Having already experimented with a variety of biomaterial recipes as shown in the above image, I am looking for possible ways I can incorporate food waste to add texture, pigment or shape to the biomaterial which will be transformed into sewn clothing pieces. 

A fantastic idea Caitlin

There is a great organisation here in Australia, called the Australian Circular Economy Hub. https://acehub.org.au/

I hope you don't mind but I posted your project idea on their community forum.  https://portal.acehub.org.au/forum/t/59042

Looking forward to seeing your project develop. 

Thank you Uprising!

I have just looked further into ACE hub's website and  researched what the organisation generally does regarding improving sustainability through the use of material and waste regeneration in the production process.

I have read some articles on ACE about salt-water biodegradable plastics, use of waste to produce 3D filament and the SCOBY process of kombucha which I find very interesting. I will continue to investigate any guidance companies have in building materials and I hope some industry professionals will interact with this project! 

This is such a unique and interesting concept! It's so important for us to start looking at proactive and sustainable ways to help the environment especially in the fashion industry.Absolutely love this idea and can't wait for to come to life in the future. 

Hi Caitlin, 

Your concept provides a unique solution to the issue of fashion sustainability. The concept of recycling food and textile waste into an eco-friendly statement clothing is both creative and important, and your biomaterial experiments demonstrate a strong commitment to explore real options rather than simply addressing the issue.

One of your proposal's key strengths is the combination of environmental awareness with clothing design. Designing clothing that repurposes food scraps and textile waste is extremely important since fashion is a significant cause of environmental damage (Niinimäki et al., 2020). However, at this stage the project is still quite broad, as it includes food waste, plastic waste, textile waste, biomaterials, texture development, and awareness-raising all at once. I would advise limiting the material emphasis and outlining the purpose of each waste source in order to reinforce the design. 

Also, since the final product is a piece of clothing that can be worn, the biomaterials need to be tested for more than simply how they look. They should also be checked for how flexible, durable, easy to sew, comfortable, and shape-retaining they are over time (Burnstine and Camargo, 2025). If you keep experimenting with these performance criteria in mind, the project will be more useful and your final design choices will be better supported.

Your project is really imaginative and important overall, but it might be better if it had a tighter focus, defined functions for the materials, and more testing that is directly related to how the clothes work and how comfortable they are.

I think you are heading in a really interesting direction, and I am excited to see how your idea develops further!

Sources: 

Darshana Dotel 

CQUniversity Bachelor of Engineering

Hi Caitlin,

I love your idea! What you are doing can inspire others to reuse the materials they have at home as well, improving overall sustainability. Upcycling and using the materials around you gives you a wide range of textures to utilise. It will be interesting to see how all of the recycled waste you plan to use interacts with each other. However, one problem I can see is that it will be very difficult to separate materials. Food wastage to be usable in garments will need specialised equipment. However, food wastes such as kitchen scraps can be used as natural dyes (Crane, 2024). They can provide colour to fabrics such as linen, wool, and cotton. As you may know already, coffee/tea is a great natural dye if you want a soft brown or beige colour, and onion peels are great for a dusty/vibrant yellow. The bibliography below is worth a read, especially if you lean on using recycled food waste in your project. I am keen to see what you do and how you progress. Good luck!

Kind Regards,

Shrijana Basnet

From CQU ENEG12007 Creative Engineering class.

Bibliography:

Crane, N. (2024). Natural Dyeing with Kitchen Scraps: Eco-Friendly Colour from Household Waste. [online] Thread Collective. Available at: https://threadcollective.com.au/blogs/dyeing/natural-dyeing-kitchen-scraps?srsltid=AfmBOop14e_9D8RFRWNPbijjWOTV0dUA29CWoPfP9JhewMixBTzfHzMf

Patricia Cazón, Ana Sanches Silva, Natural pigments from food wastes: New approaches for the extraction and encapsulation, Current Opinion in Green and Sustainable Chemistry, Volume 47, 2024, 100929, ISSN 2452-2236, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogsc.2024.100929 .