“An experience to raise awareness. 

                                          Let’s give a second life to our waste.”

This thesis is part of a continuous research on sustainability within the world of design and new sustainable materials: a new way of designing through food waste and paper waste. Why can’t the designer be the bridge to fill the gap that has formed over the years between the economy and the environment? What kind of awareness can design create? Can design limit the distance between man and the destruction of landscapes and habitats, limit the loss of biodiversity and the reduction of total annual greenhouse gas emissions?

“Earum partium neutra per se esse habet, nec per se producitur vel corrumpitur, nec ponitur in praedicamento nisi reductive ut principium substantiale.”

“Neither raw material or substantial form has being through itself, nor is produced, or is corrupted through itself, nor is it posited in predicaments (which are the various expressions of reality), except reductively, as a substantial principle.” The idea is to try to get to “substance”-or, better!- to “a substance” made from whatever “naturally” can be extracted from food and paper waste with which to recreate objects (and thus transform the material again) with the ultimate goal of having them “return” to nature ( at the end of the life cycle of the new creations) in the form of manure useful to the Earth and not harmful to it.

The concept of design in 2023 is changing as is the figure of the designer.I am the new “model” of a designer who is concerned with protecting the environment from the ecological crisis facing the Earth and creating new materials and products from waste. This project is an invitation to explore the new issues of sustainability, the new circular economy that is the basis of the new requirements of the European Parliament.The form of my project is a research book called “Alchemy Archive” where the concepts of circular economy and all the definitions of green are explained and along with the data are the recipes of my sustainable materials. The second part is an “exhibition” part composed with the colors made from all the food waste (each color has the definition of the color itself and the recipe to make it) , while the other part is the exhibition of the materials and design products obtained f rom the transformation of the same waste.The goal of the project is to build a “community” i.e. to involve people, activities and stores in the project and to bring people closer to the topic of sustainability.

I began this journey asking myself what the circular economy is for me and what I can do to understand it and how to make people understand it. Through the exploration of the circular economy and the new figure of the designer, I have come to explore new materials, new media and new ways to educate. This study tried to answer the question: “Why can’t the designer be the bridge to fill the gap that has formed over the years between the economy and the environment?”. For this purpose, a quantitative research was conducted on the production of food waste in the city where I live. In addition, the various reuses of these large quantities of food were considered, for example for the production of biomass, fertilizer. I outlined my role, defined my circular economy and created a new way to educate people. The goal of my project was to find a solution to avoid this waste and be able to rework it into an innovative product, capable of giving waste products a second life. The union of different ideas and design methods has made it possible to create a project that uses food waste to its full potential. At present, I feel that this research has brought me a solid foundation for my discourse and practice. I do not want to make big changes: I aim at the education of small realities. From here, I can continue to explore a myriad of themes and knowledge to broaden my discourse and practice.