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Guity Flavours

Speaker: Eleonora Ortolani
Date: March 6th 2024, 18:30 JST
Location:

Plastic production is not decreasing and the current system of recycling is failing to keep up.

Guilty Flavours is a radical proposal for how humans can harness our own bodies as machines to eliminate plastic forever – by eating it. New biochemical processes like digestion enzymes could allow humans to safely consume plastic. Starting with vanilla flavour, my research explores how we can realistically harness this process to create fully edible molecules transformed by living organisms. The ice cream exhibited is the first real sample of food ever made from plastic waste: in detail, 20mg of PET plastic were used to flavour the ice cream.

The ice cream is displayed in a locked freezer because, despite its reality in the present time, it still needs to be tested for food safety. This highlights the ethically-controversial nature of evaluating the plastic-derived ingredient: in fact, despite its chemical similarity to the vanillin we already consume, whether natural or synthetic, the testing process is still considering this as a completely new ingredient and a new technology.

This underscores the urgency for finding innovative solutions and rapid change in our society and politics of the food system to address pressing environmental issues.

This work aims to disrupt habitual patterns of thinking, emphasizing that true progress lies not only in the outcomes but also in our mindset. It challenges us to question whether we, as humans, are ready to compromise our eating habits to contribute to a more resilient and harmonious world.