Trash-2-Cash is an EU funded research project aiming to create new regenerated fibers from pre-consumer and post-consumer waste. It’s also pioneering a whole new way of developing materials.
Designers, design researchers, scientists, raw material suppliers and product manufacturers from across Europe make up a cross-disciplinary consortium representing the whole product supply chain. Eighteen partners, from ten countries, are working together to address the challenge of designing high quality industrial materials from waste.
This is a three-and-a-half-year project.
- The first phase is cross-sectoral, with the whole group designing a wish list of fibre properties, then describing a vision for how the novel recycled materials will be used.
- In the second phase, material scientists produce samples of the new recycled cellulosic and polyester materials, and designers and industry produce product prototypes, based on consumer insights.
- In the final phase, academics reflect on the new collaborative Design Driven Material Innovation (DDMI) methodology, drawing upon their observations from the entire project.