Organic Waste Upcycling for Materials Design: A New Framework Proposal Based on Food Waste

In contemporary economies, there is a growing recognition of the significance of circular economy practices, which involve upcycling waste and turning by-products into valuable materials and products (Campbell-Johnston et al., 2020). This shift towards upcycling represents a pivotal element in transitioning from a linear to a circular and potentially more sustainable model of production (Braungart & McDonough, 2013). At the heart of this paradigm are materials and their design, as well as their development through the upcycling of waste and by-products, which play a crucial role throughout the product lifecycle. The design field emphasizes the role of materials in the creative process (Rognoli et al., 2010). Approaches like DIY-Materials (Rognoli et al., 2015) and methodologies such as Material Driven Design (Karana et al., 2015) provide designers with essential tools to work with materials, enabling them to create specific material experiences (Hekkert & Karana, 2014). The design phase has been found to determine up to 80 per cent of a product’s environmental impact (Thackara, 2005). Therefore, the adoption of a materials-focused design methodology places a greater responsibility on designers to embrace a sustainability perspective and adopt a design for sustainability approach (Ceschin & Gaziulusoy, 2016). Interestingly, it is only in recent years that designers have started to delve into deeper, more profound impacts and life cycles of materials (Pollini et al., 2021), indicating a renewed interest among the new generation of designers to develop circular solutions (Rognoli et al., 2021). As a result, many designers around the world are actively working on materials with the aim of creating more sustainable alternatives (ibid.), often using upcycling to minimize the use of new raw materials and reduce the impact at the end of their life (Bofylatos, 2022).