A rubber-like material made from banana leaves. (Credit: Kuori.ch)
Basel-based cleantech startup Kuori aims to drive the transition to a circular economy by designing flexible, bio-based and biodegradable products following the cradle-to-cradle principles. Kuori recently came up with a new flexible, biobased and biodegradable material made from organic waste products such as banana peels, that could be used for shoe soles. “By designing a biodegradable shoe outsole, we can solve the problem of microplastics rubbed off into nature while walking and eliminate non-recyclable waste from discarded soles.”, they state on their website. The experiment serves as an approach to solve the disposal of non-recyclable products. The existing material allows cautious processing, such as sewing, cutting, gluing, laser cutting, injection moulding, granulate production and film extrusion. “We believe that any product should be designed with degradable materials - a circular economy is the future of everyday life.”
Circular Economy? All Banana or what? KUORI, a biodegradable Alternative Material
