Waste = food

Lesson three: Designing food packaging

Learning objectives:•To learn about the materials available for packaging that are compostable•To know and understand what the definitions of compostable, biodegradable and degradable are with regards to bioplastics•To design and model different kinds of packaging ideas

Design requirements

Your brief is to:•Design packaging for festival food

•Design a package that will compost after use

•Consider how this material could be adapted to be of benefit to the environment

Activity: Create a mind map of different festival foods and a sketch of the packaging that would typically be used.

Definitions

• Biodegradable plastics

• Compostable plastics

• Degradable plastics

Materials

Three main categories of bio-based plastics:

•Natural polymers from renewable sources

•Polymers synthesised from monomers derived from renewable resources

•Polymers produced by microorganisms

Case study: Mater-Bi® by Novamount

• Mater-Bi® is a family of bioplastics

• It comes in a granular form

• Its applications include packaging, toys, and biofiller

• Mater-Bi® is biodegradable

Rethinking packaging

Using circular economy thinking we could completely redesign packaging. If it is made from completely compostable materials, and even incorporates seeds or fertilisers, it could benefit the soil.

Look at the material fact files for compostable bio plastics.

Design ideas

Sketch sheet

Sketch modelling

Towards a final outcome

The printed design

Evaluating ideas