She/Her
Menu of Materials is a material-led project exploring the potential of food waste as a resource for sustainable material innovation. Drawing from food waste collected from menu items during shifts at my part-time job in a local café, I created a series of experimental bioplastic samples in response to the significant volume of waste produced daily. This observation prompted me to consider how discarded food could be transformed into new material beginnings, addressing wider concerns surrounding growing global food waste, and the environmental demands of future living.
Alongside material production, the project also explored techniques of material manipulation through weaving and stitching, investigating how these processes could enhance the structural, tactile, and aesthetic qualities of the samples.
The final outcome of A Menu of Materials was a curated series of six ingredient sample collections, each developed from one of six key food waste materials, showcasing the potential of discarded ingredients as innovative resources for sustainable material experimentation and design.
