Biodegradable shoes – and other items made with nature in mind

Look round your private home and it gained’t be lengthy till you notice one thing set to outstay its welcome. From ziplock baggage to interval pads, for nearly every part we devour, a sustainable different is required.

That’s the objective of the Make It Circular Challenge, run by worldwide organisation What Design Can Do. It referred to as on entrepreneurs and creatives to submit challenge concepts which might be constructed to final, work with nature, and use pre-existing sources. Greater than 650 entrepreneurs answered the decision with revolutionary methods for constructing a extra round society.

Listed here are 4 of the 13 inspiring winners.

1. Biodegradable sneakers

David Roubach has been sporting the identical pair of sandals for 2 and a half years now. It doesn’t sound extraordinary till you account for the truth that they’re utterly biodegradable.

“I feel it’s humorous that we as people have invented a lot, however for the top use of merchandise, we solely have one resolution referred to as recycling,” Roubach, the founding father of Israel-based Balena, explains. He calls his innovation ‘biocycling’.

In opposition to the backdrop of the style business, the place 60 per cent of all materials made into garments is plastic, Balena has developed a bioplastic that ticks three containers. Not solely is it snug, sturdy and simple to mould, it’s additionally constructed from pure and renewable supplies, and is totally compostable in industrial services.

The corporate’s first run of sneakers (foremost picture), produced as a proof of idea, offered out, with clients capable of return them for recycling once they’re completed with them. However that’s just the start. Roubach hopes to work on new supplies, collaborations, and even certifications for merchandise utilizing Balena’s supplies.

However, he stresses, all of it begins with customers: “The query we have to ask each time we purchase one thing is: ‘what’s going to occur to it on the finish?’”

2. Seaweed packaging

Juni Solar Neyenhuys believes that packaging ought to solely final so long as we’d like it. Whether or not it’s a bag of salad leaves or a snack wrapper, when you’ve eaten the contents it needs to be thrown on the compost heap to biodegrade naturally and harmlessly.

That’s the modus operandi of Germany based mostly mujō, an organization she co-founded with Annekathrin Grüneberg, which replaces standard packaging with seaweed. Not like land-based supplies, seaweed doesn’t want agricultural land, watering, or pesticides.

“All that dangerous stuff just isn’t wanted once you develop seaweed,” Neyenhuys explains. “It has a optimistic impression on ecosystems as a result of it [captures] CO2, and it grows actually, actually quick. It may well develop as much as 60 centimetres in a day.

“[But] what is basically vital is that we don’t make the identical errors in aquaculture as we did in agriculture.” For instance, harming biodiversity by mono-cropping, or relying closely on artificial fertilisers.

With funding now in place, the crew is engaged on product growth, and hopes to get its packaging on cabinets inside the subsequent 12-18 months.

3. Plastic-free pads

“Our enterprise mannequin is the primary of its type,” Tarun Bothra, one of many co-founders of Saathi, based mostly in India, tells Constructive Information. The corporate makes sanitary pads, however crucially, with out the three.4g of plastic that’s normally in every one.

“It’s a totally round enterprise mannequin, the place we aren’t taking something in any respect which is artifical or from a useful resource that’s depleting.”

As an alternative, the corporate makes use of banana and bamboo fibres, sourced from agricultural waste. Antibacterial properties of those supplies make them an ideal match for interval merchandise, and the pads take solely six months to decompose after use.

Saathi has additionally donated over 1,000,000 of its pads to Indian girls – solely 36 per cent of whom have entry to menstrual merchandise.

“We’re attempting to suggest a extra holistic method to menstrual hygiene, in addition to well being and sustainability,” says co-founder Kristin Kagetsu. Whereas there’s an extended approach to go, she believes a shift in mindset is happening.

“We’ve seen fathers come and speak concerning the product with their daughters, we’ve seen guys purchase it for his or her pals. That’s undoubtedly a brand new expertise for us.”

4. Bricks constructed from cow dung

CoolBricks are completely different to different constructing supplies – however you wouldn’t realize it. The primary response of masons when given a brick to carry is that they will’t imagine it doesn’t include cement, says founder Emile Smeenk. Not like on a regular basis bricks, these ones will not be fired or baked and are 100 per cent recyclable.

“CoolBricks are composed of soil and the lively substances of cow dung,” explains Yask Kulshreshtha, head of analysis and growth on the startup, which is predicated within the Netherlands and Uganda.

“Historically, many international locations have used cow dung for making homes,” she continues, explaining that her crew has taken this core concept, and modernised it.

Whereas the mud is usually minimize from wetlands, resulting in habitat loss, CoolBricks’ technique can incorporate any sort of soil as the bottom ingredient. It additionally pays farmers a good worth for his or her cow dung.

The result’s a brick that’s 20 per cent stronger than conventional mud bricks, cuts carbon emissions by 90 per cent and prices a formidable 50 per cent much less.

“Round innovation is about shortening provide chains and making it easy so to reuse native supplies,” says Smeenk.

Fundamental picture: Balena