Imagine(想象) a place where nothing ends up in the rubbish bin. Everything can be reused and recycled. However, the real world is the opposite. A recent report shows that only 7.2% of all used materials are recycled.
Fortunately, a company in Milan named Krill Design decided to solve the problem. Set up in 2018, the company has made plenty of useful items. Its designs include chairs, clocks, bowls, lamps and some other furniture. But what makes these items special is that they are made from a kind of plastic-like material—Rekrill. It is fully biodegradable(可生物降解的) and can be used over and over again.
"After years, you have to change your furniture anyway,"says Marco, a worker at Krill Design.
"But if your furniture is made from Rekrill, we will be able to recycle it and reuse the material. If our material ends up in the sea by mistake, it doesn't produce any waste."
To make every item, four steps are needed. First, the food waste like fruit peel(皮) is dried and made into powder(粉末). Then the powder is mixed with a material known as PHB. Next, the mixed material is turned into Rekrill. At last, it is put into a 3D printer to print items. Printing time can be different depending on the item, The lamp, for example, takes about three hours to print.
"Our material produces no waste, but it costs probably six times more than plastics," Marco says. "'It is also very difficult to make the material, so we understand why many companies aren't doing it." He expects Rekrill to be widely used in a few years.
