CÂSCARA : Hybrid packaging peels

The time relation between the the use and de use of packaging, specially single use, is to me the true problem. The time differential between the use and decomposing  time is the main problem. If we rethink the expiration time of packaging products, the plastic problem changes hue. 

The available amount of biomass resulting from our harvesting, is more than enough to replace single use plastic if it is used and recombined smartly. If we create hybrid materials, that  use biomass  as the main component, and mix with natural and bioplastic films, we can create product families that last no the maximum amount of time, but the minimum. If a material is made solely by plastic, its composting time will be the ones we are facing, dream 100 to 1,000 years. But if we combine and create hybrids for different uses, we can solve the plastic problem greatly. 

The main problem I wish to address is food related. So the scale of the problem is the whole  continent, approximately 540 million people. I put all of them because the problems related to the plastic contamination are all of them. 

¨An overwhelming proportion of these users are connecting to the Internet via a smartphone, meaning delivery apps are now competing for a market of over 236 million potential customers. In some countries in Latin America, smartphone adoption is still accelerating at more than 15% per year¨says Nathan Lustig in his investigation : An Overview of Latin America’s Food Delivery Industry of Latin America’s Food Delivery Industry.

The thread that unites us are the products we consume, and the food that we eat. If we use the leftover materials from  all year renewable  harvests like Corn and Rice, and combine with biplastics from similar harvest  that can creat starch based  bioplastics, like potatoe, corn,  or casava, we ca create the necessary products for packaging. Packaging is used for everything, for transporting one product form one plate to the other. My focus is on food, food boxes, bags, food containers, saucers, cutlery. 

The ultimate goal  to make the harvesting communities part of the solution. The solution for packaging cannot  come  from the packaging industry, replacing one producto with a newer one. If we partner farmers and producers to make packaging form their own leftovers, the solution would ve circular. Imagine an orange juice company making the containers for the juice form the orange  peels after extraction. 

In most of the harvests, rice for example, the rice husk is an available and giant leftover, that usually creates a problem for agricultural communities since there is not enough time to compost it. Given the right tools and technology, the producers can create the packaging from the leftovers of the agricultural production, creating a new revenue stream that can supply the packaging for users in the city, that are consuming more every day. 

I believe the main need is of economic development. The agricultural communities are less inclined to stay in the rural areas for the lack of business, and are migrating to the city looking for better opportunities. Food delivery is growing in exponentially, so will the packaging needed to carry it (see  article in the previous question), so the opportunity is very big. 

The solution is to press dried biomass leftover material, adhered withnatural glues, and termoform into rigid containers and dishes that can work as packaging. 

The technology to do this has been developed by CÂSCARA over the last two  years, through a process of design  work of iterations. It is a pressing technique, that forms material and gives rigideces to products that can later dissolve and compost over a period of 2 to 12 months depending on the conditions of its disposal. 

Most of the materials that creat the packaging products are far from their original materials. paper si very far form the original wood it is made from,  aluminum from its mineral origin and glass from the sand it’s made of. 

In CÂSCARA we are seeking to use the real materials, dehydrated and treated for a industrial scale and safe to use, industry approved standard, but in its natural or closer to natural form. The  peels of fruits and vegetables are not only beautiful, but each with characteristics that relate to the product. CÂSCARA packaging is always pushing the design component, to not only make highly ecological products, but beautiful alternatives the user wants to use and relate to. In other words, beauty as a means to achieve greater demand for ecologic products. 

The standardized plastic packaging, is not only highly poisonous for the environment, but very far form the true state of natural peels and natural packagings. The plastic industry has leaded us to believe the disposable experience to be monotonous and sterilized experience, where white cups and glasses are the way we should consume products on the go. We believe differently. 

That is our differential, and we  believe this has not been made. 

Currently, we have sold : 46,650 on year 2019

4,650 compostable dishes in catering  events And 50,000 compostable cups for Estereo Picnic festival 2019. 

+The 2020 estimate for the comercial  pulp line is of 3 million units sold in compostable dishes and 1 million  drinking units, between coffee and soft drink cups.