The Designer Turning Food Waste into Tableware

The circle is complete. Thanks to Japanese designer Kosuke Araki, you can eat your vegetables off a plate that’s 100% plant-based, having been made from food waste. For years, Araki explored plant-based materials and different techniques to find alternatives to synthetic plastic. This quest made him think about how we consume and about food waste. ‘Food isn’t a thing, it’s life’, he explains.

Based on that idea, he founded Food Waste Ware in 2013. Put together in just the same way as a recipe book, he documented the quantity of food thrown away at food markets, in shops and in his own cooking, and then included instructions on how to turn this waste into tableware. He also wished to show that waste can be turned into beautiful things, despite often being viewed as ugly and ending up in the bin. Well, unless you have a compost heap. Or you’re an extraordinarily talented creator.

The project is currently part of the ‘Revolution 5.0’ exhibition at the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Berlin (until 30 September 2018).