A popular open-air pub’s orange peel and PLA plastic glass waste were turned into a design material by Tibor Gungl, designer of UPLUX lamps and other recycled home interior equipment. His mentor was Ákos Kmetty, senior lecturer of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at BME, in a two-week internship of the Start Programme of the Hungarian Fashion and Design Agency. Interview with Ákos Kmetty, senior lecturer of BME Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Polymer Technology, and Tibor Gungl, designer.
How did you get into the programme?
Tibor Gungl: After application, they chose me so I became a member of the first year.
Tibor Gungl: In fact, I work with various materials, for instance, I also upcycle bottles and coax cables. In discarded bicycles, what caught my attention is that there are plenty of outstanding items to reuse.
Why did you choose the Department of Polymer Technology at BME?
Tibor Gungl: It was a real detective job. My starting point was to upcycle waste, and I was seeking for an organisation dealing with polymers. I contacted Ákos Kmetty after 15–20 failed attempts. It is difficult to find someone in Hungary in this sector, and ask them to help me create a new material. Most of the interns of the mentoring programmes had a design perspective instead, so they had an internship at concrete designer workshops, in the furniture industry, or the Hollóházi Porcelain Manufactory.
One of the two raw materials is PLA. What features does PLA have?
Ákos Kmetty: PLA (poly-lactic-acid) is a thermoplastic material, which is also renewable resource-based, compostable, and even recyclable. The compostability of this material does not mean that it is needed to be composted at the end of its lifetime; we can recycle it by producing something new. PLA is a popular material of 3D wires and packaging materials. It is also suitable for producing small-density padding foams, about which we have just finished a successful project, at the end of last year.
Tibor Gungl: It is still quite challenging to compost PLA products without anaerobic circumstances and industrial compost. So a PLA glass cannot get automatically composted if you throw it away in a forest. Mixed with other plastic items, it reduces renewability, making other materials acidic.
Did you have a plan in your head to execute, or did you find the best practice on the road?
Ákos Kmetty: Basically, both. After some talk, we had a basic plan. During the project, we faced with grinding problems: the material is so sensitive for the heat, generated during grinding, that it gets clumped. We were also wondering whether we should dry the peel or the meal. But finally, we rejected this, since we attempted to keep the orange oil and the colour. At the end of the research project, we found that if the orange peel content was over 15%, the material burned into the extruder. We investigated whether we can make products from the composite by injection molding or flat foil production. As far as we know, this material has not been produced in Hungary before.
Tibor Gungl: You can use this composite for several purposes: lamp shells, coating, or earrings, if pierced by laser. But it has another nice aspect: both the PLA glasses and the orange peel come from Kertem, a popular Budapest open-air pub. These two are a large proportion of their waste production, so making the pub waste-free by the creation of this composite would be a significant achievement.
Do you have further plans in common?
Ákos Kmetty: Plenty of new ideas came to our mind. If there is a possibility, we will continue our cooperation.
László Benesóczky
Photo credits: HFDA / The Fulldog
Special thanks to Ágota Skovrán from HFDA.
The interview was originally published at gpk.bme.hu.
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