Bioplastics made from upcycled food waste. Prospects for their use in the field of design

The negative effects on the environment of the intensive use of synthetic, oil-derived plastics to make products have given renewed impetus to the search for biopolymers derived from vegetable, animal or microbial matter that could prove to be a sound alternative in a number of applications. However, the real challenge is to create new materials from food waste and not from specially grown crops, whose production in any case comes at an environmental cost.In recent years, the testing of substances made from food waste has increased significantly; the sheer abundance of raw materials that can be used to make them has encouraged institutional research, as well as an approach to project development that has been widely embraced by the many young designers who craft these materials.This paper considers all aspects of these materials, starting from a historical overview. It presents interesting experiments underway and envisages possible future scenarios.