The Green Box

DESIGN: Elea Nouraud, James Dart, LOLA BUADES (OnMateria)

Sweden

make me! 2020

We are all aware of plastic pollution. Every second, 200kg of plastic ends up in our oceans. The lifespan of the object is not in relation with how long we use it. For instance the average use of a toothbrush is 1 to 2 month and in nature it takes more than 300 years to degrade. Even once degraded it will never be fully digested by the environment. There will always be residues of its existence: micro and macro plastic particles and chemicals released when breaking down. The problem around plastic pollution has been an ongoing interest of mine. For this project, I wanted to bring a solution that would make a difference into a real scenario.

Every year Accor Hotel throws away approximately 30 million amenity kits. In response to this problem, I created the Green Box – a compostable amenity kit for the hotel’s bathroom. The ingredients are recycled polylactic acid (PLA) and recycled wheat fibers. The colour green comes from natural pigments from plants. The material can be moulded like an ordinary plastic. The constraints is that it has to be less than three millimetre thick in order to be compostable. Once used the wastes will be transported to an industrial compost where the composting will take place in a close environment called anaerobic composting where a gas, methane, will be created. The process is called methanisation. It creates a green gas, used to produce energy or heat and the organic matter left is used by agriculture as a fertilizer.