Food Waste as New Material
Exploring the material potential of food waste and creating circular design systems to enter back into the production process.
Upon initial material research, we found that breweries were producing a lot of waste materials in spent grain. (how many people drink beer in barcelona/spain and how many breweries are there in the area) Although they don’t always go to waste — the most common use being for animal feed — wasted materials far outnumber the useful aspects of it. Spent grain can constitute as much as 85% of a brewery’s total byproduct.
With this direction, we researched the qualities of spent grain, and started to map what opportunities there were. We found:
Once all the required portions of the grain are extracted, the spent grains consist of cell wall residues from the husk, pericarp, and seed coat; water insoluble proteins; some hop residue if those were added during the mashing step; residual sugars that weren’t extracted; and non-malt fermentable sugars. As you can see this “waste product” still has a lot left in it with some pretty interesting uses as a raw food material, energy production, and biotechnological processes [1, 3, 4]. (https://sciencemeetsfood.org/spent-grains/)
Material Context Mapping
We then conducted a survey of the resources within the context of our proximities in Barcelona, while identifying potential collaborators, spaces, tools, and outcomes. We mapped out each of these elements to understand the interdependencies of each component within the process. '
This chart also helped us map our goal towards a circular design system, in understanding our energy consumption and creating a product with limited resources. We presented this map to the brewery and brainstormed with them to come up with options for products including packaging, coasters, and promotions, all of which paper-based materials.
Material Exploration & Research
We collected 5kg of spent grains from our local Freddo Fox brewery for the initial experimentation. Our goal was to create variations of paper materials which we could test in different applications. In each iteration, we controlled different variables while keeping some constants.
Variables:
quantity of water
quantity of spent grain
quality of paper
consistency of grinding (fine or coarse)
material used to sieve and mold
time required to dry (sun, oven, room-temp)
Research Outcomes
We mapped the results from the material research. Here are a list of the key findings:
Results from water and spent grain recipe were fragile and brittle
Using agar agar made the material more flexible and easier to be manipulated into a different form
Using resin made the material more durable, preventing it from tearing
While the coarse grains gave more texture and durability, the fine grains gave more flexibility
Eco-design Strategy Diagram
Finally with our initial research and experiment, we assessed the material impact within the context of sustainability and eco-friendly design strategy. We mapped 8 core attributes with two variables: actual and ideal. This chart helped show us where the strengths and weaknesses of the material are and guide us on which areas we would like to improve in the next steps of our process. We presented our research to the brewery and discussed future collaborations and uses with beer spent grains.
