Poc is a biodegradable material made from aquatic plants gathered on the shores of the Mediterranean, invented by a student to be used as sustainable food packaging.
Every year we waste 1.3 billion tonnes of food and throw away 15 million tonnes of plastic food packaging (FAO data): it is designers' duty to find alternative materials that have less impact on the environment. Felix Pöttinger, a German product design student at the Royal College of Art in London, has invented an ecological material made from aquatic plants found on the beaches of the Mediterranean.
Poc is the innovative material invented by Pöttinger that replaces conventional plastic used in food packaging with posidonia, an aquatic plant endemic to the Mediterranean. The material is made up of posidonia fibre and a binder extracted from the fibre itself.
The project was born not only to reduce the use of plastic but also to promote longer-lasting food preservation. Thanks to the antibacterial properties of this aquatic plant, which is collected mainly in Tunisia and Spain, it is possible to produce a fully biodegradable ecological material. At present the project is still in development and must be tested to ensure its compliance with European Union rules on food preservation, but it represents a further step forward in the search for alternative materials to plastic.
Posidonia fibre is an ocean and sea waste material. Once the fibre has been extracted from the plant, the binder contained within it is also extracted and mixed with other intact plant fibres. The resulting mass is pressed into a metal mould and baked at 180 degrees until completely dry. The shape used is based on existing packaging so that food producers can adopt Poc easily and without expense, abandoning plastic without changing machinery or polluting the environment.
"A lot of my work focuses on innovative materials. The more I read and research, the more I can build up my knowledge on a subject," says Pöttinger. "I read about this particular seagrass that is used by local populations as a low-cost insulation material, and subsequently the Frauenhofer institute in Germany published research on its properties. After eight or nine months of experimentation and various tests I arrived at the desired result, but the project is still at an early stage."
Several companies have already shown interest in the material, but at present it cannot be produced on an industrial scale and it could be another two or three years before that milestone is reached. "These aquatic plants are not an unlimited resource and I don't want companies to start harvesting material along the ocean, thereby destroying the natural habitat. With this project I hope to offer a solution that can partially remove plastic packaging and replace it with something that does not damage the environment so much." Pöttinger's goal is, in fact, to contribute to the dialogue aimed at raising people's awareness of alternative, environmentally friendly products. So that consumers themselves become conscious of what they use.