Sustainable Design Innovations Reshaping Everyday Materials

Tackling the enormity of petrochemical-based plastic waste is typically a too-hard-basket problem that relentlessly rolls in with the tide.

For regenerative designer Philippa Abott, founder of start-up Pelagic, the challenge is an opportunity to ride the waves of change.

Pelagic transforms discarded plastics – predominantly reclaimed ocean waste – into bricks and pavers for construction.

These eco-products exhibit high compressive resistance, withstand UV and abrasion, and embody more tensile strength than concrete.

Crucially, they’re removing hard-to-recycle plastics from circulation while supplying the building sector with circular alternatives to incumbent bricks, which are fired with high embodied energy and carbon-intensive materials.

Abott has designed a decentralised system of portable microfactories, each housed within a 40-foot shipping container. These modular plants can be transported to remote beaches, regional landfills, or urban building sites where plastic waste is stockpiled.

Having debuted Pelagio at Milan Design Week earlier this year, Abott’s practice investigates how design can reframe systems of culture, society, economics, and ecology.

This systems-led approach reduces carbon miles, creates local jobs, and closes loops at the community level – demonstrating how commercially viable solutions can be scaled brick by brick in our own backyard.

If plastic is a scourge on oceans, then methane is the elephant in the paddock. Livestock account for a ginormous slice of Australia’s greenhouse gas pie, producing methane – a gas more than 28 times more potent than CO₂.

Enter Kleen Grow — a livestock lick block with game-changing climate potential.

Developed by Lutrawita/Tasmanian-based eco-design company Sea Forest in collaboration with Olsson’s Blocks, the product incorporates Asparagopsis, a native red seaweed. Sea Forest is the first in the world to cultivate Asparagopsis at a commercial scale, harnessing marine and land-based aquaculture.

CSIRO research demonstrated that feeding this species of seaweed to cattle reduces methane emissions by up to 98%.

The true genius of Kleen Grow lies in its simplicity, requiring no state-of-the-art equipment or labour-intensive feeding regimes.

Farmers set-and-forget the blocks in the paddock, and cattle self-dose while receiving balanced nutrients (a lick block is a compressed block of nutrients that livestock can lick at their own pace while grazing).

If scaled nationwide, the climate benefit almost beggars belief — equivalent to decommissioning 1.5 million Australian cars annually.

Evidently, even the most disruptive eco-design solutions can slot seamlessly into the circadian rhythms of everyday life.

Ancient cultures relied on hemp — the strongest known plant fibre  – 10,000 years before petrochemical-based fibres were introduced.

Fast-growing, water-efficient, and soil-regenerating, hemp is enjoying its time in the sun thanks to Zeoform – a regenerative materials company scaling circular solutions for the mass market.
Made from industrial hemp and recovered paper, Zeoform is bound through an innovative process devoid of toxic glues, resins, and petrochemicals.

In their place, it harnesses the natural bonding properties of cellulosic fibres, culminating in a durable material suitable for product design and architectural applications.

Developed by eco-innovator Alf Wheeler – with decades of material science under his green belt – Zeoform is a fit-for-purpose alternative to the linear petrochemical composites that defined the 20th century.

Wheeler says, “At its heart, Zeoform was developed to show we can transform cellulose waste into something of real value, without toxins or petrochemicals. I hope Zeoform inspires designers to reimagine what’s possible with natural materials and sets a new standard for sustainability in eco-design.”

In an era where greenwashing abounds, it’s refreshing to discover a product that walks the talk, as Zeoform doesn’t cut corners on circularity, offering designers a commercially viable, high-performance material that’s heavy on innovation and light on the planet.

NGV curator and symposium moderator Ewan McEoin reminded us that design cannot decorate the edges of the climate crisis – it must sit in the eye of the storm.

McEoin says, “By rethinking how everyday items are made, used, and disposed of, designers are proving that ethics and impact can go hand in hand with market influence, while navigating the challenges of scaling and shifting consumer mindsets. Demonstrating that doing good can also be good business.”

The Making Good Symposium unearthed Australian designers who are rolling up their sleeves and getting their hands dirty, tackling climate challenges on the ground.

Illuminating a diversity of projects spanning farms, factories, and coastlines, the symposium was a breath of fresh air – and a timely reminder that the winds of change are blowing close to home.

 

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