The oceans face a massive and growing threat from something you encounter everyday: plastics. An estimated 17.6 billion pounds of plastic leaks into the marine environment from land-based sources every year—this is roughly equivalent to dumping a garbage truck full of plastic into the oceans every minute.

Sheet molded in repetitive hexagonal pattern, Chitosan 12%, Acidity 3%, Additives 0%, Cure time 48hrs.

Scrap materials from different experiments reconstituted into new material in 72 hours. Every piece had a different cure time, acidity and ratio of the components.

Experimented Tools

Chitosan Bioplastics has an issue of warping and shrinking which makes it difficult for industrial use. Through our experiments, we figured out a way to control these issues by structure and additives. Chitosan Bioplastic biodegrades in two weeks while plastic takes more than 450 years. In addition, chitin is an abundant resource that is not utilized enough. Every year, 100 billion tons of chitin are produced in nature which is 400 times more than plastic usage. So far, we have succeeded with producing sheet, solid and foam materials. It can replace plastic bags and long-term use plastic products such as electronics. Because it is a water-based material, it does not solidify in an enclosed mold. The next step for Chitosan Bioplastics is to experiment with injection molding with a ventilation system.

40 percent of the plastic produced is packaging, used just once and then discarded. Through the numerous experiments of different production method on Chitosan Bioplastic, I came to a conclusion that creating a multi-material packaging is most meaningful. Multi-material products are not disassembled properly when it is thrown away which makes it impossible to be recycled. 

A mix of Chitosan and Calcium Carbonate has a stone-like feeling to it which inspired me to design an ornamental lid for the soap dispenser.