Luuk Wiehink Social & Product Design

Algemene informatie

The growing Western demand for ecological and social-produced products made us look for new innovative ways to work. We focused on a residual material that’s present within an existing production process. We’ve started this research to find out what could be the innovative ecological application of this waste material and how it can be transformed into modern product design.

We ended up in India with the residue of sugarcane production, which is called bagasse. In India there is a major production of cane sugar with a large number of residue. For each 10 tons of sugarcane crushed, a sugar factory produces nearly 3 tons of bagasse.

Although there is no such thing as waste in India; everything is recycled, bagasse is mainly used as fuel for factories and therefore has only little value. We started this design research to find out how to increase the value of this waste material.

By having our products made by local craftsmen, we aim to create jobs in a social environment, empower locals and realize high standard products for the Western market.

Our focus lies on the state Tamil Nadu in the south of India, one of the largest sugarcane agricultural areas.