Design studio unveils homeware collection made from food waste

Bowls, plates and cutlery made from leftover food form part of the minimalist collection

Spotted: Salzburg-based design studio Barbara Gollackner has used household and industrial food waste to make a collection of homeware items. The collection was a collaboration between Austrian chef and restaurant owner Martin Kilga. 

Appropriately entitled Waste Ware, the collection features bowls, plates and cutlery made from leftover food such as pork skin and old bread. 

According to Gollackner, she was impelled to create Waste Ware after reading that 90 million tonnes of food are wasted in Europe every year whilst 30 million tons of waste are produced from single-use dishes.  

To create the tableware, Gollackner used waste which was either dried out or cooked, blending it into a smooth paste bound together by mycelium. The paste was then inserted into a 3D printer and printed into a few simple shapes to form the tableware. 

“The designs had to be super simple shapes – we are just in the middle of the process and we are still experimenting with the right consistency of the printing paste – the designs can not have any super complicated shapes, it wouldn’t be possible to print,” Gollackner explained.

The colours featured are earthy, including aubergine teaspoons, moss green cups and beige bowls. The studio says tableware can be used multiple times. 

At Springwise, we are seeing many creative solutions dedicated to tackling food waste, including a wood-like material that’s produced with the repurposed bacterial cellulose waste from Kombucha scobys, packaging for French fries made from potato peels, and even a compostable 3D-printed lamp made from orange peels.

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