Coffee’s second life
Seedko, a biodegradable flower pot
University of Ljubljana, Academy of Fine and Applied Arts: authors Maša Kralj and Ana Topole (students), mentor prof. Mag. Barbara Prinčič
This remarkable student project represents an innovation in biomaterials development research. The authors succeeded in devising a complete procedure to produce a new biomaterial, based on coffee sediment and five additional raw materials, all organic. The procedure followed the scientific method of experimenting, observing, measuring, documenting, evaluating and adjusting. Systematic records of this process may even be used for the future development of similar biodegradable materials.
The end result is not only an innovative biomaterial, but above all its use in the design of the Seedko flowerpot. The pot’s shape is identical to the standard plastic pot used at nurseries: a plant is then removed from this pot and placed into a biodegradable one, which a customer then inserts into the soil. It is worth mentioning that Seedko contains several important nutrients for the plant’s development, too.
Seedko has been designed so that the plant’s roots eventually push through the pot’s wall and embed in the surrounding soil. The authors tested it extensively, and both the design and material proved to be a success. Seedko thus enables the reuse of the plastic pot at the nursery, which is presently not the case, with the waste from single-use plastic flowerpots calculated at 10 tonnes annually in Slovenia alone.
The project thus contributes to the world of circular and regenerative design, as it succeeds in reusing organic waste from a previous process and finally returns it to where it had originally come from – the soil.
Text: Barbara Prinčič
