempt to build a simple electric appliance from scratch. 1st ed. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, p.13.

Thwaites, T. (2011). The Toaster Project. [online] Available at: http://www.thetoasterproject.org [Accessed 04 Nov. 2016]