Emerging idea
New biomaterials made using olive waste are finding diverse and innovative uses in the manufacture of products for our homes
FEATURE Hugh Metcalf
In the search for sustainable biomaterials, almost nothing is off the table. We’ve seen ‘grown’ decor made from mushrooms, leather made from banana skins, even house bricks made from sugar cane. The world’s crops, whether edible or otherwise, are undoubtedly an expanding arena for material designers – and in many cases, help to further the cause of responsible design as well as being aesthetically pleasing.
One of our latest discoveries is a food waste so small you’ve probably never even thought about it as waste at all. The little pits left over after you’ve enjoyed a bowl of olives? These scraps are being transformed into incredible new materials that can be used to create furniture, and more, for your home.
But before we get into those, olive waste isn’t just finding use in material design – there’s a new, novel application for pits that has been innovated right here in the UK. Enter Mylands’ Olive Stone Emulsion, which uses the biomaterial to enhance the paint brand’s eco offering. ‘The olive stone replaces some of the more heavily processed minerals used in traditional paints,’ explains Dominic Myland, CEO of Mylands. ‘It not only increases the bio-based content of the paint but also reduces the use of materials that are more energ y intensive to produce.’
It’s the first, and currently only, paint to be created using olive pits, according to Dominic. ‘We are luck y to be able to experiment on a daily basis in our lab in London, which allows us the freedom to ex plore the possibilities of different techniques and materials. The idea of using olive pits within the paint was an innovative step towards the future.’ So what does an olive-based paint look like? ‘Incorporating the olive pits into the emulsion results in a soft, pleasing, intense matt quality,’ says Dominic; he also heralds the new finish’s low sheen and intense depth of colour.
The question of where enough of these olive stones are sourced from has an obvious enough answer: the olive oil industry. According to the International Olive Council, only 10% of the world’s crop each year are for table olives – with the other 90% used in the production of olive oil. The majorit y are sourced from Spain, including those olive stones used by Naifactory Lab, which produces a range of Reolivar materials, made from ‘upcycled’ olive pits.
Irene Segarra and Irene Martínez, designers who specialise in working with biomaterials together under the
