Swedish design studio Tomorrow Machine and research company Innventia have created self-cleaning tableware made of cellulose, an organic compound mainly used to produce paper.
The companies were tasked by the Swedish Forest Industries Federation to come up with products of the future. The tableware is made from a new lightweight cellulose-based material being developed by Innventia.
The cellulose pulp is made into a sheet, then heat pressed in a mold. Hanna Billqvist of Tomorrow Machine said, “The material becomes as hard as a regular ceramic product, but with the advantages that it is lightweight and won’t crack or break in case it’s dropped.”
The coating is developed by KTH Royal Institute of Technology, and mimics the qualities of a lotus leaf in that it is water and dirt-resistant. The surface is made superhydrophobic though a process called Rapid Expansion of Supercritical Solutions (RESS) in which wax is dissolved in carbon dioxide at high pressure and temperature, then sprayed on the surface and treated.
Tomorrow Machine claims the tableware cuts down on resources during manufacturing and over its lifespan as it does not require water and chemicals to clean.
[via Dezeen, images via Tomorrow Machine]